His Rose Is Timeless

America’s new favorite hunk is a’72-year-old widower. He may be the best thing ever to happen to The Bachelor franchise.

- Molly Fitzpatrick

THE GOLDEN BACHELOR shows me his dink. The pickleball shotin which you lift your paddle in a compact underhand stroke so the ball drops right over the net-is deceptively challenging for one's opponent to return, rewarding finesse over brute strength. I don't have the slightest idea how to play pickleball. Lucky for me, Gerry Turner is a great teacher. But unlike with most instructors, he appeared to me the night before, while I was watching a video explaining the game, in an ad for his new prime-time TV show, one that has been sold as the latest (partial) rebranding of traditional dating-show dictates.

In theory, The Bachelor franchise is a factory for fairy tales with each season's star meant to pluck his future spouse from a symmetrical-faced, white-teethed lineup of generally 20-something romantic prospects. In reality, those fairy tales have ended less commonly in a true happily ever after than in the would-be bride selling hair gummies on Instagram. But then the Disney-ABC powers that be decided to look outside their usual Future Influencers of America demographic. The casting call for Golden Bachelor was originally issued in early 2020; immediately, show-runner Jason Ehrlich knew the type of man he didn't want: a convertible-driving, country-club-frequenting "silver fox" with "gobs of money" and a preference for younger women. They needed someone genuine, someone "rootable." Like a tan, charming needle in a haystack, he was finally found: a now-72-year-old widower living in northern Indiana who, by the way, pronounces his name as "Gary." Turner's submission caught the casting team's attention in the first week of reviewing applications. "Every minute we spent with Gerry, we liked him more and more. He was just so kind and sweet and obviously handsome," Ehrlich says. "Everyone who met him, we just thought, We've got to do this for him."