LIFE LESS GOLDEN
I don’t really like checking my Yahoo e-mail, because the entrance to my Inbox now lists the Top News Stories of the hour, whether I w
ant to be bothered with them or not. Usually, not. Like today. On a deadline to finish writing bios for an important business plan, all I wanted to do was see if the client had sent along some details that were holding me up.
I didn’t want to read that
- Estelle Getty as Sophia Patrillo
, the indomitable Sophia Petrillo of TV’s GOLDEN GIRLS, had died.
THE GOLDEN GIRLS will always be one of my favorite TV comedies. The brainchild of the one and only Brandon Tartikoff, who I believe was a genius on many levels, especially when he said that TV was ignoring the older viewer, the series showed people over 50 having a great time with their lives. They dated, had sex, worked at jobs that didn’t define who they were, laughed, ate cheesecake and ice cream without remorse, fought, made up, got on each others nerves and displayed a life that wasn’t wheelchairs, arthritis pain and doctor’s visits. Most of all, they leaned on each other as only true friends do. Trusted each other. Loved each other.
Estelle’s character Sophia played mother to them all, but in a new way. Full of sass and more outspoken and a triple Sagittarius, Getty was a total delight. Caring without carping about the laundry or emptying the dishwasher, she played 80 like 80 should be. Sans the wigs and makeup, Gerry wasn’t that much older than the three women who played opposite her.
This role of a lifetime came to Estelle later in life. She worked for 40 years in a tough business and finally hit the jackpot. She hung in there. I wonder how many times she was set to throw in the towel if she lost a part. But she didn’t. It was another reason Getty made those of us over 40 hopeful. Magic and your dreams can happen, no matter what.
In those down times that find yourself on the phone to friends who knew you when you were 18, the idea of THE GOLDEN GIRLS offered us hope. In our lives, men left, people died, jobs were yanked away, money came and went, confidence ebbed, and the question of where life would find us when we were “over the hill” loomed like a New York Life commercial cartoon. The running joke was that we’d all move to Florida, get a house, and live like THE GOLDEN GIRLS. It made us happy. Hopeful.
Estelle Getty made us realize that “over the hill” isn’t. She made us laugh and made us hopeful. What a wonderful epitaph.
