The Golden Girls was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. While the series was largely seen as a comedy it did over the years conquer some pretty serious topics. During the shows seven season run Dorothy Zbornak Sophia Petrillo Blanche Devereaux and Rose Nylund dealt with death the HIV/AIDS epidemic sexuality and discrimination. One hard hitting topic was particularly close to the show creator heart. Susan Harris once referred to a season 5 episode as her revenge script.
The season 5 premiere of The Golden Girls was a two part episode focused heavily on Dorothy. In the first half Dorothy feels awful. She turns to a series of doctors all who fail to find anything wrong with her. With a lack of observable abnormalities they put her illness down to mental health or age.
In the second part Dorothy finds a doctor who finally listens to her and gives her the consideration she had been searching for. With a diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Dorothy finds the courage to confront one of the doctors who had belittled her and dismissed her symptoms. While the series largely focused on Dorothy, according to IMDb it was actually Rue McClanahans favorite episode. McClanahan portrayed Blanche for all seven seasons of The Golden Girls. She also reprised her role in The Golden Palace.
While more than 200,000 cases of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are diagnosed each year now when Harris found herself feeling profoundly tired, regardless of the amount of rest she got she was in uncharted territory. Harris told Vulture she saw multiple doctors about her symptoms but was largely brushed off. They suggested she dye her hair or questioned whether there were issues in her relationship. In short Harris revealed, the doctors simply didn’t believe there was a physical cause for her symptoms. They insisted her symptoms were emotion-based.
She only learned about CFS from a magazine article about a woman who was battling the illness. Harris symptoms were later connected to an issue with her adrenal gland. Still she penned the episode for all those who felt brushed off by doctors or whose physical symptoms were largely ignored. She told Vulture that the script was her revenge script.
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