A Golden Palace Dream


From IMDb Trivia:

The production team were desperate for Bea Arthur to return for the second and third seasons that they offered to cut down the episode number and work around her schedule. Arthur declined the offer a number of times. Had Arthur returned the second season would have seen the girls return to their Miami home and The Golden Girls would have resumed.


It's interesting that The Golden Palace would've wrapped up and been reformatted back into The Golden Girls again if Bea had decided to return. It just makes me wonder how the transition would've been made? I'm thinking they would've followed the Dallas/Newhart season finales and had the entire Golden Palace series turn out to be just a dream one of the girls had during the night.

Another idea is that they lost ownership of the hotel due to creditors or, that maybe it just simply burned down and they used the insurance to buy back the Miami house. At the same time, Dorothy would develop problems in her marriage and divorce her husband. That would open the gate for her return.

Anything is possible in a show. Reminds me of The Jeffersons spin off, Checking In, where Florence the maid gets an Exec. Housekeeper position at a swanky hotel, but after it lasted only a disastrous 4 episodes, Florence returned to The Jeffersons with the story that the hotel burned down and she needed her old job back.



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The more I study it, the greater the puzzle becomes.
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Not to be morbid but I'd rather they'd killed off Dorothy's husband rather than have the marriage fail. Can you imagine the stress the writers would have had to create between Dorothy and Blanche??

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It would have been more realistic also. I was going to suggest it.

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I don't think it would've mattered. Bea was officially done with the show. Can you blame her? Working on a TV show requires long hours and months of filming. (Yeah I get that is part of the job description but after so many years it gets old) it sucks we didn't get a few more seasons of GG but I am thankful for what we have.

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I could see the hotel burning down as a throwback to when Shady Pines burnt down and Sophia moved in with the girls. Dorothy had already had a failed marriage to Stan,!and her husband was Blanches uncle, so I assume he would have passed. And as sad as it is, I've read that Bea didn't get along with Betty

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What the producers and network executives failed to realise is there was no need to continue with "The Golden Palace" because there were really no more stories left to tell. It had all been said and done.

"The Golden Girls" enjoyed a hugely successful seven year run on US televsion (where it was in the top ten for six consectutive years). It won Emmys, critical and commercial acclaim and was beloved by millions. "The Golden Palace" by comparison feels very much like a tacked on after thought. Bea Arthur had the smarts to acknowledge that it was time to close up shop and move on. Sadly her co-stars didn't take the same advice and soldiered on and the series was a flop and quite rightly has been forgotten by many.

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Bea felt 7 years was enoough feeling she took dorothys story as far as she could and was smart to leave while the golden girls was on top.

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