'Bea and I didn’t have a lot of relationship going on. McClanahan had a clause in her contract to keep all her clothes.Ģ1. White, a frequent game show competitor, would play word games with equally competitive McClanahan between takes.Ģ0. “Why would you make fun of somebody who’s fat or who’s cross-eyed or who’s bald? And I won’t do gay-bashing jokes.” She also rejected a joke once that had a punchline relating to domestic violence.ġ9. “I have a thing about gratuitous pain,” she said. Getty said in one interview that she was choosy about what Sophia would say. 'Golden Girls' hit many controversial topics for its time including AIDS, gay marriage, and teen pregnancy.ġ8. In a talk show interview, McClanahan and Getty said it took nine hours to rehearse an episode.ġ7.

According to the New York Times, Getty won the role of Sophia after she showed up to the audition looking like “a little old lady.”ġ6. Originally, the part of Blanche was offered to White, and McClanahan was given the part of Rose. Arthur's confusion would have been understandable. “I said, ‘Why are you turning down the best script that’s ever going to come across your desk as long as you live?’ and she said, ‘Rue, I have no interest in playing Maude and Vivian meets Sue Ann Nevins.’” Eventually, McClanahan explained that she was going to play Blanche and White was going to play Rose, and that piqued Arthur's interest.ĩ. She said that Susan Harris, the show’s co-executive producer, asked her to persuade Arthur to take the part, as she kept turning it down. McClanahan remembered things a bit differently. “I thought it was one of the funniest, most adult, hilarious, sophisticated, terrific, delicious things I had ever read.”Ĩ.

Arthur auditioned for “Golden Girls” after Dorothy was described initially as “a Bea Arthur-type.” “I thought it was brilliant,” she told the Archive of American Television of reading the first script.

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