Friends sitcom

Eulalia   Friday, June 27, 2003, 14:49 GMT
I guess it is for Oscar Wilde. If anything wrong, please correct me Bayou Rover.
JOE   Monday, June 30, 2003, 08:46 GMT
WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND ?
JOANNE   Monday, June 30, 2003, 08:47 GMT
YES PLEASE I'M A LONER
The Golden Girls   Monday, June 30, 2003, 17:49 GMT
Cable's hot show? Try 'The Golden Girls'
Lifetime reruns reaching whole new audience
Monday, June 30, 2003 Posted: 10:47 AM EDT (1447 GMT)
The "Golden Girls" cast in 1988: Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty, occasional star Jack Gilford, Bea Arthur and Betty White.
• Lifetime: 'The Golden Girls'

NEW YORK (AP) -- Four wisecracking women who love to talk about sex star in one of television's hottest shows -- but it's not what you're thinking.

Forget "Sex and the City." The Lifetime network has a hit on its hands with "The Golden Girls."

The show airs seven times each weekday on the cable network, and this month's retrospective, "The Golden Girls: Their Greatest Memories," was the highest-rated special in Lifetime's 19-year history. The show with four gray-haired ladies is an unexpected hit among young women.

"I think it's amazing," said actress Betty White, who starred as the naive Rose Nylund in the series, which aired on NBC from 1985 to 1992. Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty co-starred.

When she's out now, White said, she's recognized more for her role in "The Golden Girls" than for the beloved "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," where she played WJM-TV's happy homemaker.

"The Golden Girls" is the most popular sitcom rerun on cable television after "Seinfeld" and "Friends." It's even watched more now than "The Cosby Show," considered the quintessential 1980s sitcom.

"It's going to be rerun 50 years from now, I guarantee you," said Tim Brooks, Lifetime's research director and a television historian. "It's a show that isn't specific to its time and is very much about people."

Lifetime began airing "The Golden Girls" in 1997 and it was popular from the start, although attention from the reunion has given it a boost lately. Lifetime estimates some 13 million people per week watch it.

Besides the seven weekday airings, Lifetime shows it twice on Saturday. On Sundays, the ladies rest.

Lifetime was somewhat surprised to find its 11 p.m. ET airing is watched by as many women aged 18 to 34 as are watching MTV at that hour, Brooks said. More than a quarter of the mail Lifetime gets about the series is from college students, he said.

That's probably because the characters on the show had an attitude toward life that was very young, Brooks said.

"They didn't care about what people thought," he said. "They were sexually active and were not afraid to talk about it. They may have been mature women, but they were 20-year-olds in 50-year-old bodies."

While the characters were saucy, they usually weren't mean, he said.

White said the show's longevity is a tribute to its fine writers. And the characters may provide something of a surrogate family to viewers, she said.

"A lot of households now don't have grandmothers," she said. "I think they get a kick out of the fact that we're still viable."

White still sees McClanahan and Arthur or chats with them regularly. Getty, unfortunately, was unable to participate in the reunion special.

True to "The Golden Girls" spirit, the veteran actress scoffs at the idea of retiring.

"They'll have to carry me out feet first," White said. "That's when I'll retire."
Polo   Monday, June 30, 2003, 18:27 GMT
I love 'the Golden Girls'. They are hilarious. I like Sophia for being frank, Rose for her awkwardness and Dorothy for being sharp.
Jim   Tuesday, July 01, 2003, 00:11 GMT
Nice cut and paste job about "The Golden Girls". Why haven't you properly attributed this to the author? At least you could give us the source of your cut and paste. For example:

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/ap/20030627/105675528000.html
http://wcbs880.com/entertainment/TV-GoldenGirls-ae/resources_news_html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/932249.asp?0si=-&cp1=1

Then, on the other hand, wouldn't it have been better to give us the link and let us read for ourselves? But I still have to wonder why you even posted this here at all: no opinions, just cut and paste. What's your point?
Polo   Tuesday, July 01, 2003, 02:08 GMT
Sorry Jim
I took it on CNN.com.
Boy•   Tuesday, July 01, 2003, 02:14 GMT
Buddy, What do you think about my ID? I mean, a dark "circle" next to my name.
Fred   Tuesday, July 01, 2003, 08:50 GMT
Whenever American use 'buddy', I feel a little bit offended. Am I wrong or being touchy ? Here an example of "boy".

>>Buddy, What do you think about my ID? I mean, a dark "circle" next to my name.<<
Julian   Tuesday, July 01, 2003, 22:02 GMT
>>> Whenever American use 'buddy', I feel a little bit offended. Am I wrong or being touchy ? Here an example of "boy". <<<

I think you're being a tad too touchy. "Buddy" is just another way of saying "friend" or "pal" (e.g. "Hey buddy! What's going on?)

At times, when we don't know a person's name but we need to address him (such as a stranger on a street), we'll refer to him as "buddy" (e.g. "Hey buddy, which way is Sunset?"). This is like calling someone "mate" in Australia, "amigo" in Latin America, or "dude" in Los Angeles.
mjd   Tuesday, July 01, 2003, 22:42 GMT
As an American, I think it depends on how "buddy" is used. I, for example, don't like it when a customer (I'm a waiter) calls me over as "hey buddy." I think it's somewhat rude.
zambi   Monday, July 07, 2003, 21:26 GMT
I've never watched 'sex and the city'. Is it worth watching ?
Tobias   Tuesday, July 08, 2003, 21:05 GMT
Hi, I watched Sex and the city just one time. And I think that it is not worth watching. Friends is a thousand times better.
Jim   Wednesday, July 09, 2003, 01:31 GMT
If "Sex In The City" is a thousand times worse than "Friends" it certainly ain't worth watching.

That's okay, Polo, I was just having a whinge. I haven't seen the show for years but I never liked it much, as far as I can recall.
dian   Wednesday, July 09, 2003, 04:25 GMT
'Friends' is also popular in my country, Indonesia. In my country, most of people who live in the big cities love American movies.

I also like to watch 'Friends'. They are funny. Actually, I like to watch American sitcom, such as: 'Who's the Boss?', 'Growing Pains', 'The Nanny', 'Full House', etc.