That's fine. For you. I never found GOLDEN GIRLS funny (although every openly homosexual male I've ever known found it screamingly hilarious and still does). As I said, it was, like most Susan Harris sitcoms, especially from the '80s, way too contrived and stiff.
Fascinating. Yet not produced by her. (Not that I love all Lear series, either).
Yes, and the character of Dorothy from The Golden Girls was described as a "Bea Arthur type", although Arthur wasn't interested initially. Elaine Stritch auditioned, but was bypassed when, apparently, she changed a line during her audition. NBC frowned on that, and Rue McClanahan was recruited to sell Arthur on the idea of headlining the quartet of ladies from Miami.
I might have preferred her to Estelle Getty, the one weak link in the cast.
From my view, I think the producers and writers almost always viewed Sophia as a secondary character. More episodes sidelined her than highlight her, and those that feature her at the helm aren't always the best. She was a balance, someone for the other three to cling to for advice, look up to, and, in some ways, be held accountable to, but her nervousness, I think, limited her in ways. She was great at her job, but the writers, but not always the audience, were more eager to turn out stories about Dorothy's chronic fatigue syndrome, Rose's HIV scare, or Blanche dealing with a homosexual brother.
