(187) Why Do Gay Men Love The Golden Girls? - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRL_e94jj18
Transcript:
(00:00) picture it Saturday night 1986 at the most popular gay bar in town the clock strikes 9 the Music Stops and everyone turns their attention to the TV monitors for the highlight of the [Music] evening The Golden Girls is one of the luckiest accidents in television history an 80 sitcom featuring four retired friends who share home in Miami the Golden Girl Stars be Arthur as the sarcastic Dorthy why don't I just wear a sign that says too ugly to live Betty White as innocent Rose life is a giant Weenie Roast and I'm the biggest weenie
(00:33) ranahan is man hungry blanch as jumpy as a virgin at a Prison Rodeo and Estelle Getty is wise cracking Sophia how long is this story I'm 80 I have to plan today it's known worldwide as a beloved TV classic but originally it wasn't even supposed to be a real show proposed as a joke at NBC the concept was meant to be a parody of a sitcom a premise too ridiculous to ever succeed until one executive saw the potential and assembled a Dream Team to pull it off including a daring producer who had a history of pushing the envelope so how
(01:04) did a show about four retirees that was never supposed to get made wind up becoming a worldwide hit and what makes it particularly important to gay men hey I'm not Bal I make videos about pop culture and this is the story of The Golden Girls and its Legacy from the Forgotten fifth Golden Girl to the Valentine's Day condom craze to Sophia's secret message to one of the show's gay writers before we can talk about the golden girl's gay fandom we have to talk about its unlikely Origins on September
(01:31) 17th 1984 NBC broadcast a 1-hour special to promote their upcoming fall season wedged between celebrity banter about a new show called cheers I guess this comes as no surprise men are always chasing us and the NBC dancers out come the stars of two popular NBC shows from Night Court it's Selma diamond and from Remington steel it's Doris Roberts who would go on to play the mom on everyone loves Raymond a decade later tonight they're here to tell the audience about another upcoming NBC show we're here to introduce a show
(02:05) that takes place in the most wonderful Resort in the world Miami this is a show about sitting on the beach no no no s honey no no no this show is not called Miami nice this is called Miami Vice then out come the stars of Miami Vice and the special moves on and ordinarily that would have been the end of it but sitting in the audience was NBC president Brandon tarov and he couldn't help noticing how funny it was to see those two actresses joking around about retirement activities and also lusting after hunks they got to
(02:38) stand right next to me another NBC executive later said that they were a highlight of an otherwise super boring night and so behind the scenes tarov started to Wonder Could That one-off Miami nice joke a show about retire life in Miami be so crazy it just might work he decided to give it a shot and by the way a lot of these details about the show's development come from the book Golden Girls Forever by Jim kuchi there's a link to that in the description there were a couple factors working in the Miami nice concept's
(03:06) favor for one thing Miami was a particularly trendy City in the early ' 80s so it was an attractive setting for a TV showami it's my [Music] Miami for another tarov had been looking for a way to adapt the movie How to Marry a Millionaire a movie from the 50s about a group of women friends all looking for love letting you in on the Grand and glorious Adventures of three fascinating males who pulled their beauty in the greatest plot against mankind since Helen of Troy Marie anet and Venus de and one more Factor the
(03:40) previous year the overwhelming success of The Cosby Show had shown NBC Executives that there was a huge underutilized talent pool of black actors that TV had just been ignoring for decades Executives started to Wonder Maybe the same was true of actresses of a certain age we realized that they were tapping into voices that just weren't on television I said why don't we do something with that but at that point the entire concept was just what if we made a show about retired single women in Miami they needed somebody who could
(04:09) actually develop that into a series and also to find a better name for it than the working title of Miami nice or their even worse second choice ladies day and that's when they turned to Susan Harris Susan was a writer and producer and had some hits in the 70s starting with soap which featured Billy Crystal as the first recurring gay character on a successful sitcom and then she also had the spin off Benson but more recently Susan Harris had had a string of flops shows that you probably don't remember
(04:35) like I'm a big girl now starring Martin Short it takes two starring Helen Hunt in a very familiar kitchen and Hail to the Chief which like soap featured a recurring gay character all my friends were playing war with their GI Joe's I wrapped mine in a towel and sent them to a bath house Susan saw a lot of potential in the Miami nice idea and especially after all of her recent flops she was eager to make something great but it seemed seemed like a long shot a show about Florida retirees that was based on a one-off joke from a
