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The Running Gag where Sophia would talk about how bad her retirement home was and how she was mistreated there was always played for laughs, but in a later episode in which the girls deal with actual elder abuse, not played for laughs, Sophia admits that she wasn't all too serious about Shady Pines.
Jokes about Sophia's forgetfulness felt very different after Estelle Getty's Alzheimer's diagnosis.
When Dorothy and her sister argue over who Sophia's favorite was, they end up making a lot of jokes at their brother Phil's expense. It becomes way more tragic when he dies, and Sophia is left to grapple with the loss and accepting his old crossdressing habit.
Harsher in Hindsight: At the end of an episode where Sophia rescues a friend from a nursing home, the girls make a pact to take care of each other, and Rose asks, "What happens when there's only one of us left?" Cut to 2011, where Betty White (Rose) actually is the only one of them left. It goes even further: in the show, after that line, Sophia (the oldest character) mentions "Don't worry, I can take care of myself." In real life, Estelle Getty (Sophia), who was younger than both Bea Arthur and Betty White, was the first to go.
This trope's not even limited to the main cast. "It's a Miserable Life" and "'Til Death Do We Volley" are harder to watch now that Nan Martin and Anne Francis have passed away.
It Got Worse, Betty White is now the only sole remaining lead cast member left, now that Dorothy, Blanche, Sophia, Stan, and Miles have all passed away.
Betty White passed away in 2021 just weeks shy of her 100th birthday. This is both painful due to the loss of such a good person and sadly heartwarming now that she's at least been reunited with her castmates in the afterlife.
Hilarious in Hindsight: In a special two-part episode, Rose (Betty White) had a heart attack and had to stay in the hospital and was looped out (moreso than usual) on prescription medication. In a scene with her daughter, Rose yells "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" in her delirium. Fast forward to 2010, where, thanks to publicity from a Facebook petition, Betty White did get to host SNL, becoming the show's oldest host (at age 88 and a half), the first SNL host to be picked via online petition (but not the first to be picked by viewers; that honor goes to Miskel Spillman, who won the "Anyone Can Host SNL" contest — and was considered the oldest host the show ever had until Betty White usurped the title — back in 1977), and the second cast member from The Golden Girls to host SNL (Bea Arthur was the first [hosted a season five episode in 1979], but this was before The Golden Girls was created).
With all the jokes about how masculine Dorothy was, it's funny to hear about Bea Arthur's stint in the Marine Corps.
Hollywood Pudgy: Blanche and Rose are frequently the target of barbs about their weight even though they look exactly the way two middle-aged women who have had several children would look. In another episode, when Blanche's daughter Becky visits, though she is in fact overweight, the others react as though she's morbidly obese. (Of course, her weight issues are later retconned when the actress is replaced.)
Ironically, Betty White has no children (though she has three stepchildren from her marriage to Allen Ludden), and Rue McClanahan had only one. The trope still rings very true, however.
Dorothy and Blanche's roleplaying in "Forgive Me, Father". Justified in that Blanche is trying to show Dorothy how to ask a man to dinner.
Also, sort of demonstrated here in an episode where Rose and Blanche have joined a dirty dancing class.
While Dorothy and Blanche responding to Rose's personal pretending to be an interested man was a bad move no matter how well they meant, Dorothy tells a humiliated Rose that they meant everything they said in the letters. Keep in mind that the letters were very romantic and made Rose swoon like a schoolgirl.
When Dorothy's lesbian friend Jean confesses to having feelings for Rose, Rose tells her that if she leaned that way she'd be flattered.
Mondegreen: "You would see the biggest gift would be from me/And the heart attack would say 'Thank you for being a friend'" ("And the card attached would say")
Periphery Demographic: This show was - and continues to be - very popular with young people. Betty White, when asked why that might be, gave the simplest (and probably most accurate) explanation: "It's funny!"
The series also has a huge gay following, but that's probably because the show was very gay-conscious even at a time when it wasn't acceptable. Besides Coco in the pilot, there are entire episodes dealing with AIDS, crossdressing, gay marriage, coming out, accepting gay family members, and one that addressed non-family members trying to see their loved ones in the hospital. On a less serious note, the snarky dialogue and Blanche's proud promiscuity didn't hurt either.
Mario Lopez made an appearance on the show before Saved by the Bell aired.
In the episode "Brother, Can You Spare That Jacket?" Sophia donates a jacket that Blanche has placed winning lottery tickets in to the Salvation Army. Michael Jackson happens to pop by the Salvation Army and wears it for his show, and they must find where it is located. Michael himself joked about this show with his friends for years later, and recorded instances can be seen on Youtube.
Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: Quite a few, as the show often tackled topics like AIDS and homosexuality. One particular episode showed the girls trying to get back a jacket that had accidentally been donated to a charity auction with a winning lottery ticket in the pocket. They end up spending the night in a homeless shelter, and their conversations with the homeless illustrate how anybody can wind up in that situation.
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