Read This: How The Golden Girls nurtured its considerable gay following

When The Golden Girls premiered on NBC in September 1985, it was hardly a sure thing. The show’s producers, Susan Harris, Tony Thomas, and Paul Junger Witt, had a track record of sitcom success, and at least three of the lead actresses were well known to the public by then, but the show’s focus on 60-plus women made it an anomaly in the television landscape. Even the actresses themselves were unsure of the show’s chances, especially when they saw how young the writers were. But the series was an immediate, warmly received hit, and stayed that way for seven seasons. Over at Frontiers Media, writer Drew Mackie has assembled a nice tribute to the show called “Thank You For Being A Friend: An Oral History Of The Golden Girls.” The interviewees here are writers and producers who worked on the show and remember it fondly. While they talk about the show’s stars, including a nice little anecdote about Bea Arthur laughing at the dirty parts of The Opposite Of Sex with her pal Angela Lansbury, the real focus of the article is how and why The Golden Girls became such a hit in the gay community.