Thank you for being a friend,
Travel down the road and back again,
Your heart is true,
You’re a pal and a confidante!
And if you threw a party,
Invited everyone you knew!
You would see,
The biggest gift would be from me,
And the card attached would say,
Thank you for being a friend!

I know, I’m a soppy git sometimes, but damn if it didn’t depress me when I read that Bea Arthur died on April 25. Anyone who knows me well knows that The Golden Girls remains one of my all-time favorite sitcoms. It’s one of the few that I watched as a child that can still make me laugh today as an adult (probably even more so now since I get so many more of the “adult” jokes than I did back then). And I have to say that Dorothy Zbornak was my favorite of the group (although all of them were absolutely amazing and a joy to watch every week; there was a chemistry there among those women that very few shows are lucky enough to capture).

And then there’s Maude. What an amazing sitcom that was! It’s been years since I watched it on TVLand, but I will still break out a resounding “God’ll get you for that” every now and again.

If anyone out there reading this has never had the pleasure of watching either of these shows, I urge you to rent them and catch up on some damn funny, poignant, and socially relevant television viewing. Bea Arthur was an amazing comedienne and I’m so very glad that she played such a prominent role in my youth and continues to remain important in my life even now. I might even have to break down and buy those Golden Girls DVDs now…