Thank You Too Blanche

This evening I saw in the news that Rue McClanahan died at 76.    Rue McClanahan of course is best known for the role of Blanche on the comedy series The Golden Girls.   I remember watching the Golden Girls when I was a young kid who didn’t really know what the show was all about, as I got older  I would catch the show in re-runs and see just how these women really talked and how they acted with one another and also about men and life in general.    There was the smart-ass mother Sophia, her daughter Dorothy, the sexy and slightly slutty Blanche, and also the loveable yet clueless Rose.

The Golden Girls were all about being there for one another.   I recently caught the first few episodes of the first season on television, Golden Girls like MASH is still in heavy rotation.   So more than likely you can catch the Golden Girls on the air and watch them, laugh with them, even cry with them sometimes.   It was a comedy at the end of the day but don’t think for a moment that they didn’t deal with real issues of getting older and also having adult children because they did.    The thing about the Golden Girls is that it is a timeless show like MASH, you can watch it no matter what decade it is and you will still find it relevant and even funny.

Of the four Golden Girls,  Blanche was always the one who looked younger, acted younger, and still had needs!  She was great fun to watch because of that.   Blanche was the ultimate show of just because you’re older it doesn’t mean that you get older in spirit.  Blanche often had a new man or two even if they weren’t seen on screen.    In the end though Blanche was a true friend for the other Golden Girls just as they were there for her.   When the show ended I was sad to see it go adn though I liked Golden Palace it was no Golden Girls mainly because without Dorothy it felt hollow.

Of course Rue also played another character that I loved as well called Momma’s Family which she played Aunt Fran though it was only for a season of the show.  She also played a character that I loved in Charles In Charge: Irene Pembroke.    Rue was always ready to make you laugh it seemed to me while I was growing up as a kid, teenager, and even an adult.     I remember her in Wonderfalls, though she only played in one episode and the show only lasted a few episodes beyond that.   Like Bea Arthur (Dorothy), and Estelle Getty (Sophia) before her Rue McClanahan will be missed but she’ll always be able to make us laugh when we turn on our televisions because the Golden Girls will always be there.

As I am sure many did before last year when Bea Arthur died I leave you with something from The Golden Girls, a blooper set:

A Funny scene:

And the opening credits: