As the Golden Girls Kitchen prepares for events across the country Shondaland takes a look at our adoration for the 1980s sitcom.
Picture it Its a Tuesday in Beverly Hills and the Golden Girls Kitchen is packed with guests. Fans of the 1980s show dine on thematic dishes like Bacon Lettuce Potato Sandwich and snap selfies in corners made up to resemble the shows kitchen and Blanches Miami chic bedroom. When the theme song comes up on the pop ups playlist of 1980s hits everyone even our waiter with a Shady Pines name tag stops to sing along.
The Golden Girls Kitchen is a pop-up restaurant inspired by the series and the characters kitchen in Miami. The themed dining experience, which runs through the end of November in Los Angeles and has upcoming events planned in New York Miami San Francisco and Chicago is just one sign that we are not quite over our favorite pals and confidants. In April fans packed Chicagos Navy Pier for Golden Con a three day event where attendees could get up close and personal with people and props from the sitcom. An Etsy search reveals 16,334 handmade Golden Girls items. And in July BoJack Horseman director Mike Hollingsworth announced plans to use original sitcom audio to no joke bring our favorite foursome into the year 3033.
Not a bad cultural renaissance for a sitcom that finished its run in 1992. Its worth acknowledging that there can be a direct line drawn between the events of the last few years disease war loneliness of every flavor and our desire to binge on a show where any problem can be solved with a little help from our best friends and a lot of cheesecake. Even still a sitcom about four middle aged women living together in Miami was not a guaranteed hit when it premiered 37 years ago. Between Maude The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Mamas Family Bea Arthur Dorothy Zbornak Betty White Rose Nylund Rue McClanahan Blanche Devereaux and Estelle Getty Sophia Petrillo were all known actresses. But ageism is real and no one knew how relatable an all female cast over the age of 50 could be.
Blanche struggles to accept her gay brother marrying his partner until Sophia reminds her that everyone wants someone to grow old with and should not everyone have that chance? Dorothy welcomes her sons Black fiancée only to balk when she finds out that she has twice his age. Ultimately her acceptance comes with discovering her would be daughter in law is pregnant. And thanks to Blanches unabashed sexuality nearly every episode has enough naughty jokes to fill an entire BuzzFeed list not bad when you consider that in the 1980s post menopausal life usually came with raised necklines and lowered hemlines.
Its no wonder that after Whites passing on December 31 2021 fans all agreed that 99 years with her were not nearly enough and grief viewing sent the show back to the top of the Nielsen charts. Who would want to say goodbye to these pals and confidants? Ultimately what keeps us heading to conventions, dining at pop ups and taking photo ops in 1980s beige hued kitchens that symbolize not only an era but a piece of television history is kindness. The Golden Girls showed us a different way of thinking about our future thats full of inclusion and self made possibility and did it with an undeniable sense of humanity. Almost 40 years ago they threw a party and even today fans are still getting the biggest gift.
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