If you know me well enough, you’ll know there are only a few things in this world that really get me excited. Roller coasters are one, Dairy Queen Blizzards are another, but the Golden Girls take the cake.

I have recently purchased all seven seasons worth of episodes of TV-on-DVD and am approximately half-way through season five. Growing up in the 80s, I found myself chuckling along with the girls as a young child, but I never really understood the root of my laughter. I think at the time it was largely based on the fact that my mom was laughing, so the show had to be funny, and I didn’t want to seem out of place.

My recent infatuation was rekindled when over at Donovan and Brian’s place a few years back. I was having a gander at Dono’s excessive DVD collection and laughed at the Golden Girls box set. He assured me that the episodes were even better now than when the shows originally aired. I decided to take a gamble, and plug the old dolls in one more time.

My life was changed. I immediately fell in love with these women and their amazing sense of style!

Who would have thought that the Golden Girls had paved the way for such shows as Sex and the City. The original four: Blanche, Rose, Dorothy and Sophia (played by Rue McClanahan, Betty White, Bea Arthur and the late Estelle Getty respectively), championed the way for women on television, discussing the topics rarely permitted or spoken of on TV at the time. Many of the episodes discuss the more commonplace topics of elderly health issues and love lost, and are still frequently re-aired on late night television. Surprisingly, those aren’t the episodes I remember best. The ones that re-sparked my love affair include Rose dealing with another woman falling in love with her (Dorothy’s lesbian friend visiting from out of town), and Blanche’s brother coming out to her in his 60s, after divorcing a woman he had been married to for decades. And, I’m only part way through season five!

Every time I turn on my TV, I’m inclined to neglect those PVR’d shows from the last week and settle into that unforgettable theme song, “Thank you for being a friend!”

On a side note– I believe this may be the only song to ever use the phase, “You’re a pal and a confidant!”: a stroke of theme-song brilliance!

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