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Why the legacy of The Golden Girls still really matters 40 years on from British debut
On the 40th anniversary of the UK’s first episode of The Golden Girls, we’re still embracing their legacy and spirit.
Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank/ Getty Images
- Cameron Adams
Published: Monday, 3 August 2026 at 5:00 pm
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This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
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The mid-1980s were not short of women of a certain age thriving on primetime TV. Joan Collins was a scheming ex-wife on Dynasty doing dirty deeds while dripping in diamonds, Angela Lansbury was the deceptively polite widow solving crime within an hour on Murder, She Wrote, and Tina Turner was dancing her juniors off the stage in an era when MTV was skewing to younger viewers.
But in comedy, it was The Golden Girls who changed everything for women on TV. The sitcom, which made its debut in Britain 40 years ago this year, relegated men to supporting characters behind four females sharing a Miami retirement pad – independent women with jobs, attitude and active sex lives.
Looking back with 2026 eyes, it’s remarkable that when The Golden Girls was launched and praised for championing “senior” women, the characters of ditzy Rose (Betty White), razor-sharp Dorothy (Bea Arthur) and bed-hopping Blanche (Rue McClanahan) were in their early 50s. Only Dorothy’s mother Sophia (Estelle Getty) was an official senior citizen, pushing 80.
“It was revolutionary using women as its leads, women over 50, which was so daring and unheard of,” McClanahan told E! in 2011. Back in 1989, the show’s creator Susan Harris pointed out, “One can be independent, attractive and vital after the age of 40, after the age of 50.”
Harris fought for Arthur to get the role of Dorothy over Elaine Stritch, while White was originally sought to play saucy Southern belle Blanche and McClanahan the naive Midwestern, Rose. The pair switched roles after early table reads, while Getty proved so popular that the character of a gay male live-in housekeeper was cut after the first episode to upgrade Sophia to a series regular.
The Golden Girls.
An instant hit, the show had 25 million viewers in the US from its first episode and would become one of only four sitcoms in history where all four lead actors won a Primetime Emmy Award. Even the theme tune became a classic. Thank You for Being a Friend had been a 1978 hit for singer/songwriter Andrew Gold, with the truncated, as-seen-on-TV version sung by Cindy Fee.
Producers soon realised that, as well as their loyal following with older, middle America, they also had lots of gay fans, so they pushed storyline boundaries with the former by acknowledging the latter. In 1990, an episode called 72 Hours saw Rose learn a past blood transfusion may have exposed her to HIV, while Blanche’s brother came out as gay. And the show’s success saw a revolving door of guest stars, including a then unknown George Clooney, Burt Reynolds and even a young Quentin Tarantino, who played an Elvis impersonator.
Despite the on-screen rapport, co-producer Marsha Posner Williams revealed last year that Arthur and White were never friends. “When the red light was off [after filming], those two couldn’t warm up to each other if they were cremated together,” she said.
Becoming tired with the role, Arthur left after season seven and The Golden Girls ended in 1992, before the three remaining stars reunited for a short-lived spin-off set in a hotel, The Golden Palace.
All four stars are now gone – the most recent being White who died in 2021, aged 99 – but the legacy and influence of The Golden Girls burn bright. Drag queens parody the timeless characters, saucier scenes continue to go viral with Gen Z on TikTok, while the women leading TV shows from Grace and Frankie to Absolutely Fabulous, Desperate Housewives to Sex and the City are all able to be front and centre thanks to the Girls travelling down the road and back again.
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The Golden Girls is available to watch on Disney+.
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Cameron Adams
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