The Golden Palace Explained

Genre:Sitcom
Creator:Susan Harris
Theme Music Composer:Andrew Gold
Opentheme:"Thank You for Being a Friend",
performed by Chuck Negron
Country:United States
Language:English
Num Seasons:1
Num Episodes:24
Camera:Multi-camera
Runtime:22–24 minutes
Network:CBS
Related:The Golden Girls

The Golden Palace is an American sitcom television series produced as a sequel to The Golden Girls, a continuation without Bea Arthur (though she did guest star in a double episode) that aired on CBS from September 18, 1992, to May 7, 1993. It starred Betty White, Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty, Cheech Marin, and Don Cheadle. Billy L. Sullivan also co-starred for the first half of its run. Not as popular as its predecessor, the series aired for a single 24-episode season and was canceled by CBS.

Synopsis

The Golden Palace begins where The Golden Girls had ended, in the quartet's now-sold Miami house. With Dorothy Zbornak having married and left in the previous series finale, the three remaining housemates (Sophia Petrillo, Rose Nylund, and Blanche Devereaux) invest in The Golden Palace, a Miami hotel that is for sale. The hotel, however, is revealed to have been stripped of all of its personnel in an effort to appear more profitable, leaving only two employees: Roland Wilson, the hotel's manager; and Chuy Castillos, the hotel's chef. This requires the women to help perform the hotel duties.

The series focuses on the interactions between hotel staff and guests. Celebrity guest stars were frequent,[1] and the series also featured the return of some recurring actors from The Golden Girls, such as Debra Engle as Rebecca Devereaux, Herb Edelman as Stan Zbornak and Harold Gould as Miles Webber. Bea Arthur reprised her role as Dorothy Zbornak for a two-part storyline in which she visits the hotel to check on her mother.[2] [3]

Cast

Production

Bea Arthur had grown tired of starring in The Golden Girls,[5] [6] and chose not to return for an eighth season.[7] As a result, the show was retitled and revamped as a new series, The Golden Palace, with Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty reprising their roles.

Like the original series, The Golden Palace was also created by Susan Harris,[8] who once again served as executive producer alongside Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas. The trio had mixed feelings about the new series, but felt obligated to continue onward for the sake of the cast and crew. Thomas said, "We had been employing a lot of people, so to just pull the plug would have meant ending something that provided a very satisfying life for a lot of people".[9] White said that she and her Golden Girls co-stars were initially skeptical of the new series but, "To our great surprise, we are having a ball. It's coming together much better than we had thought". McClanahan had suggested keeping the original series and adding a fourth roommate to replace Arthur's character, but this idea was rejected by the producers.[10] [11] [12]

British comedian Alexei Sayle was originally hired to play the hotel's chef, who initially was to be portrayed as Eastern European.[13] Sayle was replaced by Cheech Marin before the pilot was shot.[14] [15] [16] The idea of having a Latino chef as a comic foil to the rest of the cast had originally been proposed at the beginning of The Golden Girls; the original chef, Coco (portrayed by Charles Levin), appeared in the first episode of The Golden Girls but was written out due to concerns about how to work him into later scripts with a cast of four women with strong personalities.[17] [18] With Arthur gone and the core group down to three, the concept was revived. Marin had wanted to branch out into television and away from being typecast as a Los Angeles stoner, and had previously worked on a film project with Witt. Marin was promised a spin-off series for his character in the event that The Golden Palace were successful.[19] The Golden Palace marked Marin's and Don Cheadle's first starring roles in a television series.[19] [20] According to Cheadle, the director of photography had trouble with him and White in shared scenes due to their heavily contrasted complexions; White's hair and makeup had to be altered to reduce the contrast, ensuring Cheadle was properly lit.[21]

The Carlyle hotel on Miami Beach's Ocean Drive was used for exterior shots depicting the Golden Palace hotel,[22] while the rest of the series was taped at Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood, California.[23] On The Golden Girls, Getty often had to reshoot her scenes as she had trouble remembering her lines.[24] McClanahan noted that this was not the case on The Golden Palace, speculating that Getty may have been subconsciously intimidated by Arthur.[25]

Cancellation and aftermath

Ratings were initially solid, with the show winning its timeslot for its first few weeks,[26] [27] [28] but viewership fell steadily as the season progressed.[29] [30] [31] [32] A second season was to be greenlit according to McClanahan, but network executives decided to cancel the show a couple of hours before the upfronts. CBS opted not to renew the series,[11] canceling it in May 1993.[33] [34] Harris attributed the series' failure to Arthur's absence, saying it did not work without her.[35]

Spent its sole season in the rankings rated 57th. Ended up canceled alongside Major Dad and Designing Women.

