Blanche (Rue McClanahan), owner of the house, was a Southern belle with a seemingly insatiable sex drive; Rose (Betty White) was a naive farm-girl, who told moronic stories about her hometown, St. Olaf; Dorothy (Bea Arthur), a sarcastic but level-headed substitute teacher, spent the majority of the series trying to get rid of her ex-husband, Stan, who kept dropping by to visit; Sophia (Estelle Getty), Dorothy's 80-year-old mother, always made humorous, uninhibited remarks, often giving advice in the form of stories starting with the phrase "picture this."

During its seven-year run, the show covered various social issues not often seen on network TV at the time, including safe sex, gay marriage, lesbianism, artificial insemination and AIDS--all of which were handled with a delicate balance of humor and drama.

In 1986 and 1987, White and McClanahan sequentially won "Outstanding Lead Actress" Emmys, while Arthur and Getty won "Outstanding Lead" and "Supporting Actress" statues respectively in 1988.

The show, which had a short-lived spinoff, The Golden Palace, is currently in syndication on Lifetime Television in the U.S., but will move to the Hallmark Channel in 2009.