by Jerry Buck
Susan
Harris says "The Golden Girls" began with a suggestion that
she write about a group of older women in Miami.
But
when the "suggestion" comes from Brandon Tartikoff, president
of NBC Entertainment, it's a little hard to dismiss.
"I
hadn't wanted to do any more television," said Harris, who had
created "Soap" and "Benson."
"But
that appealed to me. I like writing about older people. They have
more to say. They've led rich lives. That's really how it started.
After that I came up with the concept and the characters. We got the
stars we wanted."
The
Emmy-winning series just completed its third season. It was fifth
in the Nielsen ratings for the season. Another Harris creation, "Empty
Nest," a spin-off of "The Golden Girls," was in ninth
place.
"The
Golden Girls" are four women living in retirement in the same
house in Miami. Bea Arthur plays Dorothy Zbornak, a no-nonsense former
schoolteacher whose husband left her for a younger woman; Betty White
is Rose Nylund, a naive, widowed grief counselor; Rue McClanahan plays
Blanche Devereaux, an aging Southern coquette; and Estelle Getty is
Dorothy's mother, Sophia Petrillo, whose uncontrollable bluntness
was caused by a stroke.
"Estelle
Getty was the only unknown when we started casting," said Harris.
"She came in, read the part and in two minutes we said, 'That's
it.'"
The
cast of the pilot also included a gay houseboy, but he was reluctantly
dropped when the roles of the four women proved to be much richer
than expected.
"The
contrast between the four women breeds the conflict," said Harris.
"We had to make them quite different or you'd end up with 30
minutes of 'nice.' Dorothy comes from Queen's. She's the most outspoken,
the sharpest, the strongest character. She's a survivor. Rose is not
quite in the world. She's been protected all her life, so there's
a bit of the ingenue about her. She's an innocent, a but like Jessica
in 'Soap.'
"Blanche
is a throwback to the Old South. She's antebellum. She's Scarlett
O'Hara. She thinks she's hot stuff, but she's growing older and is
having a tough time. Sophia is an Italian mother who spent a lot of
time in New York. She's a tough cookie. We gave her a small stroke
that wiped out her brain censor so she could say what everyone else
would like to say but doesn't."
Harris
said she believes there's lots of life left in the "Girls"
and that the award-winning show can go on for many more years.
Harris
confines her writing these days to motion pictures. "My husband
calls me the creator-deserter," she said. "After "Soap,"
she married Paul Witt of Witt-Thomas Productions, makers of "The
Golden Girls" and "Empty Nest."
She
no longer writes episodic TV because for four years she wrote every
script for "Soap."
"I
will never, ever do that again," she said. "I had to give
up my life to do that. It was a nightmare. I never stopped working.
I couldn't get sick. I worked day and night. I'll never do that again.
My son was 9 or 10 at the time, and I didn't get to see much of him.
"It's
a tradeoff. Before 'Soap' I lived in a tiny house in the Valley. I
discussed it with my son. I said this was a way to buy a house. So
when he was 14, he had a nice house with a swimming pool. I don't
regret it. It gave me a chance to be more creative than I'd ever been."
Harris
says she now works slowly. She also takes plenty of time out to spend
with her family, which now includes a new baby.
Before
she began writing, she was a housewife who held a number of different
jobs.
"I
began writing the way a lot of people do," she said. "I
was watching TV one night, and it was such garbage, I said I could
write better than that. I got a copy of a teleplay and used it as
a guide. I sold the first thing I wrote, a script for 'Then Came Bronson.'"
After
that, she wrote for "All in the Family," "Maude"
and other comedies, then created "Fay."
Harris
is still angry about the fate of "Soap." She said it was
the victim of misinformation and was canceled after four years on
the air because of pressure from conservative groups who thought it
too risque.
"It
could have gone on for many years," she said. "Some stations
wouldn't even run it in prime time. I think the show was done in good
taste. It's all so innocuous today."
*article
from The San Diego Union TV Week, May 28, 1989