Following the cancellation, White joined the short-lived second season of Bob, which had aired in the same block as The Golden Palace for its first season.[6] Getty went on to portray Sophia in the later seasons of another Golden Girls spin-off, Empty Nest.[36] [37] The character returned to the rebuilt Shady Pines retirement home, which had burned down in the previous series. What became of the characters of Rose, Blanche, Roland, Chuy, and the hotel is left unresolved.

Notable episodes

In 2020, amid the Black Lives Matter movement and following the murder of George Floyd, the episode "Camp Town Races Aren't Nearly as Much Fun as They Used to Be" attracted attention for how it had addressed the issues of racism and the Confederate flag. Journalist Seb Starcevic first drew attention to the episode in a Twitter thread that became popular before the wider media began to pick up the story.[38] [39] [40] [41] [42]

Broadcast history

The Golden Palace aired on CBS, changing networks from NBC, which had aired The Golden Girls on Saturday nights for its entire run.[43] [44] NBC was willing to greenlight a 13-episode order for The Golden Palace, but the series producers were not satisfied with this number and moved the series to CBS, which promised a full season.[45] [46] NBC had been seeking a younger demographic, and The Golden Girls did not fit into its plans.[47] [48] White believed that a new network would be beneficial for the series.[23]

CBS used The Golden Palace as one of four comedies assembled on Friday night in an effort to combat ABC's TGIF comedy block; The Golden Palace was grouped with Major Dad, Designing Women, and Bob, all of which were either successful comedies prior to the move, or in the case of Bob, featured a previously successful sitcom star (Bob Newhart).[49] [50] [51]

Syndication of the series is handled by Disney–ABC Domestic Television. Although the series has never been syndicated as a stand-alone series, Lifetime, during the time it owned the rights to The Golden Girls, carried The Golden Palace on several occasions in the mid-2000s, running the series in rotation as a de facto eighth season of The Golden Girls.[52] The show's existence is generally not well known.[53] [54] [55] According to McClanahan, most Golden Girls fans were unaware of the series until reruns began airing on Lifetime.[10] [11]

In recognition of what would have been White's 100th birthday, The Golden Palace became available on the Hulu streaming platform January 10, 2022.[56]

Reception

Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Rick Du Brow stated that Harris "deserves plenty of credit for infusing the premiere of the tired old series with new verve, drive and wit in its resuscitated form".[8] The Orlando Sentinel wrote that the premise "seemed like one of the worst ideas of the year," but found that the premiere episode "crackles with the same energy that marked the early years of The Golden Girls," writing further, "The change of scenery, plus fresh chemistry created by the addition of new characters, relieves the numbing sense of deja vu that settled over the characters" in the final seasons of the previous series.[57]

However, John J. O'Connor of The New York Times wrote, "It's all a bit too familiar, and the format is forced into some unseemly stretching".[58] Tom Shales of The Washington Post gave a mixed review of the pilot episode but praised White's performance, writing "she seems faster and fresher than ever. Arthur's absence is felt (and duly noted in a sly joke or two), but without Betty White, this is one show that clearly could not go on."[59]