(05:05) commercial helm by someone whose best shows might be behind her operating off a hunch about untapped Talent the success of this project was going to come down to the cast that kicked off a laborious process that nearly went off the rails multiple times Susan and her team wanted to cast the elderly mother character first and they got lucky early on when they came across 60-year-old Estelle Getty Estelle was born in 1922 on the Lower East side of Manhattan and had decided to become an actress early in life because of her love of
(05:34) Vaudeville success for her had been elusive for most of her life she'd worked as a secretary by day and appeared on Tiny off off off off off Broadway shows at night just 3 years earlier she'd found her first mainstream success in Harvey Fire stud's play torch song Trilogy and her agent had convinced her to come out to Los Angeles for a handful of auditions one of those auditions was for 80-year-old Sophia and from the moment Estelle walked in the room she nailed the character character and it didn't hurt that she brought her
(06:02) own purse little bamboo thing she'd spotted a few days earlier at a thrift store on Fairfax so with that they found their first cast member and she even came with her own props the rest of the cast was a little more challenging Susan had her heart set on the actress bar Arthur for the character of Dorothy she seemed perfect the two of them had already worked together on Bee's prior TV show mod and Bee was known for her tough non-nonsense attitude in fact before she was an actress bee was a truck driver in the Marines during World
(06:28) War II one officer wrote that was a good worker quote if she has her own way there was just one problem not that be was actually a year older than Estelle Getty who'd be playing her mother the problem was that be didn't want to do it so over Susan's objections NBC brought in another Broadway star Elaine stretch to audition it kind of made sense when be show mod was adapted to the UK version Elaine had played the mod character but elain stretch's audition was a disaster she started out by asking
(06:57) if she could modify the dialogue here you've got the house boy entering to set the bar up and my line is ying don't forget the ures would it be okay if I said Ying don't forget the [ __ ] ores that didn't go over well for this role it was clear Elaine was just wrong meanwhile they'd managed to get two other actresses interested in the show R mclanahan was a 50-some actress from Oklahoma who' worked on stage on film and TV for decades recently as a shy character named Vivien on mod and after
(07:27) that on Mama's Family with an actress named Betty White Betty had been a Los Angeles television icon since the' 40s she was best known for hosting a daily talk show appearing on game shows and also playing the man hungry suan niens on the Mary Tyler Moore Show everybody felt that Rue and Betty were perfect for the Golden Girls but not in the way that we know them now Betty was going to play the sexually adventurous blanch similar to her suan character and Rue was going to play naive Rose similar to a role as
(07:53) Vivian they had me originally playing blanch they had sort of written up with that in mind and I called my agent and I said I love this script and I want to audition for blanch and she said forget it they've got Betty White practically pegged for that role it's just almost set they've almost offered it to her but when they started running scenes together director Jay sandrich had an idea he asked them to switch so I said to her would you mind reading the other part oh I said okay I'll do that so I did of course i'
(08:25) already studied it suddenly the two were playing against Ty and having a lot more fun and when bar Arthur found out about the change she said now that is very interesting B signed a contract to join the cast on a Friday and on Monday they started rehearsals on the show Now retitled The Golden Girls the premise as fleshed out by Susan Harris was strong four senior women all close friends share a house together in Miami their husbands are out of the picture their kids are grown and even though mainstream culture may have counted them
(08:50) out because of their age they're determined to live their retirement years to the fullest rehearsals and tapings went great and then finally on September 14th 1985 almost exactly one year after the Miami nice joke aired The Golden Girls made their debut and America got its first glimpse of Dorothy well you look at this she has more colors than Benjamin more paints Rose oysters move very slowly you have to watch very closely lanch at our age long engagements don't make sense Sophia everyone is fine no one died the home
(09:27) burnt down and Coco what's that enchiladas Rancheros why don't you just shoot me wait who's Coco well he's the girl's gay house boy of course Susan Harrison included a lot of gay characters on her shows and Coco was a sort of continuation of jod from soap played by Charles Levan who' played a gay sex worker on Hill Street Blues the plan was for Koko to be the show's younger voice he's there in the kitchen for Dorothy to complain to when no one else is around they're expressing
(09:53) themselves well I expressed myself I told them they had to leave they were too ugly to look at he offers a quippy remark now then Rose Charlie is dead why tell her and then there's a hint of some friction with Sophia can I get something to eat or is the fancy man in the kitchen well Koko as a character is fine he's an okay petunia he just doesn't quite fit in in fact KOCO was originally going to be played by Jeffrey Jones the principal from Ferris Beer's day off and imagine what that show would have been
