To be fair, all you had to tell me to keep me from watching the spinoff was that Dorothy Zbornak was nowhere to be found, but the other variables don’t necessarily sweeten the pot, either. Why? Because it just seemed to be the right thing to do, the way you edit out shady details of someone’s obituary the moment they eat dirt. I’ve been a Golden Girls fan for nearly half my life, and yet I knew just enough about The Golden Palace to pay it no mind, to virtually pretend it didn’t exist.

After Arthur decided seven seasons of The Golden Girls was enough for her, the trio that was left behind - Blanche (Rue McClanahan), Rose (Betty White), and Sophia (Estelle Getty) - embarked on a spinoff that aired on CBS for just one ill-fated season. The Golden Palace (street address unknown).Īh, yes, every Golden Girl aficionado’s dirty little secret. Technically, there’s another address in Miami where it all continued, but as a general rule … we don’t talk about … And after seven seasons’ worth of episodes I’ve seen hundreds of times (to quote Dorothy, “Who are you to judge me?”), there really isn’t a place I’d rather be than in the four-bedroom, ranch-style, wicker-heavy home at 6151 Richmond Street in Miami, the address where it all began.

But self-soothing through Golden Girls repeats - even just as background noise (which actually proves tough because all I want to do is finish the character’s sentences) - made her death remarkably easier to digest. Almost a year later, I would get her face tattooed on my arm above a laurel wreath and the words “Thank you for being a friend.” Dorothy Zbornak lives forever on my left bicep.Ī world without Bea Arthur suddenly felt bleak. I’d sensed it before it was even confirmed, but the news was official: Bea Arthur had passed away. On April 25, 2009, my phone began to blow up with texts:

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