Move over, Cher, TV's "Golden Girls" become gay icons

When Joe Wickes moved from New York to Los Angeles, the 27-year-old event planner grew fond of describing his relocation plans this way: “Yeah, I’m moving from the Big Potato.”

Many found his odd vegetable reference perplexing. But those who understood quickly quipped back, “I’ve always wanted to see the Big Potato.”

It turns out the line comes from one of Wickes’ favorite television shows, “The Golden Girls.” The sitcom, which ran from 1985 to 1992 on NBC (its fourth season is being released on DVD this month), featured Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty as a group of divorcees and widows sharing a house in Miami. Critics hailed the show for its honest portrayals of aging and frank discussions of sex and relationships, and it became an instant ratings hit.

Now, more than two decades after its debut, the show has found a new audience among those who appreciate it less for its message than for its campy wit. While it didn’t shy away from touchy subjects like AIDS, adultery, artificial insemination and impotence, they were all served with a healthy dose of laughs and--as any fan of the show knows--plenty of cheesecake. Its wacky sensibility and sexual innuendos have given the show an unexpected longevity in syndication; it is still broadcast four times a day on the cable channel Lifetime, ensuring it a continuing audience of older women fans.

But its most surprising--and perhaps most ardent--following has been found among young gay men, who have turned the characters of Dorothy, Blanche, Sophia and Rose into gay icons to rival Cher, Bette Midler and Judy Garland.

Wickes, who is gay, often text-messages quotes from the show to friends to liven up his workday. Three years ago, Eric Severson, a 35-year-old high school English teacher from Minnesota, attended a now-defunct stage version of the show in New York in which men in drag played the four female leads. And after scoring the autograph of Bea Arthur at a Border’s bookstore, New Yorker Randy Noak, 30, wrote a short story about the experience to share with friends.

The original writers of “Golden Girls” aren’t surprised by its growing popularity among gays.

“We were doing fun, dirty humor,” said Jim Vallely, a former writer on the show and more recently an Emmy-winning writer for “Arrested Development.” From the beginning, Vallely said, the writers knew its central characters--Dorothy (played by Arthur); her mother, Sophia (Getty); and her best friends Rose (White) and Blanche (McClanahan)--had struck a chord among gay viewers. In fact, the show gave an early nod to homosexuality by featuring a gay cook named Coco in the pilot episode. The character disappeared, but the appeal to gay men remained.

“The show said you didn’t have to get married,” Vallely said. “You didn’t have to do this straight-world version of what growing old could be.”

The idea of casting aside societal conventions also resonated with gay men. None of the principal characters was gay, but the notion of being an older woman who still dates and has sex rarely gets discussed in polite circles. The women rejected standard living arrangements to cohabit and build a family on friendship, not blood.

“Part of the heritage of gay culture is being kicked out of your family of origin,” said Abigail Garner, author of the book “Families Like Mine” and a gay-rights advocate. “You have to seek family of choice, and that’s what ‘The Golden Girls’ reflects.”

The acceptance of one another’s quirks grew to become a key component of the show. This message also spoke to gay fans who have often found older women to be especially accepting of gay culture.

“Gay men are comforted by women figures because they’re not threatened by gay men,” said Brian Swanson, 31-year-old Denver salesman and “Golden Girls” fan.

The show was particularly adept at crafting distinct personalities among the women: Dorothy was the level-headed one, Sophia sarcastic, Rose a ditz and Blanche, as Vallely put it, “was more promiscuous than any human being should be.”

This dynamic spawned much of the bawdy, biting humor that gay men revel in. The dirty jokes, insults and great delivery, Vallely said, made the dialogue work.

“It’s a little bitchy,” fan Randy Noak acknowledged, “but there’s still an underlying love underneath.”

It’s the love and emotion that have made the show timeless, said Tim Brooks, executive vice president of research at Lifetime.

The cable channel has been showing “Golden Girls” reruns for nine years, and it remains one of its top five shows. Lifetime produced a three-hour special devoted to the cast members that aired last summer--the highest-rated special in Lifetime’s history and one of the highest of the year on any network.

Lifetime doesn’t measure the show’s gay audience, but a study released last fall by Simmons Market Research that studied the viewing habits of gays and lesbians--estimated to be more than 3 percent of the U.S. population--found more gays and lesbians watched “The Golden Girls” than the general population in any given week.

“Everyone wants to be the fifth Golden Girl,” Vallely said of the show’s enduring appeal. “You want to sit at the table with those old ladies.”

One day, Noak could envision himself one of those old ladies. “My fantasy," he said, "is to move down to Florida with my two best friends and somebody’s crotchety old mother and have a fabulous time-–and still be viable.”

E-mail: jmb2151@columbia.edu