(10:22) like you're in big trouble now yeah shut up but when Jeffrey Jones auditioned he said he just didn't see why the character was necessary turned out he was right and Susan made the tough call to cut the character after the pilot so they could focus on the dynamic between the women Sophia came in and was so strong that that's why they deleted the housekeeper but that wasn't the last time gay characters would visit the house now the premise of the pilot is straightforward enough blanch who owns
(10:47) the house has been seeing a gentleman for a while and he asks her to marry him she agrees and while the girls and Coco support her privately they're worried about what that means for them all living together in the future we can't afford to buy a house what do we have for collateral a gay cook in the end it turns out the man is already married and he's arrested and taken away just minutes before the wedding and hey do you recognize that policeman is there blanch hollingworth here it's me sha
(11:13) Taylor Anthony from Designing Women and more importantly Hollywood montros from the mannequin Cinematic Universe I've got a whole other video about Hollywood one of the greatest gay characters in film history there's a link to that in the description anyway blanch is heartbroken for a while but then she comes to a realization that I think is at the heart of why the show works so well you're my family and you make me happy to be alive this isn't a traditional family it's a group that came together in Friendship they grew
(11:41) close and they now support each other an arrangement that's familiar to a lot of gay people especially back then when they were often rejected by family and had to find support outside of traditional mom dad and kids family units the episode ends with everyone going out to lunch except Sophia the fancy man and I are going to the do track so how did the pilot do it was the number one show of the week of everyone watching TV that night in the US about a quarter of all sets were tuned to this pilot they hit a home run we just knew
(12:10) we knew that we were in I mean we didn't even have to worry about ratings or everything we knew that that this was a smash not bad for a throwaway joke from a network promo clearly Susan and the cast had hit on something that was popular across a broad range of viewers and following the pilot the show quickly picked up a gay f following growing in popularity over season 1 before long gay bars made Golden Girls viewing parties a regular thing every Saturday night I spoke to Golden Girls writer Stan Zimmerman about that phenomenon here's
(12:39) what he said that literally in West Hollywood they would stop everything at Saturday at 9:00 and and on the you know the video bar screens they would play Golden Girls and I would go there and because I'd want a free drink I'd watched the show with everybody else um and it just became a phenomenon gay audiences might have felt particularly comfortable with this cast because all of them had been involved in projects that were sympathetic to gay issues for example bar Arthur had done two gay episodes of mod including one in which
(13:10) he defends a local gay bar from homophobic protesters do you approve of homosexuals they are human beings they exist it's like asking me if I approve of dwarfs oh that's different there's no such thing as gay dwarfs come on Arthur you've read Snow White R mclanahan had appeared in a lowbudget film called some of my best friends are set entirely inside a gay bar God what a hideous knif Betty W it appeared on love Sydney and NBC sitcom from a few years earlier starring Tony Randall as a gay man My my what a funny
(13:42) looking Little Pony you are Megan and stelle Getty had the biggest queer credentials of all thanks to her rise to Fame in Harvey firestein's Broadway show torch song Trilogy she'd played the mother of a drag queen in that David is gay but he's only been here 6 months but is gay friendly as the cast of The Golden Girls was not everyone in Hollywood was so accepting here's that writer Stan Zimmerman recalling how hostile the industry could be we had to be in the closet as writers on season 1 that was the climate in Hollywood then
(14:12) you did you brought women to functions you were told that by your agents and in the room you didn't discuss your personal life in the 1980s a young writer could easily have been fired if he came out to the wrong person if w got around that he was queer it could be the end of his career but Stan had somebody looking out on the inside and it was really EST stelle Getty God bless her that's how we became good friends off the set was one of the first days may have been the first day that I saw her she met us and then she was like and
(14:44) she's like this little you know three foot tall woman took us behind the set and she's like you're one of us and I thought Jewish which is weird to like there lots of Jews in Hollywood you might have heard and she's like no gay hey and she considered herself part of the community before the word Ally was even there she was she was like you know the the pioneer of allies uh because she had done toward s Trilogy on Broadway and she said I'm going to protect you she knew the environment in Hollywood knowing that Estelle had his
