The Golden Girls almost featured a male lead character, here's why he's cut and why it was for the better. Premiering in 1985, the cult classic sitcom followed the adventures of Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia as single middle-aged women living together in Miami. The Golden Girls ran for seven seasons until Dorothy decided to get married and move out of the house. Coming together through a chance meeting, the ladies went through a lot in the years that they shared a house, developing a bond so strong they're essentially family.
Each lead character of The Golden Girls had her own signature trait. Dorothy was best known for her sarcasm and no-nonsense approach to things; Rose for her charming, albeit mostly pointless stories about St. Olaf stories and childlike demeanor; Blanche for her vitality and sexual openness; and finally, Sophia for her biting humor and wisdom. Seeing all of them play off of each other was interesting to watch, so despite going off the air almost three decades ago, its popularity continues to endure. However, the sitcom almost turned out differently as the four ladies weren't the only main cast members in the original plan.
It turns out, The Golden Girls was supposed to feature a male housemate named Coco — a drag queen-turned-house helper. According to Decider, Charles Levin was cast to play the character and it was clear through his one-liners that he's gay as the show makers didn't want him to be in the closet. For the most part, the sitcom was progressive for its time; putting three middle-aged women at the center of a sitcom was bold especially considering Hollywood's preconceived notions about what sells. Adding an openly gay player would've been groundbreaking considering that the show wanted to explicitly depict Coco's sexuality. However, when the pilot was shot, it was overtime for five minutes, forcing the crew to cut certain aspects of it. Much of what was left on the editing room floor was Coco's parts, with the character only seen serving drinks. Given this, they decided to drop him altogether. Admittedly, it's difficult to imagine The Golden Girls having a fifth main character, but it's curious how he would change the dynamic of the ladies.
That being said, as progressive as The Golden Girls was, the execution for Coco's role would feel nothing more than tokenism for LGBTQ representation, especially if he has no other distinctive quality like the rest of the cast other than being gay. While the sitcom could've given the character more to do as it went on, his role in the pilot was more likely an indication of how he's going to fit in the sitcom — a helper who gives fun advice and makes the scenes more humorous. It sends the wrong message as it's essentially just an earlier variation of the gay best friend trope and would've opened the show to justified backlash. This would have had negative effects on The Golden Girls' general storytelling as well. Throughout its seven seasons, the ladies held jobs to support themselves, and on a few occasions, they encounter financial difficulties such as having the leaking roof fixed, which frankly made them so much more relatable and fascinating as they solve these dilemmas together.
Just because Coco was cut from The Golden Girls doesn't mean that the show didn't feature progressive subject matters, especially in terms of LGBTQ-centered storylines. There were two prominent episodes that tackled this: Blanche's baby brother coming out to her after years of being in the closet and Dorothy's best friend developing romantic feelings for Rose after the death of her partner. Granted that the sitcom had several outdated jokes peppered throughout its seven seasons, the two particular outings were handled well.