and she was such an iconic performer. i had grown up watching her on the password, which is a game show that she did with her husband al ludden and a huge fan of the mary tyler moore show. as a baby writer, i couldn t believe she was going to be saying my lines, and it was such a thrill to watch her do it every week. what is it like? such an incredible team on the golden girls a group of actresses so accomplished. did that sometimes make your job harder or easier? i imagine it was a challenge to live up to their expectations? especially in season one when you have that level of performers and every sengle one of those women we had to write a joke to hit it out of the ballpark. it made it nerve-racking for us and being so young and being in that room of such experienced writers, but we stayed late until we did the best jokes and the best lines and most meaningful stories.