(15:18) back Stan stuck with the show and by the end of the first season he picked up a nomination for a writer Guild award for his work the show itself was nominated for nine Emmys winning three it was clear The Golden Girls was a huge hit stale and Ru and B and I all thank you we're a match set you can't split us up now after The Disappearance of Coco the show had avoided gay issues but as season 2 got underway that was about to change first with a gay mink they're making us stall don't count your money
(15:46) yet those are the two Nails then with the season 2 episode isn't it romantic in November of 1986 which asks the question what would happen if a lesbian developed a crush on Rose this episode didn't come from one of the regular staff writers instead it came from a fan TV writer Jeff dutil had watched all of season 1 and loved it although he missed KOCO so over the summer he wrote a script of his own as luck would have it he noticed one of The Producers names Winfred hervy they'd actually worked together on a show a
(16:13) couple years earlier and Jeff took a chance on sending her a script this was a huge long shot with a few exceptions TV shows almost never take unsolicited scripts but unbeknown to Jeff the showrunners had been looking for a chance to do a gay episode they called him in bought the script and went into production the plot of the episode has Dorothy's old college friend Jean coming to visit Jean's played by Lois Nettleton who portrayed a lesbian a few years earlier on the show Medical Center lesbians are not a bunch of
(16:39) herodin consumed by hatred of the opposite sex oh some are yes some but that's too bad for them only Dorothy and Sophia know that Jean is gay the lesbian thing do you keep it under your hat or what and they're not sure they should tell the other girls hey you know your friends better than I do if you think they're the kind of people who can handle it I'd prefer to tell them here we are our ice cream clowns with sugar hats for everybody it'll be our little secret this concern about whether or not
(17:06) it's a good idea for a queer person to come out to certain people would have been very familiar to gay viewers it even mirrors the fear that Stan had about being out on this very show in fact Jean's line was originally if you think your friends are sophisticated enough to handle it but NBC executive Warren Ashley made them change it for fear that homophobes would think that they were being called unsophisticated over the course of her visit Jean develops a crush on Rose Jean in love with little Miss muet come on
(17:33) and that prompts a heart to heart between Dorothy and Sophia Sophia has a line that could easily just be Estelle talking if one of my kids was gay I wouldn't love him one bit less I would wish him all the happiness in the world these words are so similar to her comments to stand behind the set an emphatic unmistakable statement of support but now she gets to express her support on camera blanch hears them talking and she pops her head in and when they tell her Jean's a lesbian is daddy Thomas W not Lebanese
(18:04) black lesbian now I don't know if TV star Danny Thomas was a lesbian or not but what I do know is that his son Tony Thomas is one of the show's producers he's the Thomas whose name you see at the end of every episode meanwhile Rose and Jean have been growing closer and Rose has no idea how Jean really feels when she hears that Jean's planning to spend the night on the sofa Rose insists on sharing her bed and before joining her Jean tries to let Rose know what's going on I'm quite fond of you I'm fond
(18:33) of you too and by the way you see how Jean goes to the sofa in the background that wasn't originally part of the script it was added to make sure that audiences knew the characters didn't sleep together the next morning Rose is upset that nobody told her honey I didn't even know if you'd know what a lesbian was I could have looked it up ironically of all the cast Betty White was probably the one who least needed to be educated on lesbians because in real life she was a loving mother to a lesbian
(19:08) stepdaughter Sarah a karate instructor in Chicago in fact their close relationship once led the national inquire to label Betty Pride of the lesbians anyway Rose is a little uncomfortable at first but she quickly comes around I don't understand these kinds of feelings but if I did understand I think I'd be very flattered and proud that you thought of me that way and with that they agree to be friends it's a very sweet story one of my favorite episodes and one of the most popular with gay fans and by the way if you want to
(19:38) listen to an audio adaptation which the roles have been changed to be played by a close approximation of bernardet Peters Carol Channing Judy Garland and Gollum check out my friend Bill Fair's podcast Judy cast there's a link to that in the description when this episode came out there were vanishingly few queer characters on TV much less characters defending and befriending them The Golden Girls was way out ahead of most other sitcoms here sticking its neck out on a topic that could easily have alienated a lot of viewers but just
(20:05) the opposite happened this was the number four most watched show the week that had aired with 24 million households tuning in when award season came around this episode won an Emmy and a Director's Guild award for outstanding Direction Betty White and Lois nton were both nominated for Emmy and Jeff dutil was nominated for outstanding writing for the spec script the episode helped open a lot more doors for Jeff in the years that followed he worked on shows like rock which featured the first s sex wedding ceremony on American prime time
