Thank you for being a friend, from 1985 to….3033? That’s the idea that BoJack Horseman’s supervising director Mike Hollingsworth has had. He has made a pilot for an animated Golden Girls comedy series set in 3033, using original audio from the sitcom which ran from the mid-80s into the 90s. He is hoping that the pilot turns into a series order.
The five minute pilot starts with the famous theme song, but with different lyrics referring to The Golden Girls finding the Fountain of Youth, which explains why they’re still alive in the future. The famous shot of Dorothy biting her own fist in frustration is recreated in crisp animation – but this time, her fist comes clean off.
The colourful and well-designed animation is reminiscent of The Jetsons – a 1960s animated series set in the future. The dialogue is provided straight from the original episodes, but the animation cleverly updates things – for example Blanche’s disappointing date ice cream is provided by a machine. Estelle Getty’s Sophia is now a head attached to a yellow Transformer-like robot. Dorothy’s ex-husband Stan is reimagined as a giant green tentacled alien.
Speaking to IndieWire, Hollingsworth said; “Out of frustration, I just started coming up with the craziest ideas, like the most ridiculous concepts. I was just riffing in the directors’ room at BoJack, like, ‘Well, of course, I’m also working on a show — it’s The Golden Girls, [but] they find the fountain of youth, and now they’re in the future.’ It made all the directors laugh, so I would return to it conversationally.”
Hollingsworth continued; “Then I realised I’m having so much more fun talking about this ridiculous [show] and ideas for it — like Dorothy’s ex-husband, Stan, is a squid alien — than I was while trying to pitch what they were asking for. It’s ultimately a celebration of the material. With this concept, you’re getting the original performances. These are the words that Susan Harris wrote, and these are the performances that she oversaw as a director.”
Hollingsworth concluded; “My dream for this is to be on Disney+ or Hulu. Even though some of the references may be dated, the comedy and the concepts that they’re dealing with seem so prescient. Young people are still talking about it [The Golden Girls] and buying greeting cards of it, and books of quotes and stuff. It just holds up. The show that I’m pitching could just be the beginning of the whole Golden Girls-a-verse — like the Marvel Universe, but with The Golden Girls.”
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