Wasn’t there some old movie where the mad doctor kept his wife’s head alive, or something like that? Long time ago, way before The Golden Girls (which I’m happy to say I have never watched).
Been a couple with similar plots:
“The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” (1962) A doctor named Bill Cortner keeps his fiancée’s severed head alive after she is decapitated in a car accident.
and
Steve Martin’s “The Man With Two Brains” (1983)...............
It's a great comedy show. I watch the reruns and they still make me laugh. All the girls are gone now, may they rest in peace. And BTW, Bea Arthur was a former Marine in WWII....................