Is A Golden Girls Reboot Happening? The Revival Rumors, Explained

“The Golden Girls” is basically the perfect sitcom, following the antics of four mature women who share a house in Miami, Florida. The series began in September 1985 and ran for seven seasons before ending in May 1992, and it’s only grown in popularity since it first aired. It’s a blast to tune in to see what the hilariously horny Blanche (Rue McClanahan), bubbly airhead Rose (Betty White), sarcastic divorcee Dorothy (Bea Arthur), and her smart-mouthed mother Sophia (Estelle Getty) get up to in each episode, and it’s pretty easy to hit play on one and end up watching an entire season before you know it. It’s really no surprise that the series has found new fans in the streaming era, so when there were rumors of a Disney+ reboot of the series sometime in 2024, people went bonkers. 

Some fans were furious about the idea of doing “The Golden Girls” without the original cast, while others were thrilled at the chance to have more “Golden Girls” goodness, even if it meant bringing in new blood. It turned out to be a big hoax, but left people wondering: could there ever be a “Golden Girls” reboot? And why did the original series end in the first place? Let’s take a look. 

Unfortunately for fans of the ladies of the lanai, the whole reason everyone got excited about a “Golden Girls” reboot was a Facebook post by YODA BBY ABY, just one of many accounts known for creating hype for fake movie sequels and TV reboots. The post contained a mocked-up image for a reboot on Disney+, starring Lisa Kudrow as Rose, Tina Fey as Dorothy, Maya Rudolph as Blanche, and Amy Poehler as Sophia, and fans weren’t sure what to think. 

While each of those ladies is very talented, they just don’t fit the roles they’re assigned. Poehler playing Fey’s mother might be kind of odd, though the original Sophia, Estelle Getty, was actually younger than her onscreen daughter Dorothy, played by Bea Arthur. Getty was made into a little old lady through the magic of makeup, so Poehler theoretically could have done the same. Alas, the whole thing was a hoax, and there is no such series in development. 

“The Golden Girls” was still very popular when it came to an end in 1992, but Arthur felt that the show had started declining in quality. According to her son, Matthew Saks, Arthur believed that “the ideas had started to run out” and while she was “not unhappy,” she was 70 years old and had other things she wanted to do with her time. It’s understandable that Arthur would want to cut back on the amount of acting she did in her golden years and spend some time enjoying at least a partial retirement. Her only notable role post-“Golden Girls” was as Dewey’s (Erik Per Sullivan) babysitter on one of the best episodes of the Fox sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle.” Sadly, she died in 2009 at the age of 86.

Over the years, some people have guessed that she might have quit the show due to a feud with co-star Betty White, but that’s likely not the case. While White has said that Arthur was not friendly to her — and Saks backed that up, saying that his mother “unknowingly carried the attitude that it was fun to have somebody to be mad at” — their “feud” has generally been thought to have been blown out of proportion. In her memoir, co-star Rue McClanahan said that while things got “pretty spicy” from time to time, what mattered was that “the chemistry worked.” It sounds like Arthur was just a bit too much like her character, who frequently looked down her nose at Rose and her silly stories. Hey, at least Arthur got to have a truly magical friendship with actor Angela Lansbury, proving she wasn’t impossible to get along with.

After Arthur departed “The Golden Girls,” the series ended with Dorothy getting married to Blanche’s uncle, Lucas Hollingsworth (played by “The Naked Gun” star Leslie Nielsen). She and Lucas moved to Atlanta, while Sophia decided to stay behind in Miami with Rose and Blanche. In an attempt to keep the “Golden Girls” magic going, there was a short-lived spinoff series called “The Golden Palace,” which followed the ladies after they buy and run a hotel called, you guessed it, the Golden Palace. Arthur appeared in two episodes for a plot revolving around Sophia, but otherwise the show focused on the trio and new cast members Don Cheadle and Cheech Marin. 

Unfortunately, “The Golden Palace” just didn’t capture the same joy as “The Golden Girls,” despite having the same creator and much of the same team, and it was cancelled after just one season. 

There are no plans for a “Golden Girls” reboot now, but is there a possibility that we could ever see one? According to series creator Susan Harris, it’s never going to happen. She told Entertainment Weekly in 2017:

“They’ve wanted to do ‘Golden Girls’ the Musical and re-do ‘Golden Girls,’ and we’ve always said no because ‘Golden Girls’ would not be ‘Golden Girls’ without that cast.”

Harris is pretty spot-on, because the chemistry between the four leads is what made “The Golden Girls” work. The writing can be somewhat mixed, with a few truly great episodes scattered throughout, but the girls themselves are the draw. There’s a perfect mix of camaraderie and snark, and the very same lines delivered by a different cast would likely feel much too mean. It would be great to see some more comedies about older women, but trying to capture the lightning in a bottle of “The Golden Girls” again is pretty close to impossible. Everyone was just too perfect in their roles, from Arthur’s grumpy Dorothy to White’s light-hearted Rose. 

We might not be getting any new “Golden Girls,” but there are seven seasons and 180 episodes to choose from, which is pretty great. For physical media fans who need to own “The Golden Girls,” there are several complete series DVD and Blu-ray sets, but for everyone else, the show is available to stream on both Hulu and Disney+. (“The Golden Palace” is available on both streaming services as well!) Fans can grab themselves some cheesecake and settle in for a whole bunch of cozy television courtesy of Rose, Dorothy, Blanche, and Sophia, who are sure to bring both heartwarming moments and truly brutal burns. If you’re not sure where to start, check out our guide to the 25 best episodes of the series, but really there’s no wrong place to join in on the fun.