Bea Arthur was an amazing talent, as seen in Maude and The Golden Girls. Casting her was difficult because Arthur knew not to settle in her acting career. Her talents were reserved for parts she truly enjoyed, and nothing was truer than her role as Dorothy in The Golden Girls.

Part of the reason Arthur took the role was because of the "brilliant" script for the pilot episode of The Golden Girls. The series focused on four single women — two widows, a divorcee, and her mother — spending their golden years under one roof in Miami. A perfect sitcom setup. 

According to a 1985 interview with the Houston Post, Arthur read the pilot script before accepting the role. 

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"I read the pilot script and I found it incredibly good, adult and witty," Arthur said. "I don’t need the money, and I’m not going back to work for the sake of going back to work."

Other green flags for Arthur included the casting of her Golden Girl friends, which included Rue McClanahan, Betty White, and Estelle Getty, as well as an amazing production team. All of these factors helped put an experienced actress at ease.

Before The Golden Girls, she was best known for her role in Maude and put a great deal of dedication into the series, as she did later with The Golden Girls. The biggest difference was the characters, but Arthur’s approach to them remained the same.

Many viewers had a hard time separating Maude from her character on The Golden Girls, but Arthur saw a clear distinction.

"If people see it that way, it’s because I’m still 5 feet 9 inches with a deep voice — what the hell can I do about it?" Arthur said. "Dorothy will interact differently with the ladies than Maude would."

Although she was largely inactive after Maude, she said it was by choice and that she was waiting for the perfect script to come along and entice her back. Luckily for all of us, that was The Golden Girls.

"I simply decided that I was in a position to wait and only do something that really, completely interested me," Arthur said.