Golden Girls episodes-the best of

Almost all the episodes of 'The Golden Girls' were hits. The viewers immediately lapped up what was dished out to them. Actually it was the topic of every episode that connected with viewers. Each topic was different and during those days such topics were not often aired on TV. It was through the Golden Girls series that such topics came out more openly. The Golden Girls episodes were conceived on topics like gay marriage, menopause, impotence, drug addiction, infidelity, interracial marriage, racism, transsexualism, homophobia, age discrimination, suicide, cross-dressing, lesbianism, plastic surgery, euthanasia, homicide, artificial insemination, sexual harassment, senility etc.

Now in those days most TV shows steered clear from such topics fearing a backlash. However Golden Girls attempted to present them by blending them to perfection with humour. Though there were controversies, these died down eventually as the topics were overshadowed by the fine performances by the lead actors. Even then there were provocative elements in one or two episodes. In one such episode Rose discovers that she has got AIDS. This was because she had received untested blood transfusion some years back.

The episodes for the first four seasons were written by Kathy Speer and Terry Grossman. Actually they didn't write all the episodes by themselves. They gave their ideas to junior writers who did the job. However they did write a few episodes every season. Thereafter new writers came in. Marc Sotkin took over in 1989 and wrote till the final three seasons. In between two more writers namely Richard Vaczy and Tracy Gamble took over for a brief period till 1990. Marc Cherry and Jamie Wooten finally took charge from them though Vaczy and Gamble kept their association till the curtains came down. Another writer named Mitchell Hurwitz was also associated with the writing department for a long time.

The Golden Girls show was aired by NBC at the 9 pm prime time slot but owing other slot filling difficulties changed that to the 8 pm slot from September 1991. It was then that the decline of the show's popularity began. It fell from the 10th place to 30th.