--- title: Betty White on Golden Girls Episode on AIDS, 72 Hours Q&A description: Golden Girls found a way to talk about contemporary issues, even if the characters were senior citizens, as shown by their AIDS episode. canonical: https://time.com/4675205/betty-white-golden-girls-aids/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-17T22:22:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:41:14.408Z og:title: Here's What Betty White Said About Golden Girls on AIDS og:description: "This was a daring episode to do, and the writers went straight for it" og:url: https://time.com/4675205/betty-white-golden-girls-aids/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68a2f0f0d817530c/6988bae8f887dcf17ae991fd/betty-white-golden-girls-aids.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Actresses Betty White And Carolyn Hennesy Host Media Preview For Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association's Beastly Ball Fundraiser og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Betty White Said About Golden Girls on AIDS twitter:description: "This was a daring episode to do, and the writers went straight for it" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68a2f0f0d817530c/6988bae8f887dcf17ae991fd/betty-white-golden-girls-aids.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What Betty White Had to Say About How _Golden Girls_ Tackled AIDS  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 17, 2017 10:22 PM UTC  LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 11: Actress Betty White attends the media preview for Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association's Beastly Ball fundraiser at Los Angeles Zoo on June 11, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Vincent Sandoval/WireImage) LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 11: Actress Betty White attends the media preview for Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association's Beastly Ball fundraiser at Los Angeles Zoo on June 11, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Vincent Sandoval/WireImage)Vincent Sandoval—WireImage  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 17, 2017 10:22 PM UTC Part of the [enduring appeal of _Golden Girls_](http://time.com/4523298/golden-girls-action-figures/) is the way that a show that centered around senior citizens found a way to talk about contemporary issues. Perhaps nothing illustrates this as well as when the show talked about the AIDS epidemic in a historic episode titled “72 Hours” that originally aired in 1990\. Following _Golden Girls_‘ Hulu debut on Monday, writer Jim Colucci shared an excerpt of his book _Golden Girls Forever_ on [_Vulture_](http://www.vulture.com/2017/02/the-golden-girls-streaming-aids-hiv-fearless-book-excerpt.html)_,_ focusing on how the show opened up conversations about HIV and AIDS. The episode centered on Betty White’s character, the delightfully spacey Rose, after she learns that the blood transfusion she recently received may have been exposed to blood containing HIV antibodies; after taking an AIDS test, Rose must wait an agonizing 72 hours for the test results. The message behind the episode was clear — the AIDS epidemic had the potential to affect everyone, not just the LGBT community. One of the most poignant parts of the excerpt is when Betty White reveals that centering the episode around Rose was a bold choice. --- > “” --- Read the full excerpt [here](http://www.vulture.com/2017/02/the-golden-girls-streaming-aids-hiv-fearless-book-excerpt.html). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4675205/betty-white-golden-girls-aids/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4675205/betty-white-golden-girls-aids/"},"headline":"Here's What Betty White Had to Say About How Golden Girls Tackled AIDS","datePublished":"2017-02-17T22:22:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:41:14.408Z","description":"Golden Girls found a way to talk about contemporary issues, even if the characters were senior citizens, as shown by their AIDS episode.","url":"https://time.com/4675205/betty-white-golden-girls-aids/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Television","Aids","celebrity","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68a2f0f0d817530c/6988bae8f887dcf17ae991fd/betty-white-golden-girls-aids.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68a2f0f0d817530c/6988bae8f887dcf17ae991fd/betty-white-golden-girls-aids.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Actresses Betty White And Carolyn Hennesy Host Media Preview For Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association's Beastly Ball Fundraiser","caption":"Actresses Betty White And Carolyn Hennesy Host Media Preview For Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association's Beastly Ball Fundraiser","creditText":"Vincent Sandoval—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4675205/betty-white-golden-girls-aids/","name":"Here's What Betty White Had to Say About How Golden Girls Tackled AIDS"}}]}] ```