Ask a casual Golden Girls fan who their favorite is, and there’s a safe bet that they’ll probably answer ‘Sophia.’

Hell, even a storied Golden Girls fan might answer ‘Sophia.’ And why not? Sophia is a fabulous character — she’s funny, quirky, charming, loveable, mischievous, and is one of the best physical comedians on the show.

And, as everyone knows, she tells great stories.

Picture it:

Scholar Kate Browne discusses exactly this storytelling characteristic of Sophia Petrillo in her TV Milestones Series book, The Golden Girls. She describes Sophia being an archetypal “trickster,” who manipulates the trajectory of a narrative…

Put down your bootstraps and brace yourself, we have some bad news.

As Gen-X hypothesized, Millennials proved, and Gen-Z embraced, the American Dream is a myth.

It’s not real, never has been. This is probably not a shock to you, reader, but imagine trying to convince everyone’s favorite Minnesota farm girl, Rose Nylund, of this truth.

She’d never believe you. Her heart beats true for the red, white, and blue, regardless of the fact that it is unrequited love.

Rose’s steadfast belief in the American Dream is unshakeable, as it was for many of her contemporaries. The Silent Generation, as…

Ah, yes, child-rearing.

Since the beginning of time (no, really) society has painted the picture of women as inherent nurtures. We are expected to not only seamlessly adjust to life as a mother, but to revel in it. To smile and smile as the baby cries and cries.

That doesn’t really happen for Blanche Devereaux, and that alone makes her character worthy of discussion.

In mid-20th Century wealthy Atlanta circles, the idea that a woman who grew up in a place called “Twin Oaks” would choose to be childless was preposterous. …

It’s no secret that The Golden Girls is a fan favorite of the queer community.

The show centers around ‘chosen family’, rather than blood relations, as a means of connection. It featured an episode in favor of gay marriage decades before it was ever signed into law. Drag shows in cities across the country feature four men dressed as Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, and Sophia — well, at least they did when we could gather in groups — recreating classic episodes.

In short, the gays dig it.

There’s a whole slew of reasons why the LGBTQ+ community is into this show…

2020 was something else. We laughed, we cried (mostly cried), and we watched hours upon hours of reruns of The Golden Girls. (As did everyone else: In April alone, Hulu viewers watched nearly 11 million hours of Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, and Sophia.)

One thing we observed — while watching this show for the umpteenth time — was how many dark plot points came up. Like, REALLY dark. Sure, maybe you’d expect some health scares or dating woes in a show about four single women over 50. But deep-seated abandonment issues? Sexual assault? HIV/AIDS? …

In October, The Atlantic published an article by Rhaina Cohen called “What If Friendship, Not Marriage, Was at the Center of Life?” It highlighted individuals who place a friendship, rather than a sexual partnership, as the most important relationship in their lives — and it had The Golden Girls written all over it.

The premise of The Golden Girls (which ran on NBC from 1985–1992) is that four older women find themselves living together as roommates during a ‘second act’ of life. Three of the women, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia, are widowed and one, Dorothy, is divorced. …