Thank you for being a friend — and now being a potential attendee of the first-ever Golden Girls fan convention.
To get there, you’ll need to travel down the road and back again to Chicago’s Center on Halsted. According to the official website, the weekend’s events will include a show by a live parody troupe, a vendor’s market, photo ops, trivia contests, a disco party, a pop-up Rusty Anchor Bar, and “appearances by guest stars, producers and others directly connected with the show,” although they did not specify any confirmed names of attendees. (Three of the show’s four leads — Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty — have since passed away. Betty White is still going strong at age 99.)
The Golden Girls debuted on NBC in 1985 and aired on the station for seven seasons and 180 episodes, making it one of the era’s signature sitcoms. After the series ended, White, McClanahan, and Getty were spun off into a new series The Golden Palace, where the three remaining characters (Arthur’s Dorothy got married and was written out of the story) bought a hotel. The series lasted for only one season before it was canceled by CBS, but hopefully there’s a special panel at Golden-Con about it.
The original Golden Girls has maintained its popularity through the years thanks to decades of syndicated reruns, and its unique material and cast. (There are very few sitcoms, then or now, about tight-knit groups of women, or shows about senior citizens, much less series about both simultaneously.) Type “Golden Girls” and “cult” into Google, and you’ll see how it’s found a whole new generation of fans online thanks to its witty comedy, willingness to tackle controversial subjects, and amazing ’80s and ’90s fashions.
Golden-Gon: Thank You For Being a Fan will take place April 22-24, 2022. You can get more info on tickets here.
[H/T Mental Floss]
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