CHICAGO — Fowl Milliken designs “Golden Ladies”-themed greeting playing cards underneath the label Lipstick on a Turd. Her recommendation? End up a person who’s into watching “The Golden Ladies.”
“It says one thing about them, that their antennas and receptors are open to one thing deeper,” mentioned Milliken, who made the information final yr for protesting exterior Invoice Cosby’s Pennsylvania residence. “‘The Golden Ladies’ — I’m getting shivers saying this — it’s not simply any present. It’s not ‘Who’s the Boss?’”
Milliken wasn’t shivering alone: She was one in every of about 3,500 disciples who congregated right here late final month for Golden-Con, the primary fan conference devoted to “The Golden Ladies” (1985-92), the Emmy-winning sitcom about 4 affable, peppery, sex-enthusiastic older girls who shared a Miami bungalow embellished in cozy rattan and daring floral motifs. Created by Susan Harris, the present ran for seven seasons on NBC; “The Golden Palace,” a derivative, ran for one (1992-93) on CBS.
Within the three many years because it went off the air, it’s as if the “The Golden Ladies” by no means left. A mainstay of syndication and streaming, the present has since expanded its fan base and made the Ladies into L.G.B.T.Q. icons, drawing in youthful generations with its slicing homosexual sensibility, ribald comedy and progressive views on chosen household and friendships. (All seven seasons are on Hulu.)
For 3 days at Golden-Con, these followers blended and mingled amongst a type of chosen household all its personal, many dressed as their favourite characters: the sturdy trainer Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur); the Southern belle sexpot Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan); the kindly however dimwitted Rose Nylund (Betty White); and Dorothy’s salty Sicilian immigrant mom, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty).
Right here, the present’s bawdy spirit — confined principally to winks, purrs and innuendo for community tv — flourished uncensored. Golden-Coners, principally homosexual males and straight girls, hustled from gossipy panel discussions to raucous trivia video games and reverent autograph signings. Drag queens, together with the troupe The Golden Gays, promenaded in stretchy ’80s cougarwear with drop shoulders and batwing sleeves. Distributors hawked “Golden Ladies”-branded tote baggage, T-shirts and a stunning quantity of coasters.
At Golden-Con you didn’t say, “Goodbye”; you mentioned, “Thanks for being a pal” — the primary line of the present’s ear-worm theme tune. As Jim Colucci, the creator of “Golden Ladies Endlessly: An Unauthorized Look Behind The Lanai,” described it in a pre-conference interview, the occasion “brings again the sensation of watching it together with your mother or grandmother.”
And also you didn’t maintain again. Throughout the conference ground, the vibe was screams-and-hugs festive, alternating agreeably between household pleasant and R-rated. Faces have been predominantly white. However no one turned heads fairly like 4 Black girls, all sisters — Shalanda Turner, Catrina Parker, Sharon Turner-Wingba and Lashanda Bailey — dressed as Turkey Lurkey, Henny Penny, Goosey Loosey and Peter Pan, a reference to a Season 6 episode.
Chantelle Edwards, 44, visiting from Indianapolis, stopped to go with the costumes. She remarked that it was “refreshing to see different Black girls right here” as a result of “there aren’t plenty of Black folks which might be gung-ho about ‘The Golden Ladies.’”
“If they’re, they’re girls,” she mentioned. “They adore it as a result of it’s about sisterhood and that regardless of how outdated you might be, you want your women.”
Noticeably lacking have been the Ladies themselves. White was the final surviving member of the principle solid when she died in December, simply shy of 100.
White’s loss of life had lent Golden-Con an added emotional resonance it didn’t have in 2020, when Zack Hudson and two buddies, the brothers Brad and Brendan Balof, first brainstormed the concept. Initially introduced as a smaller occasion to happen at an L.G.B.T.Q. group middle, it drew a response so “large,” Hudson mentioned, that he determined to maneuver the conference to Navy Pier, with its cavernous ballroom and sweeping views of Lake Michigan.
“Primarily based on the response, I believe the time was now,” mentioned Hudson, 44, who by day is a group well being employee for seniors. He estimated that the conference had price about $420,000 to supply, and he was assured he would come out within the black.
Golden-Con’s headliners weren’t marquee names from the newest Hollywood blockbuster, as one finds at ComicCon. They have been principally Child Boomer actors and writers who made “The Golden Ladies” zing with one-liners and double takes, and who didn’t shrink back, nevertheless imperfectly, from scorching potato points like AIDS and racism.
Stan Zimmerman, a workers author on the primary season, mentioned the present’s mixture of timeless comedy and well timed storytelling was why it stays a popular culture heavyweight.
The sitcom panorama within the ’80s “wasn’t about 4 girls speaking about actual conditions,” mentioned Zimmerman. “However that was every part we beloved as writers.”
No one related to the present was too minor for Golden-Coners to fawn over. There have been strains to satisfy the Emmy winner Bonnie Bartlett, 92, who performed Barbara Thorndyke, a fan-favorite villainess in a single third-season episode.
Then there was Cindy Price. When she was 28, she was an in-demand Los Angeles singer when in just some takes she nailed the present’s theme tune.
“I hadn’t seen the tune earlier than however that’s fairly typical within the business — most of us are pretty good sight readers,” mentioned Price, whose voice additionally helped promote Wheaties and Hoover vacuums. “They performed via the tune and I simply sang it. It’s straightforward to sing as a result of it’s a stunning tune.”
The gang roared as if Price have been Girl Gaga when she sang the tune on Golden-Con’s opening night time. Additionally they went wild when she introduced out a shock visitor: Aaron Scott, whose 2016 gospel-tinged model has over 6.3 million views on YouTube.
Even the furnishings drew worship, like pilgrims to a relic. Richard Carrington, 38, and his associate, Bryan Brozek, drove from Cañon Metropolis, Colo., with a sofa and chairs from the present’s lounge set that that they had purchased from a California prop home for about $9,000. Carrington mentioned the items had by no means left their residence.
He mentioned followers “simply need to come up and contact it understanding the solid sat on it.”
“We had one man bow to it,” he added.
The closest followers bought to spending time with an unique Golden Woman was an look by Dr. Melinda McClanahan, Rue McClanahan’s sister and a semiretired biologist. Dr. McClanahan mentioned her celeb sibling “would have been gobsmacked that anybody would pay this a lot consideration and pay this a lot fuss over Blanche Deveraux.”
If the occasion had a beau idéal, it was Chase Bristow. Born on the fifth anniversary of the present’s debut — he whipped out his driver’s license to show it — Bristow is such a “Golden Ladies” stan that he personalized his Uber profile so drivers again residence in Daytona Seashore, Fla., should ask for Blanche.
Bristow echoed many followers when he mentioned that watching “The Golden Ladies” was a balm that soothed life’s scrapes, massive and small.
“When my mother and father threw me out as a result of I’m homosexual, the very first thing I did after I walked out the door was activate ‘Golden Ladies,’” mentioned Bristow, who wore a “Dorothy within the Streets, Blanche within the Sheets” T-shirt and sported a “Golden Ladies” tattoo on his arm. “It’s like that nice massive hug from grandma you at all times need.”
Reached after the occasion, Hudson, one of many organizers, mentioned that past providing amusement, Golden-Con additionally created a welcoming house for followers who had “one thing in frequent with individuals who really feel like they’ve been pushed to the aspect.” He’s already planning to convey it again in 2023, maybe to Chicago, although many followers advised him Miami would make extra sense.
Just like the Golden Ladies themselves, what followers wished — and deserved — “was friendship and connection,” he mentioned.
“They discovered some at Golden-Con.”