(20:31) TV and also the show in the house which has an episode where rup Paul teaches LL Cool J all about drag you're a tall glass of water and for the Golden Girls the success on this episode paved a path for many more gay episodes over the next few years for example in 1988 there's the season 4 episode Scared Straight blanche's brother Clayton is coming to town he's played by Monty Markham Who in real life is an old friend of Betty Whites and he's got a secret this time it's Rose who's the first to find out
(20:59) Clayton you're that thing that everyone said Al garson's nephew was cuz he wore Paisley clogs and gave out puff pastry on Halloween at her urging he comes out to blanch and she doesn't take it well you looked me in the face and tell me you really are what you just said you are I think you heard me the first time blanch according to Rue this was a hard role to play She later said I'm not homophobic and blanch was but she starts to come around after a little heart tohe heart I just feel like I don't know you
(21:27) anymore the same person I always was no you're not and blanch starts to realize just how much she has in common with her brother you used to be just like me greatl looking yes Charming yes irresistible to men I gu PL you are me leave to blanch to find common ground with someone through their sex lives just as with Betty and Jean the episode ends with Rue supporting her gay brother happy ending for everybody this episode aired on December 10th 1988 just a few weeks after the first ever National Coming Out
(22:00) day it works as a sort of tutorial for how to come out making Clayton a kind of role model for people trying to work up the courage it also shows audiences how to respond first with a bad response that results in Clayton walking out and then with a good response with blanch listening and accepting him and it is all that while being funny and touching and ending on a laugh I just want to say that I would be very proud to have any one of you date my brother I rather date you lady sweet Jesus I've just done The
(22:29) Impossible unconverted one the episode's message is that gays and Straits aren't so different and the same- seex love is no less valid that seems like no big deal for a message today but for 1988 that was a pretty bold stance for a sitcom and that message returns a few episodes later on a Valentine's Day episode in one scene we see the girls preparing to go on a cruise and getting a few supplies Ru suggests that they should stock up on protection in this day and age it might be a good idea to take along some protection Rose doesn't
(22:58) quite get it didn't you grip condoms Rose condoms condoms condoms calm down lady you just get out of prison that turns a few heads in the store and then Rue has a big speech haven't you ever seen three vibrant healthy sexually active women before we're going to walk out of here today with our heads held high secure in the knowledge that what we have done is morally and socially responsible it's pretty remarkable to see a show talk about condom so openly and to have main characters with sex lives that aren't about procreation
(23:30) starting a family they just have sex for fun that's fine and responsible in fact it's something to be proud of because they're safeguarding the health of themselves and their Partners this is something you can see across the whole run of the show that the golden girl sex lives actually have a lot in common with those of gay people later in the same episode blanch is sitting alone at a bar and she meets a young man who's about to propose but he's feeling very nervous she perks up at that she tells him how
(23:54) her husband proposed to her she gives him a little pep talk to encourage him oh come on now we may be from different Generations but some things never change Love Is Love period and then maybe you could see where this is going oh Victor come on let's get a table there's something I have to tell you this is maybe even more bold of a plot beat than the condom scene almost nobody was talking about marriage equality in 1989 mostly just a handful of activists and academics a few years earlier a Harvard student had written a thesis about
(24:23) same-sex marriage and it was met with total disbelief gay marriage wouldn't enter mainstream National conversation for a couple more years and it wouldn't be legalized Nationwide for another 15 but here's the Golden Girls predicting the slogan Love Is Love another topic they were ahead of the curve on HIV in a season 5 episode Rose learns that she might have been exposed to HIV due to a blood transfusion this was before all blood donations were tested for HIV as they are today Rose gets tested but she
(24:51) has to wait 3 days for the results and in that time the girls have some Frank talk about safe sex parents don't talk to their kids about sex I mean this is so important you think they could get past their embarrassment and some Frank talk about how stressful it is to get tested come on if that test turns out to be positive you're not going to want to be around me now that is not true when this aired in 1990 treatment options weren't great it would still be 5 years before the discovery of anti- retrovi
(25:19) drugs that made HIV a more manageable condition by the time this episode aired over a 100,000 Americans had died from HIV related complications the show doesn't shy away from showing how upset Rose is about not knowing her status I'm tired of pretending I feel okay so you won't say take it easy and I'm tired of you saying take it easy cuz you're afraid I'm going to fall apart but we also see how the household unites to help her through this stressful time we are the only family Rose has here so we
