‘The Golden Girls’: Betty White and Her Costars Cut More Than 100 Cheesecakes During the Series
Betty White spent seven years portraying Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls. The character, who was initially going to be played by Rue McClanahan, became one of history’s most beloved television characters. The series, itself, became a cult classic, and there wouldn’t have been a show without a slice of cheesecake. The four famed housemates often discussed their troubles over a piece of the decadent dessert in the late-night hours. Do you have any clue just how many cheesecakes they sliced into during the show’s run? It’s probably more than you think.
How long would it take to binge-watch ‘The Golden Girls’
Betty White and her costars spent seven years portraying their characters on The Golden Girls. The show’s seven seasons included 180 episodes. White reprised her role for an additional 24 episodes in The Golden Palace, a brief and unsuccessful spinoff. If you were to sit down and watch the entire series from start to finish, you’d be sitting on your couch for a while. It would take three days and 18 hours to finish the show. You’d need to tack on an additional 12 hours if you want to watch the spinoff, too.
During those three days, you would likely get pretty hungry. The Golden Girls might not have been a food show, but food played a crucial role in many scenes. In fact, the ladies spent a good amount of time in their kitchen, and food was always present. No food item was as present as cheesecake, though.
More than 100 cheesecakes were cut during the seven seasons of ‘The Golden Girls’
The Golden Girls was filled with many fantastic moments, and they often revolved around Rose, Blanche Devereaux, Dorothy Zbornak, and Sophia Petrillo’s kitchen table. While Sophia was known for making Italian fare and Rose usually cooked up obscure Scandinavian dishes, the ladies almost always had a cheesecake in the freezer. According to IMDb, around 100 cheesecakes were divided up and eaten during the show’s 180 episodes. That means the foursome ingested one cheesecake in just over 55% of the show’s episodes.
Dorothy even once suggested that the group ate more than the implied 100 cheesecakes. In one episode, she says that they had eaten 147 cheesecakes after Rose inquires about just how many they’ve shared. Sure, the answer was an annoyed quip at the ever-simple Rose, but apparently, she wasn’t too far off.
Betty White’s Rose Nylund wasn’t the only TV character with a go-to food item
White and her costars might have sliced up a ton of cheesecake while on the set of The Golden Girls, but they are far from the only television stars whose characters had food items that they always ate. In fact, Vulture notes that there are a variety of shows where food plays a prominent role and, in some cases, can even be considered a supporting character. It is certainly true in Gilmore Girls and Sex and the City.
Sex and the City aired years after The Golden Girls, but they share a couple of connections. Not only are both shows about four single ladies making it work in a metropolitan city, but just like Rose and her pals went to cheesecake when things were looking bleak, Carrie and her friends had a go-to drink. The Sex and the City ladies often discussed the drama of their lives over a cosmopolitan.
Gilmore Girls came even later, and while the show’s premise is unique from The Golden Girls, food also played a major role in the series. Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter, Rory Gilmore, were coffee fiends who preferred the comfort of pizza over the complex meals served up at their family’s Friday night dinners. They consumed close to 40 pizzas during the show’s seven-season run, and more than 500 cups of coffee were poured. While it’s not the 100+ cheesecakes that the golden girls ate, it’s surely a lot of pizza and a ton of coffee for a single series.
