Summary

• The Golden Girls was a groundbreaking '80s sitcom that focused four women, all over age 50, living together in Miami.
• Tensions between Bea Arthur and Betty White on set didn't erupt into feuds but impacted the show's later seasons.
• The series finale wrapped up with Dorothy marrying, while her mother Sophia decided to stay with their housemates, Blanche and Rose.

The hit sitcom The Golden Girls originally aired from 1985 to 1992, becoming a staple of NBC's Saturday night line-up with no equal on rival networks. The hilarious antics of four older women living together in a Miami home enchanted audiences for seven seasons before finally coming to an end. Despite having ended more than 35 years ago, the series lives on today in syndication, always watchable somewhere, whether on streaming or cable, because fans simply can't get enough.

The show followed Rose (Betty White), Blanche (Rue McClanahan), Dorothy (Bea Arthur) and Sophia (Estelle Getty) as they dealt with day-to-day life while growing older. Episodes were centered on multiple topics, with a few about the women's current love life (or lack thereof), their past relationships/marriages, their children and their dependence on one another as friends and family. The series finale revisited all these themes while wrapping up the story and setting up the short-lived sequel The Golden Palace.

Updated on May 14 by Robert Vaux: The Golden Girls is one of the most beloved sitcoms of the 1980s, and remains a cult classic to this day. Millions of new fans have discovered it since it ended its initial run in 1992, and it spawned several spin-offs, as well as countless pieces of fanfic and similar art. The article has been updated to discuss the off-screen circumstances surrounding the show's cancelation, as well as the failure of the follow-up series, The Golden Palace. The formatting has been updated to meet current CBR guidelines.

The Golden Girls Faced a Major Casting Shake-Up After Season 7

From the beginning, The Golden Girls was a critical darling as well as a commercial hit. The simple idea that life for women didn't end at 40 was innovative enough to make a huge splash, coupled with very smart writing and perfect chemistry between the four leads. It finished in the top 10 Nielsen ratings for the first six of its seven seasons, and all four members of the core cast won Emmy Awards for their work on the show. Today, it stands as one of the best sitcoms of the 80s, and a groundbreaking step forward in women's representation.

At the same time, there were mild but notable tensions behind the scenes, most notably between stars Bea Arthur and Betty White. According to Jim Colucci's book Golden Girls Forever: An Unauthorized Look Behind the Lanai, the two came from very different backgrounds, and approached their work in different ways. Arthur was often perturbed by White's famous gregariousness. For instance, White would often chat with the studio audience during breaks in production, while Arthur treated it like live theater and never broke the fourth wall. Such differences never erupted into an open feud, and indeed, according to Colucci, Arthur channeled her frustration back into the characters. (Dorothy is often exasperated with Rose, which makes for a comedy gold mine.) White subsequently expressed bafflement at the schism, and open admiration for Arthur and her work.

That said, the tension doubtless began to wear thin as the show went on. Ratings began to slip in Season 6, with the writers struggling to come up with fresh material. Arthur announced that she would be leaving at the end of Season 7, making it the last of the show's vaunted run. She was 70 at the time, and while she continued to perform after the show, she was apparently ready to slow down. She had also grown weary of the show's writing according to Colucci: feeling it was no longer up to snuff and often made Dorothy the butt of the joke. That final season suffered its lowest ratings ever, with fans aware that the end had come and beginning to tune out in search of other fare. There was a silver lining at the end, however: the series finale broke viewership records for its time slot, and remains one of the most watched final episodes of all time.

The Golden Girls Finale Gave Dorothy a Huge Development

Throughout Golden Girls, Dorothy, like her fellow housemates, navigated the struggles of dating as an older woman. In the series finale, "One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest," Blanche's Uncle Lucas came to visit the same day Blanche has a date. She decided to dump her uncle on Dorothy, with Dorothy under the impression that Blanche wrote flattering letters about Dorothy to her uncle. Initially, Dorothy and Lucas did not hit off. However, they learned that Blanche lied to both of them about wanting to meet the other. They decided to trick Blanche for revenge by saying they had fallen madly in love and wanted to marry. The two staged a fake proposal in Blanche's home with Dorothy accepting.

Of course, this major change in the household had an effect on the other women. Sophia, Dorothy's mother, assumed she'd move in with Dorothy and Lucas until Blanche pointed out that the couple may not want her with them. She dressed up as and spoke like a traditional American southern woman to try to gain Lucas' favor and move in with the couple. Rose also questioned if she should leave the house and move in with her daughter.

How Dorothy and Lucas' Scheme Spiraled Out of Control

Blanche reacted exactly as Dorothy and Lucas hoped, buying into their ruse and getting upset that the two were "getting married" and destroying the family the four women created. Over the course of the trick, Dorothy and Lucas realized they had developed actual feelings for one another and decided to marry for real. Blanche came around to the relationship after accepting that their love was genuine.

Lucas agreed to let Sophia live with him and Dorothy. The night before Dorothy's wedding, while trying to figure out how to say goodbye, Blanche and Sophia convinced Rose to keep living with Blanche. The next day, Dorothy was on her way to her wedding in a limo only to learn her ex-husband Stan was the limo driver. He ultimately blessed Dorothy's new union and the two reconciled their past love for one another. As she walked up the aisle, Dorothy realized she had finally overcome her desperation and was marrying a man she truly loved, a core theme of her character throughout the course of The Golden Girls. Dorothy and Lucas married in a beautiful church ceremony with her friends and family there to celebrate with her.

The Golden Girls' Bittersweet Ending Provided Closure

That Closure Made The Golden Palace An Unnecessary Spin-off

Sophia ultimately decided to stay with Blanche and Rose, realizing Dorothy needed to be alone with her new husband and not have her mother in their way. Having become a mother figure to Blanche and Rose, Sophia believed they still needed her guidance. Dorothy and Sophia's mother-daughter relationship was a key part of the show's dynamic, and the finale offered a satisfying goodbye between the two. After seven years of living together, the four women shared a tear-jerking goodbye, with Dorothy comically coming back into the house two times after leaving to keep hugging the others. After she finally set off, Rose, Blanche and Sophia embraced one last time as the story came to a close.

That proved to be the case despite the best efforts of most of the cast and crew to continue on without Arthur. A follow-up series, The Golden Palace, premiered a few months after The Golden Girls ended. Blanche, Rose, and Sophia sell their house and buy a hotel, which they run with help from new cast members Don Cheadle and Cheech Marin. The series was canceled after just one season. Arthur's absence was missed -- though she returned as Dorothy twice as a guest star -- and the writing remained tired and spent, despite the addition of new characters.

It wasn't the only spin-off series the show produced, however. Empty Nest -- featuring Richard Mulligan as one of the quartet's neighbors -- premiered in 1988 when The Golden Girls was at its height and continued for seven successful seasons. It also spawned a spin-off, Nurses, which ran for three seasons between 1991 and 1994. Despite that track record, however, the first show's conclusion was the proper thematic ending. The Golden Girls finale brought one of the greatest sitcoms of all time to a triumphant close while managing to focus on all the key elements that defined it. The relationship of the women was the driving force of the show, and it's only right that it ended with a final goodbye between the four friends-turned-family.

The Golden Girls is currently streaming on Hulu.