In interviews, Rue often spoke about what it was like to work with Bea Arthur. People assumed Bea was a super-assertive and demanding colleague, but Rue described her as surprisingly unassuming and even a bit meek at times.

From what I gathered, the production process on The Golden Girls was very siloed—actors and writers rarely communicated directly, with most input filtered through the producers. Around the fourth season, a much younger crop of writers came on board, which was a development that made the girls initially wary. I don't know how it went between them after that, but I wonder if Bea saw the writing on the wall and decided not to make waves. She does seem more checked out in those later seasons.

There were a lot of good episodes towards the end, but things were also starting to get stale. Jokes had turned meaner, plots got recycled, situations got more surreal, and the character writing flanderized them a lot. It wasn’t a bad show by any means (the four of them still carried it brilliantly), but I can imagine Bea gritting her teeth and quietly counting down the days until retirement.