Nearly 25 years after its series finale, THE GOLDEN GIRLS remains a favorite within the LGBT community.



Jim Colucci — author of Golden Girls Forever: An Unauthorized Look Behind The Lanai — thinks he has figured out why.

“It appeals to a lot of the things that the gay community treasures,” he tells TheTVPage.com.

“For one thing, the wittiness and snappiness of the banter. But it is also this fantasy of looking fierce and looking good, no matter how old you are. When the Golden Girls would come to the kitchen table in the middle of the night saying, ‘I couldn’t sleep,’ they would be in full hair and makeup. That fantasy about looking good almost appeals to the drag [queen] sensibility as well.

“But I think that the real thematic and deepest appeal is that gays often make their own family. If your biological family was hostile or whatever your problem was, you often end up making your friends your family.

“Here was a foursome — yes, two of them were biologically related, but two of them weren’t — and they prided themselves on being a family. They talked about how they would take care of each other if any of them ever got sick to the point where they were willing to mortgage a house to pay for one’s medical payments if they needed to. It’s that surrogate family thing.

“The show appeals to gays, but I think that is one of the reasons it appeals to other types of people as well. Particularly it is one of the reasons why college age girls continue to discover the show in syndication. The idea is that that no matter what befalls you, you can always have a built in support system of your best friends acting as your family. You live together, you love together and nothing can break you up.”

Colucci spent ten years interviewing more than 250 cast members, producers and guest stars for his book which arrives in stores April 5.