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Finding the perfect cast for a television sitcom isn’t an exact science. However, that doesn’t mean network executives won’t try to make it a science. When NBC was assembling the cast of The Golden Girls, one executive had concerns about Bea Arthur’s likeability.

“Bea at that time, there was something interesting in terms of numbers. There was something [called TVQ scores],” casting director Joel Thurm says during a Golden Girls spotlight panel for Prive LIVE. “There were two measurements. There was the measurement of how many knew you, and then how many people liked you. Bea Arthur had like a 98% recognition because of all the work she had done on television, but like a 10% likeability. That’s what [NBC executive Brandon Tardikov] was going by.”

In 1987, the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon debuted - and all our lives were changed. Watch this reunion of the original voice actors:

As a result NBC was reluctant to cast Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak, until they realized they had the perfect counterbalance – Betty White.

“Someone also pointed out to Brandon that he may have had the most unliked person in the world with Bea Arthur, but you also had the most liked person in the world with Betty White. So, they sort of cancelled each other. And it wasn’t going to be the Bea Arthur show; it was going to be the four ladies.”

And that’s the strength of a good ensemble cast.

Besides, anyone who says Bea Arthur is unlikeable needs to have their head examined.

Get your wide-shoulder blouses and your Members-Only jackets, and go back in time with Popverse's Made in 87. Highlights include:

• Marvel Comics killed the X-Men in 1987 to reset the franchise - but it didn’t stick
• The Full House cast addresses some of the series’ biggest continuity errors
• How Spider-Man’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon was saved by a fired Marvel boss — and Ronald McDonald
• How NBC panicked after Diane left Cheers — and why Kirstie Alley’s casting sparked a quiet battle inside the hit show
• How Bart Simpson was quietly toned down from being "so mean" before The Simpsons' first episode, as revealed by his long-time voice actor Nancy Cartwright
• The 1987 Justice League reboot that made superheroes weird, hilarious, and unexpectedly human
• How The Golden Girls became a staple at gay bars in the 80s