And then there was one (Golden Girls)

[CCTAU]

I have to admit, whenever I visited my folks, they would always watch The Golden Girls. I found it a very humorous show. All of the actresses had been around for years. And if you have ever tried to channel surf late at night, you probably ran across the show. Rue McClanahan died today. That leaves Betty White as the last.

Like I said, I didn't make a point to watch it, but many did. The last episode was the 10th most watched in history at the time. So apparently it was pretty popular.

Fess up. how many of you caught yourself laughing to the show once or twice?

Yahoo! News
Rue McClanahan, 'Golden Girl' Blanche, dies
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer David Bauder, Ap Television Writer 6 mins ago

NEW YORK – Rue McClanahan, the Emmy-winning actress who brought the sexually liberated Southern belle Blanche Devereaux to life on the hit TV series "The Golden Girls," has died. She was 76.

Her manager, Barbara Lawrence, said McClanahan died Thursday at 1 a.m. at New York-Presbyterian Hospital of a brain hemorrhage.

She had undergone treatment for breast cancer in 1997 and later lectured to cancer support groups on "aging gracefully." In 2009, she had heart bypass surgery.

McClanahan had an active career in off-Broadway and regional stages in the 1960s before she was tapped for TV in the 1970s for the key best-friend character on the hit series "Maude," starring Beatrice Arthur. After that series ended in 1978, McClanahan landed the role as Aunt Fran on "Mama's Family" in 1983.

But her most loved role came in 1985 when she co-starred with Arthur, Betty White and Estelle Getty in "The Golden Girls," a runaway hit that broke the sitcom mold by focusing on the foibles of four aging — and frequently eccentric — women living together in Miami.

"Golden Girls" aimed to show "that when people mature, they add layers," she told The New York Times in 1985. "They don't turn into other creatures. The truth is we all still have our child, our adolescent, and your young woman living in us."

Blanche, who called her father "Big Daddy," was a frequent target of roommates Dorothy, Rose and the outspoken Sophia (Getty), who would fire off zingers at Blanche such as, "Your life's an open blouse."

Fellow "Golden Girl" Betty White called McClanahan a close and dear friend.

"I treasured our relationship," said White, who was working in Los Angeles on the set of her TV Land comedy "Hot in Cleveland" on Thursday. "It hurts more than I even thought it would, if that's even possible."

McClanahan snagged an Emmy for her work on the show in 1987. In an Associated Press interview that year, McClanahan said Blanche was unlike any other role she had ever played.

"Probably the closest I've ever done was Blanche DuBois in 'A Streetcar Named Desire' at the Pasadena Playhouse," she said. "I think, too, that's where the name came from, although my character is not a drinker and not crazy."

Her Blanche Devereaux, she said, "is in love with life and she loves men. I think she has an attitude toward women that's competitive. She is friends with Dorothy and Rose, but if she has enough provocation she becomes competitive with them. I think basically she's insecure. It's the other side of the Don Juan syndrome."

After "The Golden Girls" was canceled in 1992, McClanahan, White and Getty reprised their roles in a short-lived spinoff, "Golden Palace."

McClanahan continued working in television, on stage and in film, appearing in the Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau vehicle "Out to Sea" and as the biology teacher in "Starship Troopers."

She stepped in to portray Madame Morrible, the crafty headmistress, for a time in "Wicked," Broadway's long-running "Wizard of Oz" prequel.

In 2008, McClanahan appeared in the Logo comedy "Sordid Lives: The Series," playing the slightly addled, elderly mother of an institutionalized drag queen.

During production, McClanahan was recovering from 2007 surgery on her knee. It didn't stop her from filming a sex scene in which the bed broke, forcing her to hang on to a windowsill to avoid tumbling off.

McClanahan was born Eddi-Rue McClanahan in Healdton, Okla., to building contractor William McClanahan and his wife, Dreda Rheua-Nell, a beautician. She graduated with honors from the University of Tulsa with a degree in German and theater arts.

McClanahan's acting career began on the stage. According to a 1985 Los Angeles Times profile, she appeared at the Pasadena (Calif.) Playhouse, studied in New York with Uta Hagen and Harold Clurman, and worked in soaps and on the stage.

She won an Obie — the off-Broadway version of the Tony — in 1970 for "Who's Happy Now," playing the "other woman" in a family drama written by Oliver Hailey. She reprised the role in a 1975 television version; in a review, The New York Times described her character as "an irrepressible belle given to frequent bouts of `wooziness' and occasional bursts of shrewdness."

She had appeared only sporadically on television until producer Norman Lear tapped her for a guest role on "All in the Family" in 1971.

She went from there to a regular role in the "All in the Family" spinoff "Maude," playing Vivian, the neighbor and best friend to Arthur in the starring role.

