Bust out the cheesecake — it’ll go great with this extra large pot of tea.
A new Golden Girls tell-all (because the world needs such things) reveals that life on set of the iconic seven-season show could be just as bumpy as the characters’ scripted mishaps.
The biggest bombshell in Golden Girls Forever: An Unauthorized Look Behind The Lanai is that Bea Arthur, who played Dorothy, wanted to quit the show on numerous occasions (Secret #1, if you’re counting).
The book’s author, Jim Colucci, says it had a lot to do with what the show’s writers called “Dorothy bashing.”
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“Bea was offended,” Colucci told FOX411.
“When the writers called Rose [Betty White] dumb or Blanche [Rue McClanahan] a slut or Sophia [Estelle Getty] old, it could roll off those women’s backs because they were not like their characters.”
“Unfortunately, the things that were said about Dorothy were that she was big and ugly. And that wears on an actress after a while.”
Colucci interviewed some 250 former members of the show’s cast and crew for the book, and has plenty of odd footnotes to add to the cult TV hit.
He describes Bea Arthur as a “quirky and complicated woman” who had little tolerance for birds or gum chewing.
Related: WATCH: “The Golden Girls” On Marriage Equality
“If you were chewing gum on the set, she would try to have you fired.” he says.
“She also never wanted to wear shoes. She had it written into her contract that she was allowed to not wear shoes as long as she agreed not to sue the producers if she hurt herself.” We’ll call those #’s 2,3 and 4.
Seven years is a long time for an actress to play a role, and by the end, Colucci says Bea was ready to call it quits.
“By the start of the 7th season, Bea made it very clear that she was done,” he says. “She thought the quality was starting to slip. She wanted to go out while it was still a good show and she felt she was done with it.”
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The irony is that when the show was initially cast, NBC opposed Arthur playing Dorothy, worried that audiences were turned off from her because her character had an abortion in Maude.
Executives had someone else in mind, too — Elaine Stritch. #5 & #6, ladies and gents.
“They wanted a bawdy broad and Elaine was cut from the same cloth,” Colucci says.
“But they ultimately relented when [writer] Susan Harris said, ‘I wrote this role for Bea and I want Bea.’” And that spells #7.
What’s that? You want more GG gossip?!
Here’s some more from Colucci:
8. Producers wanted a different theme song
“They approached the publishing company for Bette Midler’s song, ‘Friends,’ but it was too expensive. Eventually of the producers remembered Andrew Gold’s song, ‘Thank You For Being A Friend.’”
“They licensed it and hired a session singer named Cynthia Fee. Even though the recording session was slated to last for an hour, she did it in one or two takes — maybe 20 or 30 minutes — and planned on never thinking of it again. The irony is that thanks to unions, every time your song gets played, you get paid. So this job she did on a random weekday in 1985 has put her kids through college.”
9. Betty White and Rue McClanahan switched roles at the last minute
“Betty was cast as Blanche because she played Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show so she could play man hungry. Rue was cast as Rose because she had been Vivian on Maude and Aunt Fran on Mama’s Family.”
“The director of the pilot, Jay Sandrich, had an idea and said to Rue that he wanted to try her to prepare lines for Blanche. Betty wasn’t particularly happy with [the switch] at first but she learned to like it.”
10. The whole thing started as a gag
NBC presented a live spoof comedy sketch to press and advertisers in the fall of 1984 featuring Doris Roberts and Selma Diamond. “They did this schtick where they were confused thinking there was a show on NBC called Miami Nice. ‘Oh, it must be about old people in Miami. That does sound nice.’ When people laughed, the president of the network thought, ‘There might be something there.’”
Golden Girls Forever: An Unauthorized Look Behind The Lanai is in bookstores now.
Danny Cowan
Simon (Dorothy) Terry (Blanche) #justsayin
Ryan Andrew
Jeff Gillis
Jeremy Garcia
Maureen Gica Bitonio David Vosgerichian
Richard Lee Zweiben Klein
Dorothy
Jaroslaw
Okay Bea Arthur wouldn’t win the Miss America Pageant. However, ugly she is not. I would even say she is attractive in her own way.
JoshGL
“She also never wanted to wear shoes. She had it written into her contract that she was allowed to not wear shoes as long as she agreed not to sue the producers if she hurt herself.”
I saw her twice on flights from London to New York. Both time she was shoeless.
The woman had damn ugly feet.
(Incidentally, both times she was in the first row of the aft cabin on Concorde so her feet were on display for all to see. Shudder.)
mcflyer54
Betty White has said on numerous occasions that she was never interested in playing Blanche. Whether Jay Sandrich was, or was not, responsible for the ultimate casting the decision would have hardly been a “last minute” one as White never accepted the role of Blanche. White was insistent about her not following the MTM role of Sue Ann with another man crazy female.
NateB79
I bought this book last night and I can’t wait to read it.
footwork61
Can’t wait to get this book.
On another topic, can I say how much I miss Jim Colucci’s husband Frank DeCaro on Sirius OutQ? So stupid to kill that channel.
Maude
IMO, Elaine Strich would have been the better choice for Dorothy.
Simon P Mudd
I think the Gifs are the best thing about the article lol x
Me2
The legendary Golden Girls is classic tv. I still watch the re-runs on cable and they still make me lmao!!
dvlaries
Bea was right. One only has to examine the final seasons of Murphy Brown, Roseanne and, not withstanding the rating-busting last episode, MASH to observe the cost to a show’s reputation when it stays too long and runs on fumes. Like Bea, Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Burnett also knew to bring down the curtain when things were still clicking good. Thus the appeal of all three shows lingers in the memory and prompts, respectively, lots of return viewings.
*
It’s one of oldest rules of show business: Always leave them wanting more.
martinbakman
@footwork61: Yes you may and thank you. I miss Frank as well, and the occasional visits with his husband Jim Colucci on Frank’s show. I miss OutQ. Who knows why our gay media ignored its demise! Maybe KwearTee can school us on that. I sat near Jim C. at OutFest last year and he seemed like a darling gentlemen. I can’t wait to read his book, because yes KwearTee, the world needs that.
Stache
@martinbakman: I liked the Frank show allot and sometimes Derick and Romaine. Though they could be tedious at times too.
Stache
That show was brilliant. I think the writers had to be gay though. Just very quick witted and gay under themes it felt like at times.
dmanhart
“Bea Arthur as a “quirky and complicated woman” who had little tolerance for birds or gum chewing.”
In other words. She was a bitch. Especially with hating Betty White.
Brian
Some of the barbs thrown at Bea Arthur’s character were very harsh indeed. However, they were also very funny. Heck, the whole show was funny. One of my favorite episodes is the one with the character Frida Claxton, a neighbor of the girls. She wanted to cut down a big oak tree on her property.
Sluggo2007
Elaine Stritch would have made a great Dorothy, but I’m satisfied the way things turned out.
Gigi Gee
I always wondered why Dorothy wore those big, ugly boots. They must had been less uncomfortable than shoes. I love the Golden Girls. My man and I have watched every episode at least 10 times. Can’t get enough of it.
Bob LaBlah
Bea Arthur, rest in peace honey. You are Dorothy to this bunch but you will always be Maude to me. I wonder how ol’ Walter is doing these days. He is the only one out of the bunch still alive.
bjoh249
Who cares is Bea Arthur was difficult, this was a great show and I couldn’t imagine any other actresses playing these characters.