Television used to be good. It used to be perfect, in fact.

Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia used to sit around their kitchen table in Miami, eat cheesecake, and read the filth out of each other. They also used to raise provocative, hilarious, and, more than that, truthful conversation about the way their lives were changing as they got older—and how the world around them was changing, too.

Sunday night was the 40th anniversary of The Golden Girls’ premiere episode, which the Emmy Awards paid tribute to.

It’s been 40 years since these actors and these characters demanded to grow older, find friendship, and live vigorously and sexually with dignity and humor. They spoke about aging, about AIDS, about gay rights, about euthanasia, about mental health, about female empowerment, and ab

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