NEWS > ENTERTAINMENT > FUTURE OF GOLDEN GIRLS IN DOUBT AFTER DEATH OF BEA ARTHUR

FUTURE OF GOLDEN GIRLS IN DOUBT AFTER DEATH OF BEA ARTHUR

April 28 2009

Hollywood, CA – Television shows have a mixed history of success when one of the major players passes away. ‘Chico and the Man’ survived only one season after the death of star Freddie Prinze. ‘Cheers’ went on for almost a decade after the death of Nicholas ‘Coach’ Colasanto. Never before though has a  major American television show had to endure the loss of two stars as is the situation facing the hit show ‘the Golden Girls’ after the death of Bea Arthur on Saturday.

It was less than a year ago that co-star Estelle Getty passed away and despite the effort to carry on, the death of a second lead actor may spell doom for the series. Though the series has been off the air for almost seventeen years, the show about four elderly women sharing a home in Miami has become a hit in syndication, a success that may now be doomed with the demise of the duo that many considered to be the heart of the show.

“Some shows have gone on to great success following the departure of a lead actor and others have fizzled out completely. In a lot of ways a show that loses its star whether through death or other reasons is much like every other show on television. It is subject to whims of its audience,” said Scrape TV Entertainment analyst Tracey Temple. “Golden
Girls will likely see an initial boost after this but then decline rapidly afterwards. Unlike most shows that suffer this kind of loss though the longevity and integrity of the show will likely remain intact because it has been off the air for so many years. There are no awkward storylines and no need for the audience to adjust because all of the episodes have been filmed.”

The last major television star to endure the loss of its star was ‘8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter’ when John Ritter passed away on set. The impact on the longevity of that show has been hard to gauge due to its already poor ratings and rumours that Ritter was already in the process of being written out.

“No one likes surprises when it comes to making money but unfortunately the reality of existence and mortality makes that inevitable sometimes. Sure these actors have a contract but things like death tend to nullify any such agreements at least from a legal standpoint. The ethics and morality of leaving in the middle of a contract is a different thing,” continued Temple. “Everyone wants to end things their way but sometimes life just doesn’t allow for that. Death is just an unfortunate reality of the television production business that studios and networks have to deal with no matter how binding their contracts. Fortunately for the producers of ‘The Golden Girls’ they were able to get everything shot before people started to die.”

The successful run of ‘The Golden Girls’ marked the first and last time a series featured an all elderly cast, something most studios see as too great a risk with the ever increasing cost of production. Many elderly cast members have been relegated to bit parts and special guest starring roles in order to minimize the risk to the bottom line.

“The harsh reality is older people die more frequently than young people and with millions of dollars put behind these shows companies have no choice but to be practical and cast according to risk factor. Everyone likes an old curmudgeon but as popular as those characters may be, they do need to be minimized in order to reduce the risk,” continued Temple. “The other option is for every series to go to the ‘Law and Order’ model and just replace all the actors every two seasons or so. That would reduce the potential for death mid-stream and provide and easy out if something did happen. Not every show is as lucky as
‘The Golden Girls’ was and with the ever escalating costs my guess is people are going to be a whole lot less willing to take unnecessary risks.”

‘The Golden Girls’ has continued to show in syndication since Arthur’s death and network officials have not yet made a decision as to the future of the show.

Samantha Dryden, Entertainment Correspondent

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