The goddess of comedy, the high priestess of sitcoms, a true Broadway dame, with a razor-sharp tongue & a stare that could make latex paint so afraid it would strip itself from a wall…there isn’t enough praise you can give to Bea Arthur.
Her star turns in Maude (1972-1978) and The Golden Girls (1985-1992) were landmark events in television history, and integral pieces of my childhood TV culture.
Frankly, there’s virtually no one on television at this moment who comes close to being worthy of inheriting her Atlas-heavy mantle. Then again, in this age of vacuous, pretentious, lowest-common-denominator, Simon Callow-wannabe reality programming, she’d be wasted on some unimaginative, 3rd-rate gobshite sitcom.
With the news of her death (I had no idea she was ill), another brilliant living embodiment of my golden-age childhood is forced to make the transition into the realm of misty nostalgia…but thanks to YouTube, we can continue to enjoy those on-screen moments when Bea Arthur raised the art of sarcasm to a majestic height. Enjoy. :D