Several critics praised the series after it debuted on Hulu. Robert Lloyd, writing for the Los Angeles Times, applauded the cast "even if they are playing in a sequel to a show people remember better and love more".[60] Eliot Glazer of Vulture.com considered the cast to have "undeniable" chemistry despite the absence of Arthur.[61] Megan McCaffrey of Collider wrote that the series "takes the groundwork laid by the original and runs with it into a successful spinoff".[62] Conversely, TVLine ranked it as the 20th worst television spinoff ever.[63]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ellard . Sean . The Golden Girls' Best-Forgotten Sequel Is Coming to Hulu (You've Been Warned) . CBR . December 28, 2021 . December 22, 2021.
  2. Web site: Archerd . Army . Blake: 'I'm back and I'm nice' . Variety . December 28, 2021 . October 2, 1992.
  3. News: Nolasco . Stephanie . Inside story of infamous TV feud . December 28, 2021 . news.com.au . April 27, 2019.
  4. News: Ryon . Ruth . Comic Lists His 'Golden Palace' . Los Angeles Times. November 1, 1992 . December 28, 2021.
  5. News: Du Brow . Rick . 'Golden Girl' Getty Will Miss Her TV 'Daughter' . December 28, 2021 . Los Angeles Times . April 28, 1992.
  6. News: Braxton . Greg . Q&A; With Bob Newhart and Betty White . December 28, 2021 . Los Angeles Times . October 21, 1993.
  7. Baldwin . Kristen . How The Golden Girls creator Susan Harris changed TV comedy forever — and why she doesn't watch it now . Entertainment Weekly . https://web.archive.org/web/20190308100933/https://ew.com/tv/2018/10/15/susan-harris-golden-girls-soap-oral-history/ . March 8, 2019 . October 15, 2018.
  8. News: Du Brow . Rick . Networks Take Few Chances, Stick With the Tried and True . December 28, 2021 . Los Angeles Times . September 29, 1992.
  9. Web site: Wilson Hunt . Stacey . The Golden Girls Creators On Finding a New Generation of Fans and Giving George Clooney One of His Earliest Jobs . Vulture . December 28, 2021 . March 3, 2017.
  10. Book: McClanahan, Rue . My First Five Husbands...And the Ones Who Got Away: A Memoir . 2007 . Crown . 978-0-7679-2779-6 . 298–300 . December 28, 2021.
  11. Web site: Colucci . Jim . Rue McClanahan . Television Academy Interviews . December 28, 2021 . May 4, 2006 . 5:30.
  12. News: 'The Golden Girls' Turns 30: Facts You May Not Know About the Series . December 28, 2021 . ABC . September 14, 2015.
  13. Web site: 3 Golden Girls Moving From Their House On NBC To CBS' 'Palace'. Walter. Tom. 1992-07-25. Chicago Tribune. 2016-10-10.
  14. Web site: Blog 74. 2013-07-29. AlexeiSayle.me. 2016-10-10.
  15. News: The TV Column. Carmody. John. 1992-08-13. The Washington Post. 2016-10-10.
  16. The fall 1992 TV preview: Friday . Entertainment Weekly . December 28, 2021 . September 11, 1992.
  17. Book: Colucci, Jim. The Q Guide to the Golden Girls. 2006. Alyson Books. 8, 43–55.
  18. Book: Bloom . Ken . Vlastnik . Frank . Lithgow . John . Sitcoms: The 101 Greatest TV Comedies of All Time . 2007 . Black Dog Publishing . 978-1-57912-752-7 . 137.
  19. News: King . Susan . Cheech Marin: Taking a Jump Into Mainstream Television . December 28, 2021 . Los Angeles Times . September 19, 1992.
  20. Web site: Bobbin . Jay . Don Cheadle recalls his TV start with Betty White on 'The Golden Palace' . Zap2It . https://web.archive.org/web/20121215034156/http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2012/12/don-cheadle-recalls-his-tv-start-with-betty-white-on-the-golden-palace.html . December 15, 2012 . December 10, 2012.
  21. Web site: After Betty White's Death, Don Cheadle Shares Touching Story About Working with Her on Golden Girls Spinoff . 3 January 2022 .
  22. News: Werner . Jim . The 'Golden Girls' Miami Tour You Secretly Want To Do . May 30, 2019 . HuffPost . April 26, 2017.
  23. News: Herbert . Steven . 'Golden' Shades of White . May 30, 2019 . Los Angeles Times . September 13, 1992.
  24. News: A 'Golden Girl's Tragic Battle with Dementia. October 13, 2013. Entertainment Tonight. November 19, 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/20050208032459/http://et.tv.yahoo.com/tv/2004/11/19/goldengirlsegetty/. February 8, 2005. dead. mdy-all.
  25. Stransky . Tanner . Rue McClanahan dishes on Golden Girls . Entertainment Weekly . December 28, 2021 . April 23, 2007.
  26. News: Margulies . Lee . TV Ratings : CBS Lands Five Shows in Top 10 . December 28, 2021 . Los Angeles Times . September 30, 1992.
  27. Web site: Bierbaum . Tom . CBS way out in front of ratings race . Variety . December 28, 2021 . October 7, 1992.
  28. Meyers . Kate . Programming woes at NBC . Entertainment Weekly . December 28, 2021 . October 23, 1992.
  29. Web site: Lowry . Brian . 'Jacksons' nails ABC Nov. sweeps victory . Variety . December 28, 2021 . November 25, 1992.
  30. Web site: Bierbaum . Tom . Webs hit record low in last week of season . Variety . December 28, 2021 . April 21, 1993.
