The Golden Girls

This Sunday afternoon, I spent 30 minutes on the treadmill, as Ethan Hunt escaped his way out of Shanghai in Mission Impossible.

Chief had dropped me off at Fitness First. It has been a few weeks since I got back to this gym… or any gym for that matter, while Chief hits Fitness First Plus, at least thrice a week. I really do need to catch up and engage into more physical activity to keep me fit and healthy. Specially, since I am pushing into the golden age already.

Reminds me, a moment of silence for Estelle Getty, who played the most senior role in the “Golden Girl,” which was one of the more popular comedy series back in the mid80s to the early 1992? I remember her also in the Sly Stallone movie, “Stop, or my mom would shoot.” She died a few days ago, July 22, 2008. Photo of Estelle Getty from Wikipedia taken at the 41st Emmy Awards.

The Golden Girls starred Beatrice Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak; Betty White as Rose Nylund; Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux; and Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo, Dorothy's mother.

Episodes told stories of four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida. Much early before the time of Shaquille O’Neal with the Miami Heat. Crockett and Tubbs were already riding the streets of Miami then.

The sitcom won several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series twice. The Golden Girls, along with All in the Family and Will & Grace, is one of the few shows on US television where all the principal actors have won Emmy Awards.

Here’s a little trivia. Originally, McClanahan was cast as Rose and White was cast as Blanche? But both ladies had played similar roles in other shows. White had portrayed man-hungry lady on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and McClanahan had co-starred as sweet but scatterbrained in “Maude.” Both actresses suggested they switch roles so they won’t be stereotyped. The executive producers Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas and creator/writer Susan Harris agreed.

The hour-long finale was aired in May 1992 and garnered 27.2 million viewers (38 percent of all Americans watching television at the time) and the theme song “Thank you for being a friend” written by Andrew Gold and sung by Cynthia Fee was played for the last time, until their reunion show in 2003.