NEED TO KNOW
Bonnie Bartlett played a snooty, anti-Semitic author in a 1988 episode of The Golden Girls
The actress has been married to her St. Elsewhere and Boy Meets World costar William Daniels since 1951
Bartlett won two consecutive Emmys for her role as Ellen Craig on St. Elsewhere
Bonnie Bartlett has had a long, successful television career playing a wide variety of roles, including Grace Snider Edwards on Little House on the Prairie, Ellen Craig on St. Elsewhere and Lila Bolander on Boy Meets World. She’s won two Emmys (both for St. Elsewhere) and earned great acclaim, and at least once, she’s been showered with applause and with boos — all on the same day.
That memorable moment came in 1988 when she was guest-starring in a season 3 episode of the NBC sitcom The Golden Girls titled “Dorothy’s New Friend.” Bartlett played a snooty author named Barbara Thorndyke who befriends Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur). While Dorothy is flattered by the attention from a successful writer, her roommates, Blanche Devereaux (Rue McLanahan) and Rose Nylund (Betty White), are turned off by Barbara’s arrogance and superficiality.
Things come to an unexpected head near the end of the episode when Barbara invites the ladies to dine at an exclusive members-only club. But after being introduced to the man Dorothy’s mother, Sophia (Estelle Getty), is bringing as her date, Barbara notices he has a Jewish surname. When she privately tells Dorothy they can’t go to the country club because it is restricted, Dorothy throws her out.
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The stars of ‘The Golden Girls’ From left: Betty White, Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty and Bea Arthur.
The episode made quite an impression on Bartlett, her costars and the audience, all for different reasons. Bartlett, 96, who had previously auditioned for a guest role as Dorothy’s lesbian friend Jean in 1986, says she wasn’t too concerned about playing Barbara Thorndyke’s dark turn when she took the role.
“I didn’t think that much of it,” she recalls. “I didn’t think that it was that unusual or anything. But then when we were shooting it, they had three different old gentlemen that came in [to play Sophia’s date] and [two] quit. So I think we ended up with the third one. These are just day players, but they were offended. And then that’s when I realized that the two old gentlemen gave up a day’s work because they were offended by the scene.”
Apparently, so was the live audience, judging by their reaction to Bartlett during the curtain call at the end of the taping. “When I came out before the show, there was applause,” she says. “They knew me from Ellen Craig. And when I came out after the show, they booed me. My husband, Billy, said, ‘That’s what you get for taking an anti-Semitic part.’ “
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William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett on ‘Boy Meets World’ in 1999.
Billy, of course, is her husband of 74 years, William Daniels, 98, who played her St. Elsewhere character’s husband, Dr. Mark Craig, and also appeared with her on Boy Meets World, where he played George Feeny. In 1986, the St. Elsewhere costars became the first married couple in 21 years to win Emmys on the same night.
Bartlett says her mother inspired her approach to playing the controversial character: “[She was] always giving you a really nice smile but putting you down.”
So, in the nearly 40 years after her episode aired, did the actress, who has more than 100 acting credits on her resume, ever get recognized for her infamous one-off on The Golden Girls? “Yes. Oh, yes. Yes,” says Bartlett, whose memorabilia website Bill and Bonnie Daniels offers “75 years of memories” from both her and her husband’s careers. “Of course, at the conventions that my husband and I do a lot of. But yes, people have on the street or in a restaurant come over and said, ‘Barbara Thorndyke,’ and I was always surprised when that happened.”
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Bea Arthur (left) and Bonnie Bartlett on ‘The Golden Girls’
“At first when it happened,” she continues, “I didn’t know what they were talking about, you know, because it was quite a few years after. And then somebody had made, what do you call it, on the internet, a Barbara Thorndyke section for a while. She had her own thing there!”
This fall, ABC News will air a one-hour special marking the 40th anniversary of The Golden Girls. All seven seasons are available to stream on Hulu.
Read the original article on People