(25:46) have to help her through whatever she's going through it's really touching to see how much all the women in their own ways care for rose sometimes with just a few comforting words it's been a bad week it'll get better behind the scenes this episode was personal for many of the people who worked on it especially Estelle Getty remember she'd been in Tor song Trilogy on Broadway in the early ' 80s and she saw a lot of people she was close to come down with a mysterious disease fall ill and pass away in a matter of months
(26:14) these were more than just colleagues for her they were like family in the early days of the epidemic she was desperate to help here's her friend Stan Zimmerman you know when she was on Broadway with torch song Trilogy and a started to happen I just remember the stories and she would tell me she brought like chicken soup thinking that was going to cure the the cast members that were falling ill and you know finally they had to say no Estelle these men are going to die there's no saving these guys um so I think in her heart she just
(26:44) wanted to help and do anything she could after Golden Girls was a hit Estelle used her high-profile to host fundraisers and educate the public about the virus I'm here because I'm here for any good cause and age is my my most important cause right now God bless her that she took her stardom at such an elder age and ran with it you know she wasn't going to sit home when this episode was shot Estelle's nephew Steven Sher was living with HIV back east in North Carolina over the next few months his health started to deteriorate and
(27:12) Estelle arranged for him to move to LA so she could help take care of him this episode was also personal for Peter bate one of the editors who worked on the show his partner was HIV positive and in addition to caring for the love of his life Peter was dealing with an overwhelming amount of Shame when he was working on this episode The there was one line that he said felt like it made his heart stop AIDS is not a bad person's disease Rose it is not God punishing people for their sins he said that line made him break down in the
(27:39) editing Booth when he regained his composure he said everything had changed he no longer thought of himself as a bad person it was a message that a lot of people needed to hear and Golden Girls was able to provide it way out in front of most other television shows which continued to struggle with messaging on HIV even in the decade that followed Walker told me I had AGS but one of golden girl's boldest moment came in season 6 with the episode Sisters of the Bride on January 12th 1991 for this one blanches brother Clayton returns which
(28:06) is pretty special since recurring gay characters had almost disappeared on sitcoms after the 1970s Clayton was part of a new wave of gay guest characters who actually came back not only that but this time he brought someone with him this is Doug he's my friend my very special friend well any friend of crazy and he's got an announcement to make blanch we're getting married married but that's impossible Clayton Brothers can't marry sisters dthy clears up the confusion and watch how much laughter Betty White is
(28:40) able to get out of just one word blanch and Clayton aren't getting married Clayton and dgar oh oh oh at the time of this episode marriage equality was just starting to appear in mainstream News a lesbian couple in Hawaii had just filed a first maj lawsuit over marriage equality and Roses 3 O's were basically the three different ways that most people responded a few people accepted it a lot of people were horrified and everybody else was confused the idea that same-sex couples could marry was brand new to
(29:12) most people and the vast majority of the country was against it and so is blanch when Clayton and his partner Doug come to a fancy banquet with the girls she does everything she can to hide the fact that they're a couple and this is Doug he's my in effect she's trying to force them back into the closet and to their credit the guys don't stand for it Doug is a part of the family now my family and if you don't like it then you don't have to be a part of my family that's harsh but for many people it's the right thing to
(29:39) do if blanch can't accept her brother if she doesn't want him to fall in love he might be better off without her but then it's Sophia to the rescue she has a late night heart-to-heart with blanch and asks a question that totally changes blanche's perspective why did you marry George we loved each other we wanted to make a lifetime commitment wanted everybody to know remember a few episodes ago when blanch met a gay guy at a bar unwittingly encouraged him to propose to his boyfriend and then realized that love is love she's about
(30:07) to get a little reminder everyone wants someone to grow old with and shouldn't everyone have that chance sopia I think I see what you're getting at I don't think you do blanch will you marry me this short exchange about 20 seconds long explains marriage equality better than most of the next two decades of advocacy for the freedom to marry blanch reconciles with again and welcomes Doug into the family now he's not perfect has a stubborn streak and a bad temper and he snores that'll just be our little secret
