![DEADLINE EXTENSION DEADLINE EXTENSION](https://cdn.magzter.com/1422886351/1732431779/articles/2h8ot4MVU1732526854231/DEADLINE-EXTENSION.jpg)
The Golden Girls took trips and lovers, ignoring taboos and reframing senior life.
AMERICAN CHRONICLES
It started, like many good things, as a joke. NBC was filming a preview of its 1984 lineup, and Selma Diamond, a comedian in her sixties, had been tasked with introducing "Miami Vice," a flashy affair of Ferraris, cocaine cartels, and designer sports jackets. She pretended to misunderstand. "'Miami Nice'?" At last, a show about retirees, with their mink coats and cha-cha lessons. She got a laugh. And some execs thought it might not be a terrible idea.
The network proposed Diamond's concept to two producers, Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas. The show, an executive explained, should feature ostensibly "over the hill" characters who were nonetheless "young in attitude." Witt brought the idea to the writer Susan Harris, his wife, who came up with a pilot script. Harris had already pushed television's limits with a show featuring an openly gay character ("Soap"), a show about a lusty divorcée ("Fay"), and a controversial storyline about abortion (on "Maude"). Having written four seasons of "Soap" episodes, she was drained and planning to leave television. Still, a sitcom about older women was hard to resist. Here was another barrier to smash, Harris felt "a demographic that had never been addressed."
Denne historien er fra December 02, 2024-utgaven av The New Yorker.
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Denne historien er fra December 02, 2024-utgaven av The New Yorker.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
![SUBJECT AND OBJECT SUBJECT AND OBJECT](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/to6VeZYHB1739191198720/SUBJECT-AND-OBJECT.jpg)
SUBJECT AND OBJECT
What happened when Lillian Ross profiled Ernest Hemingway.
![ROYAL FLUSH ROYAL FLUSH](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/UI6Ma0OcX1739191861348/ROYAL-FLUSH.jpg)
ROYAL FLUSH
The fall of red.
![Roz Chast on George Booth's Cartoons Roz Chast on George Booth's Cartoons](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/pzN_cTFgE1739190398786/ROZ-CHAST-ON-GEORGE-BOOTHS-CARTOONS.jpg)
Roz Chast on George Booth's Cartoons
There's almost nothing I like more than a laughing fit. It is a non-brain response, like an orgasm or a sneeze.
![CHUKA CHUKA](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/ipIKlzJlU1739190624506/CHUKA.jpg)
CHUKA
I have always longed to be known, truly known, by another human being. Sometimes we live for years with yearnings that we cannot name.
![Rachel Aviv on Janet Malcolm's "Trouble in the Archives" Rachel Aviv on Janet Malcolm's "Trouble in the Archives"](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/kA0ClSAKX1739187641551/RACHEL-AVIV-ON-JANET-MALCOLMS-TROUBLE-IN-THE-ARCHIVES.jpg)
Rachel Aviv on Janet Malcolm's "Trouble in the Archives"
As Janet Malcolm worked on \"Trouble in the Archives,\" a two-part piece about prominent psychoanalysts who disagreed about Freud, she began a correspondence with Kurt Eissler, the head of the Sigmund Freud Archives.
![PERSONAL HISTORY - A VISIT TO MADAM BEDI PERSONAL HISTORY - A VISIT TO MADAM BEDI](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/2oD61HcWT1739188467373/PERSONAL-HISTORY-A-VISIT-TO-MADAM-BEDI.jpg)
PERSONAL HISTORY - A VISIT TO MADAM BEDI
I was estranged from my own mother, so a friend tried to lend me his.
![AMERICAN CHRONICLES - WAR OF WORDS AMERICAN CHRONICLES - WAR OF WORDS](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/e3IBpWw0l1739185964212/AMERICAN-CHRONICLES-WAR-OF-WORDS.jpg)
AMERICAN CHRONICLES - WAR OF WORDS
Editors, writers, and the making of a magazine.
![LIVE FROM NEW YORK LIVE FROM NEW YORK](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/1Xcl8aksl1739192099780/LIVE-FROM-NEW-YORK.jpg)
LIVE FROM NEW YORK
A new docuseries commemorates fifty years of \"Saturday Night Live.\"
![TANGLED WEB TANGLED WEB](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/nkepf4WtQ1739191552715/TANGLED-WEB.jpg)
TANGLED WEB
An arachnophobe pays homage to the spider.
![TROUBLE IN PARADISE TROUBLE IN PARADISE](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/8859/1989915/ZS1PsgMcC1739187790416/TROUBLE-IN-PARADISE.jpg)
TROUBLE IN PARADISE
Mike White's mischievous morality plays.