About Andrea Dana
Andrea Dana joins the Sweetspot team to give her insightful opinions on what’s happening in the sweet world of entertainment. Andrea has worked in the film industry for the past five years as a tutor to Hollywood’s world famous and upcoming stars. She travels back and forth from Toronto to LA often. She is also an author and received high praise for her novel StarSitter, which is the first in an upcoming trilogy.
Let me start by saying I am sorry. I am sorry if you have never heard of Mr. Ha Ha, if you don’t laugh every time you hear someone ask if anyone would like some “shrimp,” if you can’t find St. Olaf on a map, if you have never threatened to send your parents to Shady Pines, if you don’t think of Frieda Claxton, rest her evil soul, every time you see a fallen tree, and if you don’t have a huge smile on your face every time you come across all of the above reruns on one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, The Golden Girls.
It was with great sadness when I found out that Bea Arthur had passed away from cancer, at the age of 86. As one of television’s comedic greats, Bea started her TV career late at age 50. After years in theater, Bea Arthur landed a guest spot as Maude Findlay, the cousin of Edith Bunker, on All in the Family. Executives at CBC were so impressed with her performance that they offered Bea a spin- off show called Maude, in 1972. She received an Emmy for this controversial yet hilarious role and raised the bar for women’s issues on television.
Bea Arthur was also in two of my all-time favorite movies. As Vera Charles in Mame, she starred opposite Lucille Ball, and as an unemployment clerk opposite Mel Brooks in History of the World Part 1. If you have not seen either of these, I suggest you run, not walk thee, to your nearest video store.
In 1985 Bea Arthur broke ground in her role as razor-sharp Dorothy Zbornak on The Golden Girls. Her ability to bring this character to life with such sarcasm and the impeccable timing of her line delivery validated that Bea was a pro at her craft. From heckling her roommates, Rose (Betty White) and Blanche (Rue McClanahan), to sharing late night cheesecake with her mother, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty, who passed away last year), Dorothy Zbornak had a spark that you don’t see in Hollywood anymore.
On a more personal level, The Golden Girls had a great effect on my life. It aired between the years 1985-1992, which was a difficult time period for my friends and I. Aside from the everyday ups and downs and ins and outs of what we now refer to as the “tween” years; we also suffered through an unusual amount of tragic losses of friends, siblings, and parents of friends during those years. However, looking back now, more than twenty years later, I realize that despite what we went through at the time we never lost our sense of humor or our ability to laugh. I know for a fact that The Golden Girls was part of that gift that kept us smiling during difficult times. To this day, I still sit on the phone often with one of my best friends of over 25 years, Erin, as we watch reruns of The Golden Girls together. It is incredible that although we can recite nearly every line, we still laugh as if we are watching it for the first time.
The world is a little dimmer now that Bea Arthur is gone, and she has left some very difficult shoes to fill since Hollywood does not produce that kind of talent anymore. I just hope that somewhere Dorothy is with her “Ma,” sharing a slice of cheesecake and Sophia is telling her daughter to, “Picture this: Sicily 1912.” RIP you two, and "thanks for the Medicare"