(30:41) just put yourself in the position of a gay person seeing this episode in 1991 imagine your relatives had rejected you for being queer refused to recognize your partner accused you of destroying the institution of marriage to see a show where a sibling comes around and accepts her gay brother his partner and their desire to get married must have seemed like a dream coming true for so many gay viewers not only that but the episode portrays Clayton Doug so sympathetically that according to writer Jamie Wooten while this episode got some
(31:06) hate mail the show actually got more Angry letters about be Arthur's hair I look like Barbara Bush don't I don't I be honest but cute now these are just a handful of the episodes with queer characters and themes there's lots more including a multi-season storyline involving Dorothy sibling your brother Phil is gay I knew it when he was a kid we couldn't keep him away from those Gladiator movies the Phil character is complicated and can be read in a bunch of different ways the podcast gayest
(31:33) episode ever has a great Deep dive on how the show handled that storyline with help from the podcast totally trans I've got a link to that conversation in the description and then there's other queer characters like the time Dorothy met her matched with the gay caterer now look here stretch and the time the girls went on a talk show and were introduced like this women who live together does society make it tougher we'll find out when we talk to four lesbians today I'll be posting bonus videos over on patreon
(31:58) about those episodes and also the story about the real life feud between be Arthur and Betty White behind the scenes head over to patreon.com Bal to watch those bonus videos as the show gained Fame and then after it ended the cast had a variety of other projects both on and off camera some were less successful like the spin-off Golden Palace which didn't last long but does feature war machine from the MCU don't listen Rose trust me we did the right thing and cheich I'm back darthy other projects were memorably strange like the
(32:30) time B Arthur met Steve Urkel or the time blanch ruled over a Subterranean Kingdom of ales after tonight I'll be back to my old tricks again and what I think might be the greatest cat video ever made somebody told me there's a cat over here I should see oh my gosh kitty cats everywhere I've got more about those projects over on patreon too and the cast also did some far more important work offscreen for example Estelle Getty continued to stick by her gay friends and family in one interview she said I'm tremendously
(33:13) grateful to the gay community they put me where I am today they discovered me and they stuck by me and they've been very loyal then in 1996 seeing how much help her gay friends and family needed throughout the epidemic Estelle opened a hospice for people with HIV in Greensboro North Carolina the hometown of her nephew Steven who' passed away in 1992 it's called Beacon place and it's still operating to this day providing comfort care and dignity to people at the end of their lives Rue used her
(33:38) Celebrity Status to help raise money for LGBT causes here she is in a pride parade and Broadway benefits for equal rights Betty was an outspoken advocate for equality for the rest of her life if two people in love want to get married let them get married just mind your own business and don't worry about she lent her name to anti-bullying programs I'm Betty White but this October 17th call me Betty purple and the hulc of hot and Cleveland will be joining in on Spirit day and showing our support for lesbian gay bisexual and
(34:12) transgender Youth and of course she was a loving stepmom to Sarah and always remained the pride of the lesbians the biggest impact may have come from be Arthur Who embraced her status as a gay icon I may be very prog gay but I think they they have the greatest taste and the greatest wit aside from being fabulous hairdressers and everything else then in 2005 be got a call from her friend Ray clausson a set designer he told her about a new nonprofit New York that supported unhoused queer youth the Ali for Center queer kids are
(34:44) disproportionately thrown out of their homes and at the time the center was struggling to keep up with the need they only had 12 Shelter beds with over a hundred youths out on the street needing a place to sleep every night when she found out about that bee leapt into action and volunteered to fly across the country and host a fundraiser for the center she raised $40,000 in one night and then did a bunch of interviews about the importance of the center to bring in more doners there's people in this country that kick their kids out of
(35:09) their house because they're gay and the thought of that I think really upset her after that the center could finally start expanding but then 3 years later they ran into a problem the 2008 recession had just hit donations had slowed down and B one of their greatest Advocates passed away the staff were heartbroken but then they found out that be had left $300,000 to them in her will that gift allowed the center to make it through the recession through the loss of a building in Hurricane Sandy and to set up a dozen new housing sites a
