Thousands will gather at a ‘Golden Girls’ convention this weekend at Navy Pier
By Natalie Moore
Thousands will gather at a ‘Golden Girls’ convention this weekend at Navy Pier
By Natalie MooreAt the beginning of the pandemic, Hulu viewers streamed 11 million hours of the venerable vintage sitcom Golden Girls in April 2020.
That gave superfan Zach Hudson an idea for Chicago — create Golden-Con, a convention full of inside jokes and a celebration of the spunky senior citizen quartet.
“Today, as in the 1980s, we do sometimes push our senior citizens to the side. And I know a little bit about that, because my day job is I’m a social worker for senior citizens,” Hudson said.
“Thank You For Being a Fan” — a play off of the TV show’s theme song — runs this weekend at Navy Pier. Picture it: Golden Girls lovers wearing swag, meeting former writers and producers, a replica of a Rusty Anchor bar stage, a disco ball and a giant wicker purse in honor of character Sophia.
Hudson, 44, grew up watching Golden Girls with his grandmother.
“A lot of queer folk, such as myself, will feel pushed to the side sometimes. And also we sometimes get in a position to choose our families, which is what the Golden Girls did. Blanche, Rose and Dorothy were not necessarily related, but they were a family unit,” Hudson said.
Guest stars will be on deck, too, at Golden-Con, such as character actress Bonnie Bartlett, the Irare villain on the show, a bigot.
She played the haughty novelist Barbara Thorndyke who joined a club that excluded Jews. The actress is 92 years old and holds a shirt her granddaughter made of what Dorothy told Barbara in that episode: Go to hell.
“When we did the show, there were three older different men who quit who were to play the older Jewish man. They were insulted,” Bartlett said.
Golden Girls is remembered for its bravery in tackling such thorny social issues considered too taboo for prime-time television four decades ago. There was the episode where Blanche was confronted with her homophobia and other episodes that addressed ageism, marriage equality and AIDS.
Brad Balof is another one of the Golden-Con organizers. He calls the show the greatest American sitcom of all time. He said the event is about fans connecting with each other.
“Any reference from the show will hopefully be represented at some point. Everything from the turkey costumes that Dorothy wore when they did a musical for kids to the dresses that they wore when they got married,” Balof said. The actual dress Sophia wore when she married Max will be brought by the late actress Estelle Getty’s assistant.
No matter the subject, the foursome always produced laughs. Stan Zimmerman got his first television writing gig for Golden Girls. He worked on the first season.
“That’s where we kind of learned how to write a funny joke. But we also learned that Bea Arthur didn’t need a line to get a laugh, all she had to do was shoot a look. And we kind of invented that Dorothy shoots a look,” Zimmerman said.
Convention-goers will hear these kinds of behind-the-scenes stories all weekend. Golden Girls is a sitcom that keeps on giving, attracting new generations.
Added Zimmerman: “It’s real people talking about real feelings, and sometimes disagreeing and sometimes not.”
Over slices of cheesecake.
Natalie Moore is a reporter on WBEZ’s Race, Class and Communities desk. You can follow her on Twitter at @natalieymoore.