Claim: The Golden Girls stars Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo.

The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris that originally aired on NBC from September 14 , 1985 , to May 9 , 1992 , with a total of 180 half-hour episodes spanning over seven seasons . The show stars Beatrice Arthur , Betty White , Rue McClanahan , and Estelle Getty , as four older women who share a home in Miami , Florida . It was produced by Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions , in association with Touchstone Television , and Paul Junger Witt , Tony Thomas , and Harris served as the original executive producers .   The Golden Girls received critical acclaim throughout most of its run and won several awards , including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series twice . It also won three Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series -- Musical or Comedy . Each of the four stars received an Emmy Award -LRB- from multiple nominations during the series ' run -RRB- , making it one of only three sitcoms in the award 's history to achieve this . The series also ranked among the top-10 highest-rated programs for six of its seven seasons . In 2013 , TV Guide ranked The Golden Girls number 54 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time . In 2014 , the Writers Guild of America placed the sitcom at number 69 in their list of the `` 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time '' .