In 1992, CBS commissioned a spin-off of the hugely popular series Golden Girls, starring most of the original cast. The show's premise was simple: The girls (sans Dorothy) moved into and started running an upscale hotel. Unfortunately the show only lasted one season before being canceled.

Considering almost all the main cast from "Golden Girls carried over to "Golden Palace" it was more of a continuation of "Golden Girls" than a spin-off.

The music cues remained the same, which was a nice thing (and saved them a few bucks:p), but I still consider it a spin-off.

The problem was that Dorothy was the straight (wo)man of the other three. All four of them worked in balance with each other. If Bea Arthur would have stayed, and one of the other women left, it may have worked. However, I think the four of them had a good chemistry together that did not work without one of the other members. Viewers can be fickle and do not accept a loss of a critical cast member and move on.

Also, the storyline was a bit ridiculous. These three women, two in their 60's and one in her 80's, were going to buy and run a Miami Beach hotel? Where did they get the money? Miami property is very expensive and exclusive.

On The Golden Girls, the women all had jobs except Sophia. The reason the women got together was that Blanche needed boarders to pay the bills. Dorothy was a teacher, Rose worked more or less minimum wage. Sophia was living on Social Security probably with little savings from Salvadore.

Even if they hit the lottery, none of them have any experience in running a hotel business.

I don't know, I think the writing was a bit different on this show than Golden Girls and if Bea stayed on for one more season I think this show would have never happened. I do think this show if they had better writing than it would've worked better. But I accually liked some of this show cause it was good in some of the episodes but if Bea would've stayed than we would've had an 8th season.

For all intents and purposes--such as syndication and DVD....it should be treated like an 8th season. Hallmark should have bought it to rerun with GG and Disney should just release it on DVD and get it over with!

i think of it as an 8th season in fact i sometimes forget to refer to the show as golden palace and still refer to the seasons ep as golden girls eps

It was a spin-off...the same way John Ritter's show "Three's A Crowd" was spin-off from "Three's Company" (minus his room-mates), the way "Archie Bunker's Place" was a spin-off from "All In The Family" (minus his original family), the way 'Woman of the House' tried to be a spin-off from 'Designing Woman' (Delta Burke minus the rest of the cast).

All were equally bad, all were big mistakes (IMO. The original shows worked like a fine-tuned clock because everything was in harmony (cast, writing, directing). Once one element leaves, the clock doesn't work efficiently.

The producers and networks should have made classic shows (Golden Girls, Three's Company, All In The Family, Designing Women) go gracefully out to pasture (like 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' did), and stop milking the proverbial cash cow.

It was a spin-off...the same way John Ritter's show "Three's A Crowd" was spin-off from "Three's Company" (minus his room-mates), the way "Archie Bunker's Place" was a spin-off from "All In The Family" (minus his original family), the way 'Woman of the House' tried to be a spin-off from 'Designing Woman' (Delta Burke minus the rest of the cast).

All were equally bad, all were big mistakes (IMO. The original shows worked like a fine-tuned clock because everything was in harmony (cast, writing, directing). Once one element leaves, the clock doesn't work efficiently.

The producers and networks should have made classic shows (Golden Girls, Three's Company, All In The Family, Designing Women) go gracefully out to pasture (like 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' did), and stop milking the proverbial cash cow.


Well said.

GG ended on a good note and so did Three's Company. Neither of them should have had the "extension" spin-offs. Designing Women should have ended a year or two before it did...they really ran it into the ground.

IMHO...the most successful spin-offs were those that came out of characters on shows that took their own shows while the original shows were still on...

like Good Times and Maude and the Jeffersons from All In the Family...
like Empty Nest from Golden Girls...
like Rhoda from The Mary Tyler Moore Show...
like The Facts of Life from Diff'rent Strokes...
like Knots Landing from Dallas...
I'll even go so far as to say like Mama's Family from The Carol Burnett Show. (and I could go on and on)

I just don't think that "extension" spin-offs work because everyone is expecting a continuation of the original show and that usually just isn't what it is.

I'm not trying to hijack the thread, but I would be interested if anyone knows which show has prompted the most spin-offs.

:) :)

A little of both. Last night on You Tube I watched episodes 3,4,5 and 13. They were all very funny and thought it could last 3 or 4 years at least. But to answer the question, I’ll say spin-off.

I consider it to have been a total fail that is best forgotten (or, at the very least, just a bad dream of the characters and/or writers).

Oh, and I hate that after it was over, Blanche and Rose's whereabouts wound up unknown BUT Sophia wound up BACK at Shady Pines just so she could be a wisecracking Pez dispenser for the awful 'Empty Nest' show!

Truly, they should have just ended it without any spinoffs whatsoever!

i missed seeing Dorothy on there

I consider it to have been a total fail that is best forgotten (or, at the very least, just a bad dream of the characters and/or writers).

Oh, and I hate that after it was over, Blanche and Rose's whereabouts wound up unknown BUT Sophia wound up BACK at Shady Pines just so she could be a wisecracking Pez dispenser for the awful 'Empty Nest' show!

Truly, they should have just ended it without any spinoffs whatsoever!

I didn't realize the end of Golden Palace was the end of Blanche and Rose's characters, but indeed I couldn't find any such appearances by Rue McClanahan and Betty White after 1993. Maybe they were just ready to move on.
I personally remember very little of Golden Palace, because by the time it aired I was into high school and Friday nights were taken up with sports and marching band. I barely watched Empty Nest at all during its run.

Well said.

GG ended on a good note and so did Three's Company. Neither of them should have had the "extension" spin-offs. Designing Women should have ended a year or two before it did...they really ran it into the ground.

IMHO...the most successful spin-offs were those that came out of characters on shows that took their own shows while the original shows were still on...

like Good Times and Maude and the Jeffersons from All In the Family...
like Empty Nest from Golden Girls...
like Rhoda from The Mary Tyler Moore Show...
like The Facts of Life from Diff'rent Strokes...
like Knots Landing from Dallas...
I'll even go so far as to say like Mama's Family from The Carol Burnett Show. (and I could go on and on)

I just don't think that "extension" spin-offs work because everyone is expecting a continuation of the original show and that usually just isn't what it is.

I'm not trying to hijack the thread, but I would be interested if anyone knows which show has prompted the most spin-offs.

:) :)

I'm going to disagree about Rhoda. She was good as a second banana but not as a lead. Then they caused that disaster of a marriage and then divorce.