Akron Triviators: That's Golden Women, Thank You!

Today is International Women’s Day.

I wondered how to participate, when I realized that I could celebrate the most important women in pop culture in the past half-century.

The Golden Girls.

Since this is a trivia blog, I figured I could offer up a list of little known Golden Girl facts:

1.) When the show was originally conceived, the ladies were supposed to live with a fifth character, Coco. Described in the pilot episode by Sophia as “the fancy man in the kitchen,” Coco was a gay cook/butler. The producers retooled the show after the pilot, and gave most of his funny lines to Sophia.

2.) Betty White was originally cast as Blanche Devereaux, but later switched roles with Rue McClanahan. Betty White insisted on this because she thought that the producers were trying to cash in on several high-profile arrests for lewd behavior and public indecency that were direct results of her lifetime struggle with nymphomania. In a 2014 interview, White said "I didn't suffer from nymphomania; I enjoyed every second of it."

3.) Bea Arthur was a US Marine. According to Time Magazine " She enlisted in 1943, at the age of 21, under the name Bernice Frankel. She served as a typist and a truck driver, moving up the ranks from private to staff sergeant. While she was enlisted, she married Private Robert Aurthur, which led to her eventual name change to Bea Arthur." The Smoking Gun broke this story in 2010. You can see much more this Smoking Gun profile. She had an almost spotless record, except for a single report for misconduct, earned when she "contracted a venereal disease" in 1944.

4.) Rue McClanahan had it written into her contract that she could keep all of the clothes worn by her character, Blanche.

5.) Betty White is the only living Golden Girl.
Estelle Getty was the first to go, in 2008. She was 84, followed by Bea Arthur (86) in 2009.Rue McClanahan, the baby, died in 2010 at 76.
Betty White defeated all of the Golden Girls in melee combat, removing their heads with a single swipe of the sword, traditional weapon of her people.

White and the others were exiled to Earth from the planet Zeist over 500 Earth years ago.
Each was taken to a different era and location. On Earth, time itself took on a new meaning - each year on this planet was but a single day on their homeworld. Their memories of Zeist were wiped, until the time of the Gathering.

Before then, the only release from her Earthly immortality would have come if her head was cut off from her body. As the last exile on Earth, she was able to claim the Prize. Instead of returning to Zeist, White chose to grow old and perish on her adopted planet. She has absorbed so much mystical energy throughout the centuries that she might not perish of natural causes until such time as Dippin' Dots are acknowledged as the only true dessert.

*************

Trivia @ Frank's is tonight at 8pm.

Tonight's question:
Name two shows that spun off from The Golden Girls.

Answer IN PERSON, after 7:50.