Series Description

The Golden Palace TV show was a 30 minute comedy series on CBS and a spin-off of the series, "The Golden Girls". This new series begins with the premise that Dorothy got married and left the other "girls" to live with her husband, thus accounting for why Bea Arthur is not on the show. Blanche, Rose, and Sophia sell their "Golden Girls" home and buy a hotel called "The Golden Palace". They get into all kinds of jams and arguments mostly due to the fact that none of them have any real idea of how to run a hotel. There was also a stream of goofball guests that added to the fun.

Golden Palace Cast

Rue McClanahan .... Blanche Devereaux
Betty White .... Rose Nyland
Estelle Getty .... Sophia Petrillo
Cheech Marin .... Chuy Castillos
Don Cheadle .... Roland Wilson
Billy L. Sullivan .... Oliver Webb

Golden Palace Trivia:

The Golden Palace was a small "Art Deco" style hotel in the South Bay section of Miami Beach.

Regardless of the great talent that Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty brought to the series, it just didn't quite have the magic that audiences so loved on "The Golden Girls" (no doubt due to the absence of Bea Arthur) and low ratings killed the series after just one 24 episode season.

Bea Arthur did appear as a guest star on episodes #7 & #8, "Seems Like Old Times - Parts 1 & 2.

Estelle Getty obviously portrayed the character, "Sophia Petrillo" on both "The Golden Girls" and "The Golden Palace". She also played that role, however, as a guest star on "Blossom", "Empty Nest", and "Nurses (1991)". Betty White and Rue McClanahan also appeared as Rose and Blanche on both "Empty Nest" and "Nurses (1991)".

Blanche, Rose, and Sophia decided to buy the Golden Palace when they realized that they hadn't provided adequately for their retirements. Unfortunately, the hotel didn't turn out to be the great money-maker that they thought it would be.

Betty White was first considered to play the oversexed character "Blanche" when auditioning for "The Golden Girls". She was mostly known at that time for her very forceful role as "Sue Ann Nivens" on the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" and NBC felt that playing another forceful role like Blanche might confuse the two characters in viewers' minds so they gave her the role of innocent, naive Rose Nylund instead. That worked out good for Rue McClanahan too as she was best known at the time for her role as the shy, quiet "Vivian" on the series "Maude" and there was certainly no confusing that role with the Blanche character on The Golden Palace!