Julio Iglesias & Stevie Wonder "My Love"

A handful of celebrities appeared on The Golden Girls as themselves. Notably, Burt Reynolds appeared as himself as did singer Julio Iglesias. About a year after charting the duet "My Love" with Stevie Wonder, Julio played himself in the episode Valentines Day. Throughout that particular show, Sophia (Estelle Getty) claimed to have a date for the infamous Hallmark holiday while the rest of the girls sat around the kitchen table sharing exploits from past Valentine's Days. Finally, at the end of the episode, Sophia's date entered and he turned out to be Iglesias.

Jordan Hill "Remember Me This Way"

People always associate me with the television show The Golden Girls. Like many fans my age, I didn't choose to watch the show when it first aired, but rather I watched it secondhand while staying at my grandparents house in the 1980s. My parents separated in 1985 and my brother and I spent every other weekend shuttling between grandparents houses. My grandparents lived for Saturday nights at 8:00 P.M. when they welcomed four geriatric women from Miami into their living room. Sophia (played by Estelle Getty) occasionally farted on the show which caused my grandmother to laugh hysterically.

Into my teens and twenties, the show became a sort of comfort blanket for me. Each character reminded me of someone (except for Blanche) and made them identifiable. When my college roommates first walked in on me watching an episode of The Golden Girls on Lifetime ("Television for Women...and Todd," they used to say), I was forever branded with this show being part of my legacy. This, in turn, leads to my Facebook page getting littered with articles whenever any Golden Girls-related news breaks: Bea Arthur's obituary (a sad day indeed), a Golden Girls-themed restaurant opening in New York City (which has since closed), and the recent Golden Girls cereal (available only at Target).

After trying to ignore this unwanted attention or pretending I don't really like the show, I've learned to embrace it. The show succeeded on television by targeting a forgotten audience (those ages 55 and older) on a forgotten night of television (Saturdays) and providing them with seven seasons of a well-written, well-produced comedy that still holds up today. Betty White is the lone remaining living star from the show that launched the careers of so many folks (Marc Cherry who went on to create Desperate Housewives got his start on The Golden Girls).

Before a recent lengthy plane ride, I loaded my phone with podcasts to pass the miles in the sky. Along with my usual podcasts about the dreadful Chicago White Sox, I added the first episode of Let Them Eat Cheesecake: A Golden Girls podcast. Four fans of the show (including two Chicagoans who also have a Chicago Cubs podcast) discuss and analyze each golden episode of the show. After getting past the gratuitous giggling from some of the hosts in the podcast's first few minutes, I actually found myself enjoying it and learning things about a series in which I've seen every episode at least a dozen times.

I suppose there are worse ways to be remembered, so I'll simple wear this Golden Girls thing and just thank you for being a friend... 

Andrew Gold - "Thank You For Being A Friend"

I produced a morning radio show in 2003 that was one of the toughest gigs of my career.  Management micro-managed the show from its inception...and for good reason.  After recognizing the show wasn't clicking (with listeners and with the hosts), they changed the direction of the show from personality-driven to a music-intensive morning show with a couple short breaks each hour for content.  We adhered to an eight-song per hour rule--meaning that we had to play eight songs every hour and, if we had time, could use the left-over time for content.

During one morning, the hosts discussed the previous night's Lifetime reunion special of The Golden Girls.  After talking about how they felt there was something missing from the TV special, it finally hit me: the famous Golden Girl's theme song was missing.  I quickly chimed in and shared my thoughts and the conversation ended.  About an hour later, a woman dialed up our station's studio line and introduced herself as Cindy Fee.  She explained that a friend of hers was listening to our station and heard us talking about her.  I told her that maybe she had our station mixed up with our sister station, The Mix, as we always received phone calls from people wanting to chime in on whatever topic The Mix was discussing.  Miss Fee said that she had the correct station and identified herself as the singer of "Thank You For Being A Friend"--more commonly known as the theme song to The Golden Girls.  I quickly Googled "Cindy Fee" to see if her story checked out, and it did.  Not only did Cindy sing the song that Andrew Gold made a hit in 1978, but she also lived in nearby Oak Park, Illinois and still performed with a jazz band.  We put Cindy on the air and she bravely belted out "Thank You For Being A Friend"...over the phone...at 8:50 A.M.  It was one of those "oh wow" moments that I'll never forget for multiple reasons--for one, I realized people outside of our tiny radio studio were actually listening.

Dionne Warwick & Friends - "That's What Friends Are For"

Here is a short list of Dionne Warwick's friends: Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder, and Elton John.  That aside, when a throw-down happens among songs about Friends, I much prefer the theme song to The Golden Girls.