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.

The show's popularity and decline

The first head writers of the series were Kathy Speer and Terry Grossman, and wrote for the show's first four seasons (although it should be noted that as head writers, Speer and Grossman gave general ideas to lower staff writers, and personally wrote a mere handful of scripts each season). It was the popularity of the show's four leads and the stability in the show's writing department that kept the ratings as high as they were (eventually peaking at #4 for one season).

Related Topics:
Kathy Speer - Terry Grossman

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1989, Richard Vaczy and Tracy Gamble, previously writers on 227 and My Two Dads, took over head writing responsibilities, and were themselves replaced in 1990 with Marc Cherry (who went on to create Desperate Housewives) and Jamie Wooten. It was partially the abrupt and fast change in writing teams that slowly brought the ratings down, ultimately pulling it out of contention as a viable Top 10 show. Also, in 1990, Terry Hughes, regular director since early 1986, left the series.

Related Topics:
1989 - Richard Vaczy - Tracy Gamble - 227 - My Two Dads - 1990 - Marc Cherry - Desperate Housewives - Jamie Wooten - Terry Hughes - 1986

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In September 1991, NBC moved the series from its comfortable 9:00 PM EST time slot to 8:00 PM. NBC had trouble filling the slot since 227 vacated it in the spring of 1990. Each show they put in the time period failed, and The Golden Girls was stuck there as a last resort to save the night. As a result, the show fell from 10th place in the previous season to 30th place.

Related Topics:
September - 1991 - NBC

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During the seventh season, Bea Arthur decided that she wanted to leave the series. The last episode of that season saw her character of Dorothy marry Blanche's Uncle Lucas (Leslie Nielsen).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Annual Nielsen Ratings

• 1985-1986 season: 7th place (tied with Dynasty), 21.8 average rating
• 1986-1987 season: 5th place, 24.5 average rating
• 1987-1988 season: 4th place, 21.8 average rating
• 1988-1989 season: 6th place, 21.4 average rating
• 1989-1990 season: 6th place, 20.1 average rating
• 1990-1991 season: 10th place, 16.5 average rating
• 1991-1992 season: 30th place (tied with In the Heat of the Night), 13.1 average rating