Remembering Rue McClanahan

If you were ever a "Golden Girls" fan, you probably know who Rue McClanahan was; she was the sexy and saucy golden girl most viewers came to love. In watching interviews with "Golden Girls" Betty White, McClanahan and Bea Arthur, "the girls" often talked about how McClanahan's true-life personality was very much like the Golden Girl Blanche Devereaux that she played. Jumping from relationship to relationship and always a romantic at heart, Rue McClanahan and Blanche Devereaux often mirrored each other.

As a child, I spent my teenage years glued to the TV watching "Golden Girls" reruns. When the show first came out, I didn't get to watch it. Eventually, Lifetime Television started out playing "Golden Girls" reruns in several TV slots. I began watching through the shows and found that I could watch and re-watch the episodes repeatedly without growing tired of it. I was drawn to the idea of these women who found each other so late in their lives and managed to build strong friendships, even if the rest of their personal lives didn't work out. As an overweight teenager with hardly any friends and suffering grades, the concept that a person could find strength in friendship so late in life left me feeling warm and secure. Eventually my mother gave in and she began watching the shows with me. We watched and talked about the "Golden Girls" for years to come and as we built our own strong connection, I realized how amazing the show truly was. I had watched other shows with McClanahan, like Mama's Family, but at the time, I hadn't realized I would find McClanahan again. My fascination for actors who played in several movies or TV shows together grew throughout the years as I watched these shows.

Eventually, my mother passed away and the "Golden Girls" also began dying off. Today, only Betty White remains and I still catch an episode of the "Golden Girls" every now and again in the hopes of reconnecting with my mother and my childhood. According to sfist, McClanahan had bypass surgery earlier in the year and Betty White sent her a card that read, "Dear Rue, I hope you hurry up and die so I can be the last Golden Girl left. NOT KIDDING!" Sources say that Rue thought the card was hilarious, but surely White wishes she hadn't sent that card today.

What I remember most about Blanche Devereaux was her confidence. As a kid (and an adult) looking for my own sense of confidence, she was an important part of growing up and for me as an adult. All three of the "Golden Girls" were extremely active with animal rights, which also spoke to me deeply. There was another show called "The Golden Palace" that Lifetime Television showed for awhile, but the show came out after The "Golden Girls" ended and was not a big hit, because Bea Arthur wasn't part of it. I remember Devereaux's character as being confident and a little bit unwise, but in a lot of ways, extremely wise. Her character often had very smart, but simple things to say in the show. One thing I do remember is that Betty White was supposed to play Devereaux and Rue McClanahan was supposed to play the simple character of Rose, but when the two got to their readings, it was decided that Rue was made to play Blanche and Betty would play Rose.

The final piece I'll leave readers with is the fact that "The Golden Girls" is no longer played on Lifetime Television, but has been picked up by the Hallmark Channel and WE. If you missed the original episodes and only watched the shows on Lifetime over the past few years, you may note there is a difference in the shows now. Lifetime majorly edited their shows and a lot of funny lines were cut out, so watching the shows on other channels is sort of like watching the shows for the first time!