Sophia Petrillo of the Golden Girls was My Favorite Sitcom Mom from the 1980's

The Golden Girls was a 1980's sitcom about a group of older women who live together during the "golden years" of life. Three of them are widowed and one is divorced. Two women in Blanche Devereaux and Rose Nylund were roommates when a third roommate named Dorothy Zbornak moved in. shortly after the retirement home she was attending burned down her mother, Sophia Petrillo moved in with them. The four of them went through various themes that you would expect people in that age to go through. Various episodes dealt with things like being remarried as all would once again find love. There were episodes that dealt with bad neighbors, drugs, death of a parent and having a mid life crisis. The show made a seven year run and was fairly successful. They even spin off The Golden Palace from the show with Rose, Blanche, and Sophia as hotel owners minus Dorothy who got married and moved away.

The character of Sophia Petrillo was played by Estelle Getty who actually was heavily made up to appear older than she was. In real life she was actually a year younger than Beatrice Arthur who played her daughter Dorothy on the Golden Girls. She was very sarcastic but at the same time a nurturing a loving mother. She always did what she thought was best for her daughter. She even told Dorothy's prom date to get lost because he looked like a "hood". Of course Dorothy always thought that she was stood up. She was an Italian immigrant from Sicily and was often telling stories about the old country. The stores would often begin with "Picture it. Sicily" and then she would mention that year that it was and the story. She also made lots of references to the mafia in a joking way. She was known for being very direct and speaking her mind. Part of this is thought to be from damage suffered in a stroke she had before she moved in with the girls.

She had way too many memorable moments in the show to list, but I will go over a few of my favorites. She used to always talk about the retirement home she previously was in, Shady Pines, as a sweat shop labor camp. Once she made a joke when she thought Dorothy was going to put her back in one. She said if the staff says it is arts and crafts time it really meant they were making moccasins for sale and to let her know what size they wanted her to make them. She also often makes comments or scenarios at the expense of the girls. She typically picks on Blanche's being a bit easy in the sexual sense, Rose being dumb, and Dorothy being dateless. She also shows a very caring side. One of the best examples of this I can think of is when a friend of hers wants to kill herself rather than grow older and older. Sophia is able to talk her out of it. She tells her how we don't know what the future holds but need to be here for it.

I always greatly enjoyed The Golden Girls in large part because of the humor of Sophia Petrillo. I was saddened with her passing a couple years ago. Her suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's is over though. She reminds me of many mothers in that she greatly loved her children but often had that sarcastic side to herself. Now I don't think anyone would ask for a mother like the character of Sophia Petrillo unless they wanted a dysfunctional family though.

Sources

Way too many years of watching syndication of the show.