As tribute to Estelle Getty, who passed on July 22 at the age of 84, Lifetime will be airing 10 episodes of the iconic comedy series The Golden Girls to showcase Sophia, the intractable octogenarian Getty plays.  The ten-episode special will feature Getty in all her blustering, sarcastic splendor right from the show's pilot.  And as an added twist and favor to her fans, the last episode will be the #1 favorite Sophia episode as decided by fans, who can cast in their votes at myLifetime.com.

The Golden Girls premiered on Lifetime in 1997 and ran for seven years.  Getty had won Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for her role, alongside seven Emmy nominations.  Despite the popularity of the character, Getty said in a 1997 interview that she barely resembled Sophia in real life.

"I think people have me mixed up with my character. I would like to be as sure and magnanimous and feisty and strong and indomitable as she is. .  With Sophia it was almost too easy, I knew the women well, she was partly me and only partly my imagination."

And yet, summing up her acting career, Getty said she had almost been the quintessential mother.

“I've played mothers to heroes and mothers to zeroes.  I've played Irish mothers, Jewish mothers, Italian mothers, Southern mothers, mothers in plays by Neil Simon and Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams.  I've played mother to everyone but Attila the Hun."

The successful sitcom, which features the lives of four older and previously married women living in a shared sheltered home in Miami, had been so popular that Getty was signed up for two spin-off series, Empty Nest and The Golden Palace, both during the 1990s.


-Glenn L. Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: The Futon Critic
(Image Courtesy of Reuters)