The Golden Girls: Tales from the Lanai Edited by Taylor Cole Miller

 

Title: The Golden Girls:  Tales from the Lanai

Edited by: Taylor Cole Miller 

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer, Tanya Eby, Diontae Black

Publisher: Highbridge Audio

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 56 minutes

Source: Review copy from NetGalley.  Thank-you!

What is your favorite nostalgic show?  I have several including The Golden Girls, Magnum PI, Murder She Wrote, and Little House on the Prairie.  Can you tell I was a child of the 1980s?

The Golden Girls:  Tales from the Lanai is a collection of essays that explore the “cultural, industrial, and historical impact of the beloved American sitcom.”  Why does the Golden Girls still resonate forty years after it first aired?

My thoughts on this audiobook:

·       The Golden Girls:  Tales from the Lanai is a nonfiction book on the show, actors, scenes, and episodes, and the impacts they made on society and culture.

·       I listened to the audiobook, and it was fascinating.  I enjoyed the different narrators.

·       I enjoyed the details on how the show was produced, and its narrative structure (flashbacks, lines, etc.)

·       2025 is the fortieth anniversary of the premiere of The Golden Girls television show.  It’s a perfect time to analyze and think about what makes this show so good.

·       There has been a resurgence in popularity in The Golden Girls over the last five years.  It’s one of my own comfort shows that I like to watch.  I didn’t realize it had had a resurgence in popularity as it’s always been popular to me.

·       What is “nostalgic” viewing and why is The Golden Girls a part of it?  Nostalgic viewing includes episodic shows with storylines that are wrapped up in one episode.  Familiarity also fuels nostalgic viewing.

·       The Golden Girls gained a new following and resurgence when it started appearing on Hulu during the 2020 lockdown.  As a family we started watching Magnum PI during this time for similar reasons.

·       I loved recognizing the episodes and scenes in various essays included in this book.

·       It is interesting how this comedy was one of Disney’s biggest successes in the 1980s.

·       It is also interesting how progressive the show was for the 1980s with gay characters, older women having sex lives, Rose having an Aids scare, etc.

·       It was interesting that The Golden Girls premiered on Saturday nights during a block of black programming that included Gimme a Break and 227.  I loved these shows as a kid.   The Golden Girls appealed to black viewers in the 1980s and was one of the top shows in that demographic.

·       There was a warning at the beginning of the book that this is an academic book, not just for casual fans.  I am not a Golden Girls academic, but I understood it and enjoyed the details.

Overall, The Golden Girls:  Tales from the Lanai Edited by Taylor Cole Miller was a fascinating nonfiction audiobook on the details of one of my favorite nostalgic shows and its place in history.  I recommend this for fans of The Golden Girls.