(35:37) 24-hour dropin service and serve a thousand youths every year in 2017 they opened a new building with 18 long-term beds the bar Arthur residence for LGBT youth a tribute to the actress who said I would do anything in my power to protect children who were discarded by their parents for being LGBT when you look across all seven seasons of the show nearly 200 episodes what you see is a group of close-knit characters who formed a chosen family characters with active sex lives that are responsible and recreational not about starting a
(36:05) family you see multiple episodes with gay characters when they were very few on any other shows you see dialogue that explicitly defends equality and performers who supported their queer fans in real life so why does the Golden Girls resonate so strongly with gay audiences well back in 2006 somebody asked r mclanahan that very question she said she used to wonder the same thing until one night she ran into a fan and gr Village and she asked him tell me something what is it that you gay guys like so much about
(36:39) blanch and he said are you kidding we all want to be her and I think that's true not just the part about being popular with men although that doesn't hurt but also having a found family where everyone looks after each other enjoying life and great sex even when mainstream Society has counted you out being loved so much that when you die of old age everyone says you are gone too soon and that when you remembered it's with gratitude for having been such a great friend now in making this video I discovered a ton of
(37:07) great stories about The Golden Girls and the actresses and the gay fans check out my patreon for those at patreon.com bound I'm working on a bonus video about the time Betty White accidentally outed Carrie Grant and I've got five and a half hours of videos on topics like Angela Lansbury's gay husband Ernie and Bert's couplehood and the gay joke that led to the nanny thanks to everybody who makes these videos possible and now if you'll excuse me some someone told me there's a cat I should see
This YouTube video essay explores the surprising and heartwarming connection between the iconic sitcom "The Golden Girls" and the LGBTQ+ community, particularly gay men. Here's a breakdown:
Detailed Bullet Points:
- Unlikely Origins: "The Golden Girls" was born from a throwaway joke in an NBC promo, initially meant to be a parody of sitcoms.
- Dream Team: Despite its shaky start, the show's success was fueled by a talented cast (Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty) and a daring producer, Susan Harris, known for pushing boundaries.
- Gay Representation: Harris had a history of including gay characters in her shows, and "The Golden Girls" continued this trend, albeit with some initial hiccups (the short-lived character of Coco).
- Safe Space: The show became a phenomenon in gay bars, offering a sense of community and relatability for gay men who often found themselves ostracized by their families and society.
- Ahead of its Time: "The Golden Girls" tackled then-taboo topics like coming out, lesbianism, same-sex marriage, and HIV/AIDS with sensitivity and humor, years before such representation was commonplace on television.
- Real-Life Allies: The cast members were not just allies on screen; they actively supported LGBTQ+ causes and individuals in their personal lives. Estelle Getty, in particular, was a vocal advocate due to her experience with "Torch Song Trilogy" and the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on her community.
- Lasting Legacy: The show's impact extends beyond its original run. It continues to resonate with audiences today, offering comfort, laughter, and a celebration of chosen families.
Essay Description:
The video essay delves into the reasons behind the enduring love affair between "The Golden Girls" and the gay community. It examines how a sitcom about four older women living in Miami became a beacon of acceptance and representation for a marginalized group. The essayist highlights the show's groundbreaking approach to portraying LGBTQ+ characters and storylines, emphasizing its impact on television and society at large. It also explores the personal connections between the cast members and the LGBTQ+ community, showcasing their activism and allyship. Ultimately, the essay celebrates "The Golden Girls" as a cultural touchstone that continues to inspire and entertain, reminding us of the power of friendship, love, and laughter.
Obscure, Abstract, and Out-of-the-Box Thoughts:
- The Golden Girls as Camp: The show's over-the-top humor, vibrant fashion choices, and dramatic storylines lend themselves to a camp aesthetic, which often resonates with queer audiences.
- Subverting Traditional Family Structures: The Golden Girls, with their chosen family dynamic, challenged the heteronormative nuclear family ideal, providing a model for alternative family structures that many LGBTQ+ individuals could relate to.
- Aging and Queerness: The show's focus on older women, often dismissed or marginalized in society, parallels the experiences of many LGBTQ+ individuals who face ageism and discrimination.
- The Power of Female Friendship: The Golden Girls demonstrated the strength and resilience of female bonds, offering a counter-narrative to the often-competitive or catty portrayals of female friendships in media.
- Humor as a Tool for Social Change: The show used humor to address serious issues, making them more accessible and palatable to a wider audience, ultimately contributing to greater understanding and acceptance.
This video essay effectively captures the multifaceted relationship between "The Golden Girls" and the LGBTQ+ community, offering a thoughtful and entertaining exploration of its enduring legacy.
