TVSquad

One of the Golden Girls has died.

Estelle Getty, who played Bea Arthur's mother (even though Arthur was a year older in real life) on the NBC hit comedy Golden Girls (which also starred Betty White and Rue McClanahan), passed away this morning in Los Angeles. Getty was 84 years old and had been suffering from a disease known as Lewy Body Dementia for a number of years.

Getty appeared in several other TV shows over the years, including the Golden Girls spinoff The Golden Palace (which also starred a young Don Cheadle), Empty Nest, Nurses, Brotherly Love, Mad About You, Touched By An Angel, Blossom, Newhart, Hotel, and many others. She also appeared in the movies Tootsie, Mask, Mannequin, and Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot!

Interesting trivia: Getty played her Sophia Petrillo character in no less than five different shows: Golden Girls, Empty Nest, The Golden Palace, Nurses, and Blossom. That's gotta be some sort of record. She also played a character named Sophia in an episode of Ladies Man in 2000, though the character had a different last name.

Back in January I gave my list of Great Shows, Bad Characters. And now it's time to reverse that and name five great characters trapped in bad TV shows.

1. Hawk (A Man Called Hawk): Not only is Hawk (from Spenser: For Hire) one of the great characters of 80s television, he's one of the great characters of television history. And Avery Brooks...what a perfect actor for the role. No one else could have played Robert B. Parker's character like Brooks (see the later Spenser flicks for proof of that). But then they gave him his own show, moving him to D.C., and he started playing the piano and getting all mushy. Eh. Great character, bad show.

We thought for sure that William Shatner's kidney stone would go to the ultimate Star Trek fan. Alas, it turns out the stone has gone where many strange objects have gone before: GoldenPalace.com. That crazy online casino bought Shatner's kidney stone for $25,000 (which he's donating to Habitat for Humanity). Golden Palace also owns a cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary and recently funded a trip for Dennis Rodman to visit foreign lands and compete in unusual contests. Shatner actually haggled with the casino for more money. The original offer was for $15,000 but Shatner told them that he had some fans willing to pay $100,000. Then, why didn't he sell it to a fan? Guess he was bluffing.