When Arthur died in April 2009, McClanahan recalled that she had felt constrained by "Golden Girls" during the later years of its run. "Bea liked to be the star of the show. She didn't really like to do that ensemble playing," McClanahan said.

McClanahan was married six times: Tom Bish, with whom she had a son, Mark Bish; actor Norman Hartweg; Peter D'Maio; Gus Fisher; and Tom Keel. She married husband Morrow Wilson on Christmas Day in 1997.

She called her 2007 memoir "My First Five Husbands ... And the Ones Who Got Away."

[Token]

Dude, I was practically raised by my grandparents.  Because of the Golden Girls and MASH, I can't enjoy the shitty sitcoms on TV now.  Humor was just better back then. 

[wesfau2]

We had to watch this show at my grandmother's house when we visited.  I thought it was very funny.

Is Estelle Getty dead, as well?  Wasn't she the youngest of the four ladies?

[CCTAU]

All are gone except Betty White (88).

For a bunch of old gals, they were really funny. I think the best part about remembering the show was that we all watched it with someone older that we loved. Laughing and smiling with family is like rare drug that never gets prescribed enough.

[Tiger Wench]

I have never watched a single second of Golden Girls.

However, I can tell you the entire plot of an episode of MASH after only seeing the first fifteen seconds of an episode (not counting the credits, of course - although I can tell you whether it is Frank or Winchester, Henry Blake or Potter, just by seeing the first few seconds of the credits.)

[JR4AU]

I have never watched a single second of Golden Girls.

However, I can tell you the entire plot of an episode of MASH after only seeing the first fifteen seconds of an episode (not counting the credits, of course - although I can tell you whether it is Frank or Winchester, Henry Blake or Potter, just by seeing the first few seconds of the credits.)

Me too...

Did the final episode piss you off?

[Tiger Wench]

Me too...

Did the final episode piss you off?

Ummm... kinda.  It had to end somehow - you do what you can, I guess.  i would have liked to have seen BJ meeting his wife and daughter at the airport when he got home.

Klinger not leaving was a bit ridiculous.  He was too Lebanese to marry a Korean girl.  His mother would have killed him.

The spin-off was a joke. 

[Snaggletiger]

MASH rocked.  That is all.

[Ogre]

Rue McClanahan was the original GILF. 

[wesfau2]

Rue McClanahan was the original GILF. 

She was a horny old sexpot....she'd have let even a disgusting ginger such as yourself have a taste.

[Jumbo]

Dude, I was practically raised by my grandparents.  Because of the Golden Girls and MASH, I can't enjoy the shitty sitcoms on TV now.  Humor was just better back then. 

Me too, throw in I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show and All in the Family.

[Snaggletiger]

Me too, throw in I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show and All in the Family.

You're hittin' home with an old focker like me.  Never could figure out why Ethel was married to Fred, though.  That was one goofy lookin' man. 

[JR4AU]

Me too, throw in I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show and All in the Family.

They were running some of the oooooooooooooooooooooold Andy and Opie shows last night...I mean when Miss Ellie first came to town to run her uncle's drug store.  Andy shore did want him somma dat.  CLASSIC STUFF! 

[Snaggletiger]

They were running some of the oooooooooooooooooooooold Andy and Opie shows last night...I mean when Miss Ellie first came to town to run her uncle's drug store.  Andy shore did want him somma dat.  CLASSIC STUFF! 

Miss Ellie was hotter than Helen Crump.

[JR4AU]

Miss Ellie was hotter than Helen Crump.

Damn skippy, by a long shot!

[Tiger Wench]

My favorite Andy character is Otis.  Everyone, including me, loves Barney, but Otis was the undervalued character on that show... comic gold.

[JR4AU]

My favorite Andy character is Otis.  Everyone, including me, loves Barney, but Otis was the undervalued character on that show... comic gold.

Earnest T. Bass, and the Darlings were damned funny too. 

[Tarheel]

Earnest T. Bass, and the Darlings were damned funny too. 

Now y'all are starting to hit home with me.  The whole State of North Carolina shuts down at 5:30 every afternoon to watch The Andy Griffith Show.

[Token]

Now y'all are starting to hit home with me.  The whole State of North Carolina shuts down at 5:30 every afternoon to watch The Andy Griffith Show.

Someone forgot to the tell the commuting assholes from Burlington to Raleigh.  Those people piss me off every time I go up there.

[Pell City Tiger]

Miss Ellie was hotter than Helen Crump.

By a country mile! Helen was fap worthy in black and white, but color tv did nothing for that woman. Plus, she was a total bitch.

In Mayberry, Charlene Darlin > Ms Ellie > Romina (Ernest T had it goin' on) > Thelma Lou > Mrs Wiley > Aunt Bea > Helen Crump