Why is "The Golden Girls" such a big gay thing?

Watch the best episode, Empty Nests, and get back to us.

🙄

It’s sooooooo good!

No, OP, it’s not.

It’s big among a certain generation of gay men.

It’s drag queen humor.

Hyperbole much OP?

Bottoms identify. Most of the gay community are bottoms.

R7 that’s why you love it.

Designing Women was better.

It is a big gay thing, but GG is pretty universal comfort TV.

No fuck’n clue

You could replace The Golden Girls with gay men and the show would still work.

It represents the eldergay ideal for one’s golden years—a group of old bags riding a different dick each week while splitting the rent.

R13 You forgot to throw in the weekly fancy dinner/ social function where sequins or lamé fabric gowns are de rigueur.

Just a few years before my time. But I have fuzzy memories of it, but never got into it at all. I think Frasier is such a better gay/not gay show.

But yeah, I know three 20 something gays who just love it. All three very different in terms of backgrounds.

It is weird.

It’s my go to show, it holds up really well, is laugh out loud funny, & Bea Arthur is a comedic genius!

CONDOMS, Rose. CONDOMS! CONDOMS! CONDOMS!

Great humor, great acting, and the characters make me feel like I’m part of the family. They truly feel like someone I know.

The cutting humor, the well-defined characters, and quite a few men of the GG generation (when it was airing) say that it was comfort television; kept them company on the night it aired.

It is a fairly generational thing, though some younger people got into it in reruns/DVDs.

It's a touchstone among many heteros of that generation as well, if not as broadly.

[quote]It's probably THE biggest touchstone in gay popular culture.

I'll say it was, since it was actually made by Touchstone Television, the division of Disney started so they could make "adult" (read: smutty) movies.

I also like it because the characters are relatable. My grandma is Rose, my mom is Blanche, I’m Dorothy. But all my friends say I’m Blanche. I don’t know any Sophias though…

They were one of the few shows to have gay characters in the age of AIDS.

Great comedy actresses, Great comedy writing, Great set decoration by the late Ed Stephenson, and Great clothes by the late designer Judy Evans Steele. The Girls always ate cheesecake when they were feeling down in the dumps. If you haven't watched this classic series please take time to do so.

If I won the lottery, I'd build a replica of the GG house on Vancouver Island.

The producers of this show also made [italic]Soap[/italic], the first successful sitcom with an openly gay regular character. If you like [italic]The Golden Girls[/italic], then you should definitely check it out.

Don't forget their gorgeous lounging wear (robes, caftans. etc.) Plus the main actresses were seasoned pros with all but Betty White having Broadway credentials (correction on this point is welcome). The plots were amusing and timely when they aired. It is not terribly dated after all these years.

They were the few successful comedies on the air where the adults didn't play second-fiddle to a bunch of kids.

At the time, I mean.

It’s a shame they shut down Yahoo Answers, or OP could have asked there.

Thats a very astute observation, r27.

Good comments all around. Thanks!

Because gay men are women and lesbians are men, OP. The Bob Hope episode where they transitioned into men proved it. Then they transitioned back into non-men in the next scene. Bad, bad writing. Awful transphobia.

Even worse than that horrific TERF manifesto [italic]Soap[/italic]. Jodie Dallas chickening out of becoming the woman she is, always was, and always will be was pure TERFery. Susan Harris is a TERF.

Garbage shit show.

You said it, R32, and that's why they had to pull an episode because it was racist and transphobic.

4 beautiful, successful, funny women living in a fancy ranch style home in an exclusive Miami neighborhood. What is not to love?

Was Bea the alpha because of her size or her no-nonsense demeanor?

Yes she was the dom.

And how the heck could a 3 foot 8 Sophia generate a 6 foot 8 Dorothy??

I love it. 35 and lesbian.

I never got into it but then again I HATE all shows that have a laughing track.

R23 is right, except for the gorgeous clothes. They were always swathed in ridiculous layers. Bea especially had some truly heinous outfits.

The Queen Mother loved it and I am therefore compelled to love it as well.

I grew up watching the GG on Lifetime late at night in the late 90s, idk what drew me in, I knew I was different, but I just related to the show somehow. It's one of my favorites for sure. I love all the girls!

I got into the show when I was 21 and 22 back in 2009 and 2010 right before and after Michael Jackson died. I saw every episode at least 5 times over the course of the two years.

It aired on WE TV and the hallmark channel and lifetime. Those are the channels I watched on. I'd never really cared about the GG before then, but for some reason that show bought me a lot if comfort during that time.

I also always made sure I had my snakes ready to when the show came on. Ice cream and cheese cake ice cream etc.

My poor first husband watched it with me from the very 1st episode until the final one,and he never could relate to it at all. Yet every time it was on,he'd snuggle with me on the couch and watch as I giggled and laughed. We never missed an episode. For me,thats part of the massive love I have for this show.It reminds me of him. Plus I knew of Bea Arthur from Maude and I loved Maude so thats why I started watching GG . The humor was intelligent,witty and relatable . Who isnt afraid of growing old alone? It gave us all hope we could find some dear friends and be together in old age too.

There should be a GG ice cream or cereal. It would probably be some combination of, cookies and cream three way ice cream and cheese cake etc.

That sounds good already. GG fans would eat it up, literally. The revenue would be insane.

Golden Girls ice cream and cereal.

The Golden Girls somehow has a wide demographic fan base. Lots of gays and straights of all ages seem to love it. There's a reason why it's shown multiples times daily on multiple networks and is in demand on streaming as well. Lots of people still watch it.

A news article from a few years ago about how the show keeps finding new audiences, through different generations.

My favorite sitcom of all time.

Correct, R46. The whole "the only ones who actually like this show are sad eldergays who can remember when Nixon resigned" is a Datalounge invention from its wannabe 'cooler than you' contingent.

R45, there should be a strawberry cheesecake flavored GG ice cream if it ever gets made.

Slightly off-topic, but how did "Married ... with Children" garner a following in the gay community (or on Datalounge, at least)?

It's because Al Bundy regularly made fun of fat female customers at his job.

MWC actually has a lesbian amongst its cast members.

R37, did you miss the ep where they find that Dorothy was possibly (probably) switched at birth???

How can we make this real?

Gay men love old ladies

Lifetime already did it before the cast started dying, R53. To call it a reunion would be a technical misnomer because they are never in the same room.

R21 That's so sad.

It’s like my friend it’s so apart of me

I used to watch the show all the time with my mother, may she rest in peace.

Every gay boy has a strong relationship with their mother, so it makes sense that these four broads sort of act as surrogate aunties. It does give me a great amount of comfort to watch it, and remember how my mother would laugh so hard at Sophia.