Golden Girls
Beatrice Arthur's friends and colleagues remembered the Emmy- and Tony-winning actress as a brave force in comedy whose talent and voice were one of a kind.
"I knew it would hurt, I just didn't know it would hurt this much," said Betty White, Arthur's Golden Girls costar. "I'm so happy that she ...
read more
Bea Arthur
Beatrice Arthur, the star of the hit shows Maude and The Golden Girls, died Saturday at age 86.
Arthur died peacefully at her Los Angeles home early Saturday with her family at her side, a family spokesperson tells the Associated Press. The actress, who had cancer, would have turned 87 on May 13.
Arthur first portrayed the outspoken and liberal Maude Finley in the Norman Lear comedy series All in the Family. So much did she impress CBS executives that ...
read more
Question: Alex and Izzie literally make me puke. They have as much chemistry as Bea Arthur and Tom Cruise.
Answer: I happen to think Bea Arthur and Tom Cruise are magical together.
read more
So, I have to admit right off the bat that I'm not sure why I chose to write about Twenty Good Years. I'm really not familiar with Jeffrey Tambor's work and I never really liked John Lithgow. However, Golden Girls was a really funny show. So I like old people in sitcoms. Maybe I'm just hoping for a male version of Bea Arthur. Whatever the reason, I've been looking forward to this premiere for quite a while. Now that it's happened, I will reserve judgment until the second episode. You have to hope that a show comes out firing right out of the box, which isn't always that easy to do when you need the entire show to set up the premise for the rest of the series. The Class did it well and so did Studio 60 this year — aw heck — I think I've just disproved my own theory. But what I'm trying to say is that this didn't come out guns-a-blazin'. The debut seemed to be almost straight setup with hopes that mayhem will ensue down the road. Either way, the show is about two retirement-...
read more
Veronica Mars
Question: I'll send you pictures of a naked Bea Arthur for some Veronica Mars prattle. Come on — no one can turn that down!
Answer: How right you are. Here's some major-ass-prattle-poop: Mars' main man Rob Thomas is reuniting Enrico Colantoni with his Just Shoot Me lovah Laura San Giacomo! "She plays a woman who comes into Mars Investigation and asks Keith to prove that her husband is cheating on her, and the two of them kind of hit it off," Rob reveals. "So Keith is really hoping he finds evidence that he's cheating." Rob — who would only say Laura appears in "several" episodes — admits her connection to Enrico played a big part in her casting. "I don't think she would have done
read more
Curb Your Enthusiasm So the big question for a lot of people was how Larry and his crew could possibly top last season's Producers season finale. Well, how about by finding out he's adopted, finding out he's not adopted, dying and then being resurrected after annoying his hosts in heaven? That'd do it, I say — and it did. The finer points: How great was Bill Saluga's Louis Lewis, once he finally came out of the coma and steadfastly refused to donate a kidney to cousin Richie? ("What're you, crazy? I'm not giving anybody my kidney. I just woke up! What, I'm gonna start giving things away now?") The whole seesaw thing with Larry's adoption — pretty darned funny, I must admit, between him celebrating the ways of the gentile and trying to get used to drinking milk with meat. (I was raised in a kosher household and even though those habits and pra
read more
Question: Who sang the theme song for The Golden Girls?
Answer: Cynthia Fee sang an abbreviated version of Andrew Gold's "Thank You for Being a Friend" for the show, which, as you know, ran on NBC from 1985-92 and starred Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty as four seniors living in Miami.
The song was a Top 25 hit from Gold's 1978 album, All This and Heaven Too. The singer-songwriter (a term popularized when you needed to do at least one to have a career in the music business) had a previous Top 5 hit with "Lonely Boy" in 1976 and, putting in time as a producer, studio musician and songwriter for others, has worked with such notable talent as Linda Ronstadt, Karla Bonoff, James Taylor, Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Dia
read more
If I were to sum it up in one sentence, I would say: "This monkey of an episode was smokin' but extremely disturbing, scars and all — the middle was a drag, and the end was a real p---er!" But let me elaborate. First of all, why did I have to be eating a late dinner while watching the scene with Ava's dead and decomposing son Adrian on the floor right after Matt had his fantasy sex scene? Pretty. Besides that, I never thought I'd see Vanessa Redgrave smoke pot with her real-life daughter Joely Richardson and watch a gorilla get plastic surgery in the same hour. At least there was no Carver this week. Christian said, "For the first time in weeks, I forgot all about the Carver," but you know he's not telling the truth. Last week he told Sean the Carver raped him, but he wouldn't admit it to Kit, so you know there will be repercussions. But back to this week. As soon as angry Matt walked into the drag bar, I knew right away it would end in violence. What I didn't expe
read more
Somebody sent a feedback comment last week that read: "So Dave, I take it you don't like the show." Let me explain what a "train wreck" is. You're driving by a train accident and no matter how disastrous it appears to be, you can't help but look away. A TV train wreck is similar — a disaster that is so bad, it's good. I can't help but be amazed at what has become of the Whitney Houston I admired when I was younger. I'm talking the "Greatest Love of All" Whitney. The "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" Whitney. And, of course, the "I Will Always Love You" Whitney. But maybe this is how she's always been — maybe she's just hidden this side? The way Bobby acts on this show is the way I assumed he's always been. But Whitney? "It's Not Right, But It's Okay." On to the countdown…
10:00 pm At long last, they're at home or at least one of their homes. This one's the main one — their "country club" home in Atlanta. Whitney tries to braid Bobby's hair.
read more
The dinosaurcentric The Land Before Time franchise, which has spawned a feature film and 10 straight-to-video follow-ups, is being turned into an animated series for the Cartoon Network, slated to premiere in early 2007. Bea Arthur will serve as technical advisor.
read more