The Golden Girls: Their Greatest Moments

The Golden Girls: Their Greatest Moments
Written by	Andrew Solt Greg Vines
Directed by	Andrew Solt
Starring	Bea Arthur Rue McClanahan Betty White
Music by	Richard Friedman Tony Hodson Cory Lerios
Opening theme	"Thank You for Being a Friend"
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Andrew Solt Greg Vines
Producers	Barry Kaplan Mary Sherwood
Editors	Ernie Hornberger Leslie Tong
Running time	90 minutes
Production companies	Andrew Solt Productions Lifetime Productions
Original release
Network	Lifetime
Release	June 2, 2003 (2003-06-02)
Related
The Golden Girls

The Golden Girls: Their Greatest Moments is a 2003 American television special that reunited the cast of the 1985–1992 sitcom The Golden Girls. It originally aired on Lifetime on June 2, 2003.

Summary

Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Betty White reunite to co-host a retrospective of The Golden Girls. Estelle Getty, who had retired from show business, was unable to participate due to failing health.

The special features a montage of clips from the women's favorite episodes and musical moments from the show, never-before-seen bloopers and outtakes, behind-the-scenes footage, as well as interviews with executive producers Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas, and creator/writer Susan Harris.

The women also introduce clips focused on their individual characters and comment on their character's specific traits and quirks. During the special, Bea Arthur pays tribute to actor Herb Edelman, who played the recurring role of her character's ex-husband Stanley Zbornak during the series' seven-year run. A new version of the show's theme song "Thank You for Being a Friend" was recorded for this special.

Cast

Principal cast

• Bea Arthur
• Rue McClanahan
• Betty White

Guest stars

• Paul Junger Witt
• Tony Thomas
• Susan Harris

Reception

The Golden Girls: Their Greatest Moments became the highest-rated special in Lifetime network's 19-year history, averaging a 3.7 household rating (4.2 million viewers) during its premiere on June 2, 2003; the second was The Designing Women Reunion which scored a 3.1 rating with 3.3 million viewers when it aired the following month.

The six-hour "Golden Girls" event on Lifetime from 6:00 p.m. to 12 midnight, which included the 90-minute reunion special, the pilot episode, the one-hour series finale and additional favorite episodes of The Golden Girls, was seen by an estimated 15 million viewers.

Lifetime subsequently rebroadcast the special on December 15, 2003 and again on November 12, 2005 to commemorate the show's 20th anniversary.

External links

• The Golden Girls: Their Greatest Moments at IMDb
• The Golden Girls: Their Greatest Moments at the TCM Movie Database