Television

Believe It or Not, ‘SATC' Reboot Characters Are the Same Age as the ‘Golden Girls'

Women in their 50s may not look exactly like they did on the popular sitcom

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Could “And Just Like That…” be the modern day version of “The Golden Girls”?

It may sound outlandish, but fans have noticed a similarity between HBO Max's reboot of “Sex and the City” and the classic NBC sitcom, which has experienced a boost in interest following last month's death of star Betty White.

“People have been pointing out this fact: Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte are approximately the same age as ‘The Golden Girls,’” Hoda Kotb said Monday on "TODAY with Hoda & Jenna." "Season one, Rose is 55, Dorothy is 53, Blanche —"

Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) in HBO Max's "And Just Like That..." Photo: HBO

“Forty-seven?!” Jenna Bush Hager interjected. “And Sophia is 79,” Kotb continued.

Hager pointed out that Miranda and Charlotte are 54 in "And Just Like That..." and Carrie is 55. Those ages, plus storylines that depict how women in their 50s can have fulfilling sex lives, have changed the narrative about aging.

It's a development that Kotb has clearly noticed.

“Is that so crazy?” she said. “Now when you think of 54 and 55, or people in their 50s, you don’t think about ‘The Golden Girls.’ You don’t think about a bunch of ladies in a community.”

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"The Golden Girls" represented a different era when it came to how people thought about what being old meant and looked like. Photo: Getty Images

“The way that they dressed them in cardigans — I mean, I know I’m wearing a cardigan, but I like to dress like a granny,” Hager said, while noting she would wear a dress that White, who played Rose Nylund, was wearing in a clip from “The Golden Girls” that splashed on the screen.

“They made them older than they actually were,” she continued.

Kotb marveled at “the way age is perceived now,” taking note of how the main anchors of other network morning shows are at least 50 years old.

It’s not only in the professional realm that attitudes appear to have changed, too.

“What about the fact that you can be a mom to two young girls at any age?” Hager asked, a reference to Kotb, who is mother to Haley, 4, and Hope, 2.

The representation of age on TV has certainly transformed over the years. Kotb also brought up Aunt Bee from “The Andy Griffith Show.”

“She always looked like she was very elderly,” Kotb said. “I think that’s how America perceived people.”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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