10 TV Shows Dominated By The Last Character You'd Expect

5. Estelle Getty As Sophia Petrillo In The Golden Girls

The Golden Girls is a lot better than it has any right to be. A sitcom about four women above the age of 50 living in Florida sounds awful on paper, and yet it's a brilliant portrayal of later life and shows that this demographic are real people and face the same problems we all do. Without a doubt, the most memorable character is Dorothy Zbornak's mother, played by Estelle Getty. Sophia is a hilariously brash and un-PC relic from a bygone era and was a big reason for the show's success, due to people tuning in to see what outrageous things she'd say that week. But she was originally intended only to appear in the pilot, helping Dorothy to move into her house. After the pilot audience loved Getty's performance and the creators knew they had a hit character on their hands, they decided to have her move into the house full time, her infamous nursing home ("Shady Pines, ma!") having burnt down. Nobody expected an 87 year-old woman to dominate a show about three free-wheeling divorcees and yet she's easily the best, most-rounded and loved character of the entire series, even transitioning into the rubbish spin-off The Golden Palace and upping the quality as much as possible.