Big Daddy Gouda

Bea Arthur passed away over the weekend. My generation knows her better as Dorothy Sbornak, daughter of Sophia Patrillo, one of the four Golden Girls.

Condolences have popped up all over the Internet, especially Facebook and Youtube.

When I was young, I used to watch the Golden Girls on Saturday nights with my grandparents. I didn’t have a choice. They loved it, and they were in charge. Typing this I recall my Grandfather’s bellowing laughter every time Sophia hit Dorothy with a zinger.

Though I didn’t get all the jokes, I still found the show kind of interesting, and, I dug the opening theme song. (though I always mis-heard the line “and the card attatched would say”, instead thinking it to be, “and the heart attacks would say.”)

It wasn’t until college that I truly began to appreciate the four old ladies and that show.

Lifetime television had the rights to the reruns and played episodes of The Golden Girls at least six times a day. A whole generation of college students rediscovered Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sophia.

Being a young adult, it was so easy to appreciate the wicked sense of humor those four ladies had. The jokes that I didn’t get as a child, were now absolutely hilarious.

The show was truly ahead of it’s time, dealing with issues like Alzheimer’s disease, sexuality, racism and death. ( we all remember the episode where Rose had a heart attack right?)

There was something comforting about The Golden Girls. They reminded us of our grandparents or our aunts, or our crazy neighbors. They weren’t just TV characters, we felt like we knew ‘em.

I mean, come on, how often did you girls compare yourself to the old ladies and decide which you were most like.

So, while it’s not tragic when these ladies pass away, it’s still sad. Kind of like you’re losing a neighbor or that aunt who you never see anymore, but seemed kind of cool when you were a kid.

As I said on Facebook earlier today: There are just two Golden Girls left, Rose and Blanche. And, only two Beatles left, Paul and Ringo. I think they should team up, put their musical and comedic talents together and do something special.

Yep, I just compared The Golden Girls to The Beatles.

This entry was posted on April 27, 2009 at 5:46 am and is filed under Stuff . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.