  31. Web site: Lowry . Brian . Changing channels . Variety . December 28, 2021 . February 10, 1993.
  32. Web site: The Golden Girls: Part 5, The Girls Keep Going. tvseriesfinale.com. https://archive.today/20090428195803/http://tvseriesfinale.com/articles/the-golden-girls-part-5-the-girls-keep-going/ . April 28, 2009.
  33. News: Carter . Bill . With Nannies and Families, CBS Courts Adults . December 28, 2021 . The New York Times . May 21, 1993.
  34. Fretts . Bruce . Fox and CBS' fall schedules . Entertainment Weekly . December 28, 2021 . June 4, 1993.
  35. Wilkinson . Amy . Why You'll Never See a 'Golden Girls' Reboot . Entertainment Weekly . December 28, 2021 . February 17, 2017.
  36. News: Snow . Shauna . Taking a New Road . December 28, 2021 . Los Angeles Times . June 18, 1993.
  37. Web site: Archerd . Army . Reynolds revival starts in 'Arizona' . Variety . December 28, 2021 . March 20, 1995.
  38. Web site: Weber . Peter . Watch young Don Cheadle and Golden Girls' Blanche grapple with racism, Confederate flags in 1992 . The Week . December 28, 2021 . June 30, 2020.
  39. Web site: Darmon . Aynslee . Don Cheadle Teaches Blanche A Lesson About The Confederate Flag In Resurfaced Clip From 'Golden Girls' Spinoff . https://web.archive.org/web/20200704060418/https://etcanada.com/news/663104/don-cheadle-teaches-blanche-a-lesson-about-the-confederate-flag-in-resurfaced-clip-from-golden-girls-spinoff/ . dead . July 4, 2020 . ET Canada . December 28, 2021 . June 30, 2020.
  40. Web site: Wasserman . Ben . Don Cheadle, Golden Girls' Blanche's Confederate Flag Scenes Resurface . CBR . December 28, 2021 . July 2, 2020.
  41. Web site: Malone. Chris . 2020-09-24. 'The Golden Girls' Addressed Racism and the Confederate Flag 30 Years Ago. 2021-09-23. Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
  42. Web site: 2020-11-17. Race in America on '90s sitcoms: How they addressed it then. 2021-09-23. al.com.
  43. News: Elliott . Stuart . NBC Likes Young Viewers, Judging From Its Fall Plans . December 28, 2021 . The New York Times . May 13, 1992.
  44. Harris . Mark . NBC cancels their hit shows . Entertainment Weekly . December 28, 2021 . April 17, 1992.
  45. News: Carmody . John . The TV Column . December 28, 2021 . Washington Post . March 24, 1992.
  46. News: Pierce . Scott D. . CBS Might Steal 'Golden' Series . December 28, 2021 . Deseret News . March 25, 1992.
  47. News: Du Brow . Rick . No Age-Old Wisdom in NBC Lineup : Television: Network's veto of a new 'Bonanza' typifies an attitude that's helping competitors. . December 28, 2021 . Los Angeles Times . October 24, 1992.
  48. News: Braxton . Greg . ABC Moves 'Matlock' In, 'Delta' Out : Television: 'Room for Two' and 'Homefront' are also placed on hiatus as the network changes its Thursday night lineup. . December 28, 2021 . Los Angeles Times . December 17, 1992.
  49. News: Carter . Bill . CBS Additions for Fall: 4 Comedies, 4 Dramas . December 28, 2021 . The New York Times . May 22, 1992.
  50. News: Pierce . Scott D. . CBS Will Win Again, NBC Will Fall to 3rd in the Next TV Season . December 28, 2021 . Deseret News . June 8, 1992.
  51. News: Du Brow . Rick . CBS: Not Resting on Its Ratings Laurels . December 28, 2021 . Los Angeles Times . March 16, 1993.
  52. Web site: The Golden Palace . Lifetime . https://web.archive.org/web/20051013061943/http://www.lifetimetv.com/shows/golden/palace/index.html . October 13, 2005.
  53. Web site: Wood . Jennifer M. . 11 TV Spinoffs You Might Not Have Known Existed . Mental Floss . December 28, 2021 . March 14, 2017.
  54. Web site: Sandwell . Ian . 13 TV spin-offs you'd forgotten even existed . Digital Spy . December 28, 2021 . February 15, 2018.
  55. Web site: Burcky . Adria . Golden Girls' Sequel Involved Them Opening Up a... Hotel?!? . CBR . December 28, 2021 . May 19, 2021.
  56. Web site: Cordero . Rosy . December 16, 2021 . 'The Golden Palace': '90s 'The Golden Girls' Spinoff Series Headed To Hulu . December 28, 2021 . Deadline.
  57. News: 'Palace' Tops So-So Friday Lineup . October 21, 2023 . Orlando Sentinel . September 18, 1992.
  58. News: TV Weekend; 3 of the Golden Girls in a New Home. The New York Times. 25 September 1992. 2012-12-14. O'Connor. John J..
  59. News: Shales . Tom . 'Picket Fences': Not Exactly Main Street . October 21, 2023 . The Washington Post . September 18, 1992.
  60. News: Lloyd . Robert . Need a new, old-fashioned sitcom to watch? This 'Golden Girls' spinoff is for you . January 14, 2022 . Los Angeles Times . January 11, 2022.
  61. Web site: Glazer . Eliot . It's Time to Stop Ignoring The Golden Palace . Vulture . March 18, 2022 . March 11, 2022.
  62. Web site: McCaffrey . Megan . Why 'The Golden Palace' Is Worth a Watch . Collider . February 24, 2022 . February 9, 2022.
  63. Web site: TV's 20 Worst Spinoffs, Ranked: Joey, The Golden Palace, The Brady Brides and More Ill-Advised Offshoots . TVLine . October 21, 2023 . January 27, 2023.

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