Fans of “The Golden Girls” know the show’s zany characters often quibbled on screen for laughs, but it seems two of its stars — Bea Arthur and Betty White — had a tense relationship off screen as well during the series’ seven-season run.
“When that red light was on (and the show was filming), there were no more professional people than those women, but when the red light was off, those two couldn’t warm up to each other if they were cremated together,” co-producer Marsha Posner Williams joked during a recent “Golden Girls” panel discussion at the Pride LIVE! Hollywood festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Williams recalled that Arthur, who died in 2009 at age 86, sometimes referred to White, who died in 2021 at age 99, using a profane slur for a woman.
Arthur “used to call me at home and say, ‘I just ran into that c— at the grocery store. I’m gonna write her a letter,’ and I said, ‘Bea, just get over it for crying out loud. Just get past it,'” said Williams.
Williams added, “I remember, my husband and I went over to Bea’s house a couple of times for dinner. Within 30 seconds of walking in the door, the C-word came out.”
Casting director Joel Thurm, who was also on the panel, chimed in to say he’d also heard Arthur refer to White using the same slur.
The “Golden Girls,” which also starred Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, told the story of a group of older women who lived together in a single-family home in Miami. The Emmy-winning series aired from 1985 to 1992 on NBC.
As for what caused the longstanding rift between former “Maude” star Arthur and former “Mary Tyler Moore Show” star White, the panelists tossed out different theories, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Co-producer Jim Vallely thought it was because White got more applause during tapings.
Williams said that Arthur “hated” when White would break character and talk to the studio audience while shooting. She also shared that Arthur was the only one of the show’s stars who refused to continue on after Season 7.
“Their contracts were up and … the executives went to the ladies, and Estelle said, ‘Yes, let’s keep going,’ and Rue said, ‘Yes, let’s keep going,’ and Betty said, ‘Yes, let’s keep going.’ And Bea said, ‘No f—— way,’ and that’s why that show didn’t continue.”
One of the show’s writers, Stan Zimmerman, recalled in his 2024 memoir, “The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore,” that Arthur believed White was “two-faced.”
“Bea liked real people,” wrote Zimmerman, adding, “I had the sense that Betty was more like Sue Ann Nivens, the character she played on ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show,’ than she was like Rose. More conniving than the innocent airhead from St. Olaf.”
About The Author
