The Secret, Hidden Season of the Golden Girls

I wrote about the Golden Girls restaurant that is opening up in September in NYC.

Today I found out there is a little-known season of the Golden Girls that aired after the “final season” when Bea Arthur left the show.

It contains the same theme song, and features Sophia, Rose, and Blanche after Dorothy gets married.  It even has the same lead in music to the scenes.

It was called the Golden Palace and co-starred Cheech Marin and Don Cheadle.

the-golden-palace-cast

In it, the girls purchase and run a hotel.  But they are short-staffed, so they must do a lot of the work themselves.  Rose, surprisingly, steps up to be the brains of the operation.

Unfortunately, there’s no legal way to watch this TV show, despite it having really high ratings on IMDB.

Here’s its opening sequence:

It lasted 24 episodes.  It might have continued if Bea Arthur decided to rejoin the show, but she ultimately declined.

It is not available on DVD or anywhere else.  And I’m desperate to see it!

Did you know this show existed?

About Jeanne Marie Hoffman

Former bartender, still a geek. One equal part each cookies, liberty, football, music, travel, libations. Stir vigorously. +Jeanne Marie Hoffman Jeanne on Twitter

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5 comments

  1. The show is called Golden Palace. You can find most of the episodes on YouTube. Hallmark Channel rarely airs them. The premise was a bit much but it had its moments.

  2. Confused traveler

    What does this have to do with travel and frequent flyer points?

    • Jeanne Marie Hoffman

      nothing!

      • Kudos for your honesty!

        I’d never heard of this, and am surprised it existed and could’ve continued, since Betty White has spoken about how Estelle Getty’s mental issues were becoming noticeable on set by the end of the series.

        • Jeanne Marie Hoffman

          Yeah, that’s a really good point! It turns out my coworker watched the whole season (also a huge fan of Golden Girls). He said that without Dorothy, there’s no one for the character actors to play off of, and Rose’s character steps into the role as the serious one, which didn’t work out well. A lot of the plot revolved around Rose too, so I wonder if Estelle Getty’s mental issues had to do with them downplaying her.

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