The Golden Girls (Sophia Graphic in 80's Rock Tee Style)

The Golden Girls 

Premiering in 1985, The Golden Girls brought Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty together as Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia—four very different women sharing a house, their lives, and an impressive amount of late-night dessert in Miami.

The setup was simple, but the show was much smarter than it needed to be. Beneath the one-liners and dating disasters, The Golden Girls tackled aging, sex, divorce, grief, homelessness, interracial relationships, addiction, HIV/AIDS, and gay and lesbian issues at a time when plenty of television shows wouldn't go near them.

And every woman brought something essential. Dorothy had the sarcasm. Rose had St. Olaf. Blanche had approximately half the men in South Florida. And Sophia had absolutely no internal mechanism telling her when she should stop talking.

The show also became deeply embedded in gay culture. Part of that is the camp, the clothes, and four women delivering insults like competitive sport. But there was something more important underneath it: The Golden Girls was really about chosen family—people finding one another later in life and deciding that this was their family now. That idea understandably resonated.

Nearly four decades later, people still know the episodes, quote the lines, choose their favorite Golden Girl, and argue about whether Blanche's stories could possibly all fit into one lifetime.