The Golden Girls

The Golden Girls was a popular television sitcom that originally aired Saturday nights on the NBC network from September 14, 1985 to September 7, 1992. It can now be seen in syndication frequently on the Lifetime cable network in the United States, Prime in Canada and Living TV in the UK.

Response

The Golden Girls was quite risqué for its time, as its main characters were four single older women who lived together, but were still up-to-date with pop culture and sexually active. Mild profanity and strong sexual innuendo were common on the program. Estelle Getty's character, Sophia, was written as a woman who had a stroke that destroyed the part of her brain that censored her speech, thus enabling her to get away with much more than the other women. Nevertheless, the show was hugely successful with older and middle-aged women in America.

Related Topics:
Stroke - Censor

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The show was extremely controversial for often tackling topics that, at the time of airing, were taboo for television and often times simply not addressed in society. These included the coming out of Blanche's brother, menopause, domestic violence and senility. Perhaps the most controversial episode involved the character of Rose getting tested for HIV years after receiving an untested blood transfusion and having to wait 72 hours for the results.

Related Topics:
Coming out - HIV - Blood transfusion

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