How Old Were the Golden Girls Supposed to Be?

[demmiblue]

How Old Was Rose Nylund On Golden Girls?

Rose's age is the easiest to track down, thanks to Dorothy openly saying it in Season 1, Episode 22, "Job Hunting." During a conversation where Rose discusses her difficulty finding a new job after losing her previous one at the grief counseling center, Dorothy reveals that Rose is 55. Going off the idea that Season 1 takes place within the same year, Rose would have been 55 at the start of The Golden Girls as well.

How Old Was Blanche Devereaux On Golden Girls?

Saving the most difficult to track down for last, Blanche Devereaux's age had been a mystery, and recurring joke, throughout most of The Golden Girls. Rose went so far as to search through official records to find out, only to learn it was "deleted by authority of the governor." In Season 2, Episode 1, "End of the Curse," Blanche believes she is pregnant, and states she'll be 65 by the time the child graduates high school. Assuming her child would graduate at 17, that would make Blanche 48 in 1986 and 47 at the start of the series.

However, Season 3, Episode 25, "Mother's Day," confirms Blanche was 17 in 1949, when she and her mother reminisce about one of Blanche's dates. Going by the math, that makes Blanche 53 at the start of the series. Considering how easily Blanche lied to her housemates about her age (and that Sophia immediately called her out and said she'd be 70 when the kid graduates), it's safe to assume that 53 is her actual age going into The Golden Girls.

https://www.cbr.com/how-old-golden-girls-ages/

[Fla Dem]

1. Here you go, discussed this week on Hoda and Jenna on NBC.

Believe It or Not, ‘SATC' Reboot Characters Are the Same Age as the ‘Golden Girls'

By Drew Weisholtz | TODAY • Published January 18, 2022


Women in their 50s may not look exactly like they did on the popular sitcom

It may sound outlandish, but fans have noticed a similarity between HBO Max's reboot of “Sex and the City” and the classic NBC sitcom, which has experienced a boost in interest following last month's death of star Betty White.

“People have been pointing out this fact: Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte are approximately the same age as ‘The Golden Girls,’” Hoda Kotb said Monday on "TODAY with Hoda & Jenna." "Season one, Rose is 55, Dorothy is 53, Blanche —" Forty-seven?!” Jenna Bush Hager interjected. “And Sophia is 79,” Kotb continued.

Hager pointed out that Miranda and Charlotte are 54 in "And Just Like That..." and Carrie is 55. Those ages, plus storylines that depict how women in their 50s can have fulfilling sex lives, have changed the narrative about aging.

It's a development that Kotb has clearly noticed.

“Is that so crazy?” she said. “Now when you think of 54 and 55, or people in their 50s, you don’t think about ‘The Golden Girls.’ You don’t think about a bunch of ladies in a community.”

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/believe-it-or-not-satc-reboot-characters-are-the-same-age-as-the-golden-girls/2799393/

[tanyev]

2. I never realized Rose was supposed be 55.

According to IMDB, Betty White was 63 when the show started, so why not put the character’s age closer to that? The network was probably too squeamish about it.

[smirkymonkey]

3. I'm sorry, but the GG look to me like they are all in their early to mid-70's

w/ Sophia being in her early 80's. They do NOT look like anyone I know who is in their mid-late 50's or even early 60's.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. Agreed.

I've only occasionally watched reruns in the past, but I always assumed they were aged 65+ and retired.

If one of them was working, I figured it was a situation like the 70+ year old guys at my workplace who do it because they got bored at home after retirement from their past jobs. EDIT: And those elderly coworkers look younger than the Golden Girls, to be honest.

EDIT2: And my company also has two female employees who've worked there for 50 and 47 years! It blew my mind when their most-tenured employees were honored during the company Christmas party (a few weeks after I started), especially since it's a relatively small and privately-owned place with less than 100 employees total. (They both work in customer service now, after working in every department on the production floor in their youth.) It's a tool-making company, by the way.

[highplainsdem]

5. The show's creator said network execs viewed 40s as older for women,

while she (Susan Harris) had 60s to 70s in mind, so they compromised by saying they were in their 50s.

https://vulture.com/2017/03/the-golden-girls-creators-on-finding-new-fans.html

[TexasBushwhacker]

6. Yeah, they SAID they were in their 50s, but it sounds like Harris

got the last laugh. Rue McClanahan was the only one who was in her 50s. Betty White and Bea Arthur were both born in 1922, so they were both 63ish when the show started. Estelle Getty was actually a year younger.

[csziggy]

7. The actress that played Sophia was younger than Bea Arthur who played her daughter

Bea Arthur and Betty were born in 1922, Rue McClanahan in 1934, and Estelle Getty was born in 1923.