She, her mother Sophia Petrillo (played by Estelle Getty), and housemate Rose Nylund (Betty White) all rent rooms in the Miami house of their friend Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan).

Arthur also considered her the "great balloon pricker," someone who openly defied and called out hypocrisy, injustice, cruelty, delusion, short-sighted remarks, and behavior she simply found dull, ill-considered, rude, or unreasonable.

In the fourth-season episode "Foreign Exchange," Dorothy discovers there is a possibility that she is the biological daughter of Dominic and Philomena Bosco, who claim they switched babies with the Petrillos at the hospital.

Dorothy has two younger siblings, her brother Phil and her sister Gloria, nicknamed "Kitten" (played first by Doris Belack and later by Dena Dietrich).

At an early age, Phil demonstrates that he sometimes prefers to wear feminine clothing, and Dorothy accepts this, remarking later that she sometimes borrowed her brother's outfits.

[4] A boy who was supposed to be her date to high school prom is thought by Sophia to be dressed inappropriately for a formal event, so she sends him away and tells Dorothy he never arrived.

Years later, they had a son Michael (Scott Jacoby) whom Dorothy would occasionally clash with due to the boy's habit of avoiding responsibility and reluctance to plan ahead.

[11] The Zbornak marriage involves many arguments and compromises, including years of struggle when Stan's business fails, but Dorothy later claims there were also many happy times together.

After 38 years, Stan has an affair with a flight attendant named Chrissy and goes to Maui with her, having an attorney send Dorothy divorce papers rather than approaching her about it in person.

By this time, Dorothy's father is dead and her mother Sophia is a resident at a retirement community called Shady Pines after suffering a stroke.

In the pilot episode of the series, Shady Pines burns down and Sophia moves into Blanche's remaining room so Dorothy can look after her, completing the quartet of The Golden Girls.

After Shady Pines is rebuilt, Dorothy regularly threatens to send her mother back whenever Sophia's biting humor or reckless behavior tries her patience.

Throughout the series, Dorothy navigates money concerns, returning to substitute teaching in order to provide for herself and Sophia, and romantic drama, searching for a new partner but often finding she is not ready or the match is not right.

[21] Dorothy's ex-husband, Stan, periodically returns to her life, sometimes for the sake of a business venture, other times to reunite romantically after his relationship with Chrissy fails.

Different episodes depict Dorothy dealing with phobias regarding hospitals and heights, first denying her fears and vulnerabilities before openly admitting them and seeking coping mechanisms.

When then-President George H. W. Bush visits Miami, Dorothy intends to angrily confront him regarding education, only to be rendered mute at the shock of actually meeting him.

When she refuses to give a lazy student passing grades simply because he is a star athlete, meaning he cannot play football, the school threatens and intimidates her.

When Blanche and Rose warn her that her new friend Barbara Thorndyke seems toxic, narrow-minded and snobbish, Dorothy repeatedly defends the woman, despite her obvious condescending attitudes.

[29] A two-episode story "Sick and Tired" in season 5 has Dorothy suffering from extreme exhaustion and recurring illness but finding no cause from medical scans, leading one doctor to suggest it is depression and psychosomatic, while another tells her she's simply older now and must expect such problems.

In an interview for the 2003 TV special The Golden Girls: Their Greatest Moments, Bea Arthur said, "Dorothy Zbornak was probably the only sane person on the show.

Arthur herself was not asked due to an assumption she would not consider returning to a regular television series after spending years as the strongly opinionated lead character of Maude.

"[36] Despite this, Arthur hesitated to join the cast after learning that the other two leads - the sexually forward Blanche and the sheltered and sometimes naive Rose - were to be played by Rue McClanahan, who had co-starred with her as Vivian Harmon on Maude, and Betty White, known for playing flirtatious, sexually liberated Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Arthur believed the show was typecasting both of them, assuming that McClanahan was portraying Rose and White would portray Blanche.

Along with her sarcasm and righteous anger, Dorothy was also portrayed as a humble woman who was sometimes insecure about her appearance and whether people wanted to include her or thought of her as fun and interesting.

Along with being a lead on The Golden Girls, Arthur portrayed Dorothy in the spin-off series Empty Nest in an episode entitled "Dumped".

The series Empty Nest featured a physician (a friend of Dorothy's) and his two daughters, all of whom lived in a house next door to the cast of The Golden Girls.

I remember one of my very favorite episodes was when Sophia had entered the two of us in a mother/daughter beauty contest at Shady Pines and for the talent section we did Sonny and Cher's 'I Got You Babe.'

"[35] In response to their performances as Sophia and Dorothy, both Getty and Arthur won Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead and Support Actress in a Comedy Series.

"[30] It was decided that Dorothy's departure in the season finale would be marked by giving her a happy ending with a marriage to "a nice guy" in contrast with the many failed romances audiences had seen her in and with the fact that the show had begun with her recently divorced from a cheating husband.

Leslie Nielsen portrayed her new love interest Lucas and played practical jokes on the set, providing comic relief to counter the high emotions surrounding Arthur's departure.

Arthur admitted that even though she wanted to leave, and was happy that Dorothy would be marrying the "gorgeous" Leslie Nielsen, she was very sad to do so in the end and say goodbye to the cast and crew.