The Golden Girls - Cast/Crew Documentary (2/9)

but he's already played the vamp on Mary legendary TV sitcom director Jay sandrich worked with Betty White on the Mary Tyler Moore Show I had not really seen a lot of mod so I didn't know Ru as a performer and um she came in and read and I thought she is really good but she's not right for this part you just don't believe her she's not there's not an innocent bone in her body so I said to her would you mind reading the other part oh I said okay I'll do that so I did of course i' already studied it Ru came back in and she was wonderful she was just wonderful I'm not saying she was as good as Betty or Betty was better but this really I knew she could do the part and and I knew deep down Betty could do rose Betty and I are called in and unbeknownst to her now they want her to read Rose she didn't she wasn't told this so when and they said now we'd like to hear you read together and you read blanch and you read Rose and she oh Rose oh she said how could you do this to me what I've never read this I don't know what to do and I said you'll do it fine well I I knew who blanch was but I had no idea who Rose was but Susan Harris said Rose is so naive she's totally naive she never gets the the double meaning of anything no sarcasm and he's still interested in what so she just off the top of her head began to create Rose and I thought she was so perfect I've known plenty of women who have had Strokes some of them are in very bad shape but there're still L she was innocent she was good she didn't have a mean bone in her body and the mistake she made were mistakes that she didn't ever do deliberately I really enjoyed her cuz I had come off playing rotten suanne niens on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and then Rue took blanch out in the orbit where I would never have dared to go at our age long engagements don't make sense the way I wanted her to be was a a lovable and soft character not hard and harsh the way she could have been uh she was very self-centered and very selfish but it was only because she was so insecure the last minute switch worked Producers cast Rue as blanch and Betty as Rose but there was no question in Tony Thomas's mind who should play Sophia Dorothy's smartmouth mom the producer was hooked the day he met Estelle Getty the 61-year-old actress was just coming off a successful run in the Broadway comedy toward song Trilogy and I was doing the casting session that day and she read and was brilliant and then the next day we did call backs and I couldn't be there cuz I had to be in post production and Paul and Susan were in the casting session and I kept leaving notes and messages if she doesn't do it right have her do it again I promise you she's the one how long is this story I'm 80 I have to plan so I came running up there after the session and I said so what' you think that she was terrible and I went crazy no then you should have had he said no God she was brilliant and she was just perfect for the part I always said she'd missed her calling she should have been a stand-up comic because she could tell very funny stories about her real life cuz I'm the only one who comes from a first generation American family I'm first generation American so they like to hear all the stories about my family just reduced me to tears um so but but that's not at all the way she played Sophia she played Sophia in a completely different way it's me blanch you look like a prostitute she just had this kind of you know this kind of attitude about her that I thought was very funny three down one to go The crucial role of Dorothy remained open for producers there was only one woman who could play the divorce a who didn't mind sharing her opinions on just about everything my agent uh said uh what's this about you're doing a new sitcom and I said I don't know what you're talking about turned out the script called for a bar Arthur type in the 1970s bar Arthur hit it big playing the ultimate liberal feminist mod Finley on the sitcom mod the actress is booming voice and commanding presence made her ideal for the part of Dorothy but bee wasn't eager to return to the Daily Grind of a prime time series well I had reservations about ever doing another sitcom I mean I was very very selective I know Elaine strich read for the role of Dorothy because she talks about it in her one woman show she tells a very funny story why she didn't get the role um she kind of rewrote a line in the script and that's not really a good idea with um with an audition The Producers asked R mclanahan to help out Rue coard with be on Ma I called me that very moment and um she said R I'm not interested in playing mod and uh Vivian meet suan nien I said that's not it I'm not I'm doing the suan nien part I'm doing the vamp and Betty's doing the Airhead she's doing the Vivian part from Ma so it she' be quite different oh she said that's very interesting so the next thing we knew she'd accepted it Rue and be had worked together before there was a little hesitation on the Network's part about putting the two of them in the show and I remember saying well if we are doing a good show 15 minutes nobody will remember that they work together in M glance your friend Harry wants an answer tonight what are you going to tell him I haven't decided I guess I'll know when I hear it come out of my mouth you'll know when you hear it come out of your mouth this isn't a belch blanch this is marriage it was so funny it was so bright it was so literate it was so adult that it never even dawned on me that these were elderly women I just thought God what a hell of a piece of writing and I will get off my ass again and go back to work with the key players in place producers thought the Golden Girls were ready for a long run but they weren't sure if the creative force behind the show would go along for the ride in the spring of 1985 The Golden Girls pilot went into production the four veteran actresses who starred in the show were a potent combination before taping even began the Chemistry Between the ladies was obvious we sat down and we started to read I can still get the feeling where your hair almost stands up it was you hit something over the net and you better be ready cuz it was coming right back over the net at you what a day one sad person after another Rose you work at grief counseling what do you expect comedians the first reading was breathtaking I think is the only word I can use but then working it you know we we we grew as we worked every day brought uh something new and something wonderful you know and I had been spoiled rotten from ma where the same thing pretty much existed on April 17th 1985 5 the cast gathered at the sunset go Studios to tape the pilot it was like watching an All-Star game again we had one of the great pilot scripts ever written we had one of the great ensembles ever put together for a series Marry Harry marry Harry a little rhyme knock it off are you we shot two shows you know the dress show and the air show for the pilot and the dress show was Practically Perfect blanch was engaged to be married that afternoon in the house and Betty or Rose knew knew that this guy was a charlatan my hunches are never wrong Mrs Gandhi would be alive today if she had taken my call and uh Dorothy would not let Rose tell blanch what was really going on she's crying already what's the difference Rose pick that up don't I'll be too long stop it turned out that he'd been married he was married to like six other women and she finds out at the end of the show that and she she's crushed and heartbroken but she's got her friends you're my family and you make me happy to be alive that's what the show is going to be about it's going to be about them sticking together in this friendship they hit a home run these actresses were so prepared they so knew that the audience would be with would be with them they had the audience seating out of their hand and the audience screamed and they went crazy crazy we just knew we knew that we were in I mean we didn't even have to worry about ratings or everything we knew that that this was a smash the show was a big hit with the cast and the audience but the producers in NBC brass wanted to do a little fine tuning it was one of those Pilots where you just know it's so good our only problem was length there was a gay housekeeper in the kitchen who was part of the the cast Charles Levan played Coco the gay housekeeper Levan was fresh off a three-year stint on the sitcom Alice but they realized some of our strongest scenes were around the kitchen table with just the four of us interacting and uce somebody else out there would have changed that whole picture so bless his heart he was written out after after the first episode some of the scenes for the pilot had to be shot again minus Charles Len at that time I'm love

Channel: SettingFireToTheRain

Views: 1,210,783

Keywords: golden girls, interview, documentary, bea arthur, betty white, rue mcclanahan, estelle getty

Id: 3QWtrRd9HvQ

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 31 2011