I have never seen an episode of The Golden Girls, but it is a TV show, so hopefully similarities between Joss's television work and The Golden Girls don't seem like too much of a stretch.

I browsed through episodes on IMDb, and couldn't really find one that sums up my tribe, so I decided to find a common theme. It's corny and unoriginal, I know, but friendship seems to be the most prevalent recurring theme in The Golden Girls and Buffy. The humor's there, too, of course, as both shows were full of it. Though the hardships are different in both shows, neither has flawless relationships. Of course there are times when Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia get along perfectly, as with Buffy, Xander and Willow, but there are clusters of episodes where they don't, but they learn to deal with it. Though Buffy may be more supernaturally driven, Joss never completely abandoned humanity, and that absolutely ties in with the same theme present in The Golden Girls. And there are 7 seasons of both shows, which is the most important point of all, of course. =)

Besides that, the element of surprise is also present. Though surprise for Buffy may be a new demon in town as opposed to a family member coming to visit unannounced in GG, it doesn't make it any less shocking or important to the overall plotline.

This would be a lot easier if I had seen even an episode of The Golden Girls, but I did what I could with what I had to work off of. Happy TV watching!