Why an episode of The Golden Girls was removed in 2020

The sitcom The Golden Girls debuted in 1985, focusing on four older women in their later years, all either widowed or divorced, who lived together in a house in Miami.

The show starred Bea Arthur as the determined Dorothy, Betty White as the quirky Rose, Rue McClanahan as the flirtatious southern belle Blanche, and Estelle Getty as Dorothy’s lively mother Sophia.

The Golden Girls was a major success, winning Golden Globe awards and Emmys for all four actresses’ performances. The show was loved around the world, airing in over 60 countries, and ran for seven years before concluding with its final episode nearly 30 years ago, when Bea Arthur’s character marries and leaves, causing the group to break apart.

In 2020, however, The Golden Girls found itself in some unexpected controversy.

Hulu, the streaming platform, made the decision to remove an episode of The Golden Girls from its library. This particular episode, titled “Mixed Blessings,” originally aired in 1988. In the episode, Dorothy’s son plans to marry a Black woman who is twice his age. When Dorothy’s son brings his fiancée home, Rose and Blanche are caught off-guard giving each other mud facials. The two women, surprised by the arrival of the couple, are seen with the mud masks resembling blackface. Rose, in an awkward moment, says, “This is mud on our faces. We’re not really Black.”

The episode was removed from Hulu, and it was not the only show to make such a change. Other sitcoms, such as Scrubs and Community, also removed episodes featuring blackface from their respective streaming services.

Tina Fey, the creator and star of 30 Rock, took similar action and requested the removal of four episodes from her show, all of which involved white actors in blackface. Fey explained that, while the intent behind these episodes may not have been to offend, the portrayal of blackface was harmful, and she felt the episodes should be permanently removed from circulation. As she stated, “I understand now that intent is not a free pass for white people to use these images.”

In short, good intentions don’t always shield us from causing offense.