Sadly, Rue McClanahan is no longer with us. The actress best known for portraying the saucy Blanche Devereaux, who proved that sex—and life—do not end after 50 on the TV series The Golden Girls, passed away this week in Manhattan, after suffering a massive stroke.

Ms. McClanahan has been lauded for her acting ability, notably by Tennessee Williams, who wrote that her earlier work was a “rare combination of earthiness and lapidary polish, that quality being utterly common and utterly noble. Frippery combined with fierceness.”

HBO’s Sex and the City has been hailed by some critics as being the descendant of such ground-breaking sitcoms as The Golden Girls, but now critics are thinking there’s much more frippery involved than fierceness. While Sex in the City was applauded in its earlier seasons for being frank and honest about sexuality, and appealing to a then-uncatered to demographic of women over 30, these days it seems to fall short.

“As the second film approaches, it's clear that purses, shoes and sexist stereotypes have consumed the formerly progressive franchise.” One critic wrote. Where The Golden Girls maintained their complex, multi-layered characters throughout each season, it seems Carrie and her friends threw depth to the wayside in the interest of shopping, entirely abandoning that balance of frip and fierceness that was their "Golden" legacy.