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She also played Sofia Petrillo on an episode of Blossom & Nurses.
The conversation about the house brought back one of the things that really always annoyed me. The configuration of the house.
The door from the kitchen supposedly lead to the garage. But that door would have run directly into the hallway that exits the front room. Now, there could have been a detatched garage, I understand that, but still, the deep hallway that leads to at least 4 bedrooms and one bathroom should have stretched farther out to where you'd see it through the window in the kitchen. Actually, I have a hard time seeing how there could be a window in the kitchen looking out at all because, even though the hallway was diagonal from the living room, there would need to be space for the rooms on the rightside of the hallway.
Once again, I may have put too much thought into this
I came across an episode last week where Sophia's sister was visiting and she was staying in the guest room. So that was a 5 BR house....
Also, wiki says that the kitchen was recycled from another show (It Takes Two) and I found this article noting the producers acknowledge the "house" layout made no sense.
The home originally used for the establishing shots (which was actually in Brentwood, CA, and not Miami) had a garage door and a front door both pointing toward the street. The closest I can figure is that the garage would have to be on the other side of the "fourth wall" (the missing wall of the living room and kitchen), but even that is...well, over-thinking it. I'd read elsewhere that the set designers had not built a kitchen set for the pilot because they originally had no scenes set in it---but logic should have told them that they would need one eventually as the show went to series. Did they think that NBC would not pick up the pilot for a series? Susan Harris shows like this one always feature tons of scenes in the kitchen; some of the stuff in early Golden Girls episodes mirrors stuff done in the kitchen at the Tate house on Soap, and the kitchen set on Benson was probably the central set of that series.
Golden Girls continuity (or lack thereof) is a whole other topic, though. In the early episodes, you could hear the ocean when the girls were out on the lanai and see a smattering of palm trees in the background, giving the idea that they were right on the ocean...but in later seasons they backed off that idea; the bushes "got taller" to block the view, and there was no more wave noise playing in the background.
I came across an episode last week where Sophia's sister was visiting and she was staying in the guest room. So that was a 5 BR house....
Also, wiki says that the kitchen was recycled from another show (It Takes Two) and I found this article noting the producers acknowledge the "house" layout made no sense.
That was a fun article, and it's great to see that I'm not the only one who's been bugged by the layout.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielAvery
The home originally used for the establishing shots (which was actually in Brentwood, CA, and not Miami) had a garage door and a front door both pointing toward the street. The closest I can figure is that the garage would have to be on the other side of the "fourth wall" (the missing wall of the living room and kitchen), but even that is...well, over-thinking it.
Not only that, but if the garage was on that side, it really wouldn't seem to make sense to have the garage door on the opposite side of the kitchen. While I suppose the garage could have an exterior door that put you in the backyard (instead of, you know, just a door that opens directly into the house) it still wouldn't make a lot of sense for them to use that back door.
All silly stuff to think about, since it's already been revealed that the producers themselves understand that the layout makes no sense, but still......
Northsouth, I'm really glad you asked that. It made me look it up.
So apparently, while the final season did have a huge dip in the ratings (the first 5 seasons they were in the top 10, the final season they were #30) it was Bea Arthur wanting to leave the show that caused for it to end.
To me, it seems like that with a dip that badly even if she had stayed they probably wouldn't have made it beyond one more season before they got axed, unless they did something to turn it around.
But, interestingly to the original topic, apparently in the season 6 episode "There Goes the Bride" they brought Debbie Reynolds in to test our her chemistry with the other girls as a potential replacement for Bea, but ultimately decided they wouldn't be able to replace her and if she left then the whole show was getting canceled.
That's interesting, I never knew what really happened to the show. I guess 6 or 7 years is a good run for a sitcom but I sure do miss it!
I know that I'm in the minority, but I really liked The Golden Girls spinoff "The Golden Palace"
In case you didn't know, GG ended their series with Dorothy marrying a character played by Leslie Nielson. This left Blanche, Rose & Sofia to fend for themselves as the GG went off the air. The following season, those 3 bought a hotel and employed the likes of Don Cheadle and Cheeh Marin to run it. Again, I actually liked the show. It kept much of the same production style of GG, including the same theme song (though sung in a different style) and the same bumper music and overall style of show.
My question is, for those of you who are/were GG fans, do you think the show would have had more success if instead of taking the 3 ladies out of their home and buying a hotel if they had just remained The Golden Girls, but without Bea Arthur? Sitcoms lose major stars all the time (Richie left Happy Days, Michael Scott left The Office) and usually that spells the end of a series, but not always (Shelly Long leaving Cheers)
So I'm sure Golden Girls without Dorothy wouldn't have lasted too long anyway, but do you think it would have been better to try to go on without her, perhaps having another woman join the cast and move in to take her place (maybe a relative of either Blanche or Rose's? Or one of Sofia's niece's? Maybe a live in Nurse?)
PROBABLY YES!
However, one as the appreciate what that NBC line up was that made it so powerful and when parts of it changed, it was a hard battle to fight.
Empty Nest, Golden Girls, and Nurses. Together, they could tie a lot of stories together.
Nurses was great 1st season, but then they changed it, took away some fine players, and made it essentially unwatchable in 2nd and 3rd season.
Empty Nest was great at first, but the loss of key cast members, adding others, didn't help and by the time the Doctor left his hospital clinic and moved into a community one, it was over before that season was completed.
Golden Girls could have probably stood alone for a while in the house but one has to realize that it is about them, not some male regulars. ( taking your word for it, I never saw it).
Generally, when tv shows massively change the format that made them great, it's a disaster. IMHO.
If NBC had agreed to air the show rather than allowing CBS to swoop in and carry it away, Golden Palace (or whatever it became) could have benefitted from having its sister shows around it. There had already been a fair amount of cross-pollination on the three shows, but each show essentially stood on its own. Instead of having the girls move away from the Westons and stop visiting the Nurses' hospital, have them interact with them even more. Circling the wagons in that way--perhaps air the re-tooled Golden Girls at 8:30, sandwiched between EN and Nurses--would help hold onto viewers, and crossovers could preserve that feeling that things had not changed that much. That way, the re-tooled GG would not have to totally rely on the success of a new, fourth 'girl' and there would not be as much pressure to carry the evening as there had been in the past. Rather than pressuring the new character to be "replacement Dorothy," make her a truly supporting character whose main purpose is 'straight man' to Rose and Blanche. I tend to think they would work best with a woman, but she would not even have to be as old as Rose and Blanche; in fact, someone in the thirties range might work better because she would seem even less like a "Dorothy Replacement". They might even initially introduce such a character on EN or Nurses, then move them over to GG. After a year or so, when viewers had gotten used to the new way of doing things, they could ease off on the crossovers for the most part.
GG had already established that Rose, Blanche and Sophia did a lot of charity work. I think having them work together for one charity organization (perhaps a hospital foundation) would allow them the chance to interact with outside characters, but not have them running a hotel or doing something too strenuous for senior citizens (sorry, Blanche). Their foundation could help fund the Canal Street Clinic (where Harry, Maxine, and Laverne work) and hold its meetings at the Nurses hospital. It would also be a hoot to see Blanche continue her campaign to bag Dr. Harry, while he fumbled and stumbled through their interactions.
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