READ MORE: Betty White’s Love for Animals Began as a Child The cast once performed for the British royal family It was almost like Betty became her nemesis, someone she could always roll her eyes about at work.” Arthur’s son Matthew Saks described his mother as much more of a “loner” than her castmates, and as he told Closer Weekly, “My mom unknowingly carried the attitude that it was fun to have somebody to be angry at. Jim Colucci, author of Golden Girls Forever: An Unauthorized Biography, believed the clash originated in part with the actresses conflicting acting styles, causing the more reserved, focused Arthur to become increasingly frustrated with White’s habit of joking with the audience between takes. Burt Reynolds, Julio Iglesias and even Sonny Bono made appearances as themselves as romantic interests of the women. Legendary comedian Bob Hope played himself in one episode, as did Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek. Over the course of its run, a number of well-known Hollywood actors appeared on the show, including Mickey Rooney, Rita Moreno, Jerry Orbach, Debbie Reynolds and more. The show featured some famous (and soon-to-be famous) faces According to a 1989 issue of Orange Coast Magazine, it took makeup artists three hours to transform Getty into her character - a job made even harder after Getty underwent a facelift in between seasons one and two. Sophia was originally intended to be a semi-recurring character, but producers were impressed enough with the dynamic between the four actresses, that they dropped Coco from the series.Īlthough Getty played the oldest of the women, she was actually a year younger than her on-screen daughter. While the character scored well with test audiences, it was Dorothy’s mother, Sophia Petrillo, who stole the show. The pilot episode featured a fourth character, a gay chef who worked for Blanche named Coco Levin. Sophia wasn’t supposed to be a regular on the show In a 2006 interview with the Paley Center, White admitted that McClanahan had done much more with the role of Blanche than she ever could have. The pilot’s director came up with the idea of flip-flopping the casting.
White was originally cast as man-hungry Blanche, a role very similar to the one she had played on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, while McClanahan was cast as naïve Rose. It was the fear of typecasting that also impacted the roles of Rose Nylund and Blanche Deveraux. McClanahan eventually convinced her reluctant former co-star, pointing out the originality and promise of the show’s premise, and network execs were won over. Network execs worried that Arthur’s controversial Maude role would make her an unsympathetic star. Arthur feared that because she, White and McClanahan were so closely identified with the earlier roles that audiences wouldn’t be able to see beyond that. When the show’s creators pushed for Arthur to play the “Bea Arthur” character, both NBC and Arthur herself were reluctant. Stage and screen actress Elaine Stritch auditioned for the part but later admitted that she blew her audition by adlibbing an obscenity. The producers considered a number of other actresses first, including Lee Grant, who turned it down because she didn’t want to play someone who was old enough to be a grandmother.
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The cast might have looked very differentĬo-creator Susan Harris, who had worked with Arthur on Maude, wrote the pilot for the series with the idea of a “Bea Arthur” type for the role of recent-divorcee Dorothy Zbornak.