All Was Not ‘Golden’ Behind The Scenes Of ‘Girls’: 40 Years After The Bea Arthur/Betty White Feud
All was not golden behind the scenes of The Golden Girls, one of television’s most beloved sitcoms. This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the show starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty. While that eclectic cast shared an on-screen chemistry that wouldn’t quit, Arthur and McClanahan were not fond of White, who frequently made fun of Getty. But those are not the only reasons most of those senior stars did not get along.
A Closer Look
The Golden Girls originally aired on NBC from 1985 to 1992, and remains a hit today due to the single female senior Miami misadventures of Rose Nylund (Betty White), Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur), Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan), and Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty).
According to the show’s casting director, Joel Thurm, the real turmoil took place behind the scenes.
As Thurm also explains in his book, Sex, Drugs, & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director, Arthur and McLanahan in particular frequently ridiculed White with not so very nice words. “Yeah, she called her the C-word,” Thurm said of Arthur towards White. “I mean, I heard that with my own ears.”
“And by the way, so did Rue McClanahan,” he added. “Rue McClanahan said it to me in Joe Allen’s [restaurant]; Bea Arthur [when she was] on the set of Beggars and Choosers.”
Thurm also explained how White badgered Getty (who died in 2008 at 84 from Lewy body dementia) after the latter began having memory issues on the Golden set.
“She would write the lines on her hand,” Thurm said, “and…Betty White would make fun of her in front of the live audience. That may seem like a minor transgression, but it really does get to you…I have no idea how Estelle Getty felt, but I know the other two [Arthur and McClanahan] did not like [White] at all.”
McClanahan Rued White
Rue McClanahan, who died in 2010 at 76 from a cerebral hemorrhage, also acknowledged that Bea Arthur was known to call Betty White names.
Some have speculated that the suggested bad blood between Arthur and White stemmed from jealousy after the latter became the show’s first star to be nominated for a Best Actress Emmy in 1986.
The acting style of each actress further apparently contributed to their not-so-sound relationships. Arthur, for one, was known to stay in character during the show’s taping, while White would break character and crack jokes with the live studio audience.
“I think my mom didn’t dig that,” Arthur’s adopted son, Matthew Saks, told The Hollywood Reporter in 2016, seven years after she died of cancer at 86. “It’s more about being focused or conserving your energy. It’s just not the right time to talk to fans between takes. Betty was able to do it, and it didn’t seem to affect her. But it rubbed my mom the wrong way.”
The White In Arthur’s Ire
In 2011, Betty White offered her perspective on Bea Arthur’s perception of her: “Bea had a reserve. She was not that fond of me. She found me a pain in the neck sometimes. It was my positive attitude — and that made Bea mad sometimes. Sometimes, if I was happy, she’d be furious!”
White appeared on Joy Behar: Say Anything and said of Athur, “I don’t know what I ever did. I don’t know, but she was not that thrilled with me.”
Like MediaFeed’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article originally appeared on Newsbreak.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
