'Golden Bachelor' Gerry Turner reflects on age: '70 to 30...the difference between love and lust'

HOLLYWOOD -- Gerry Turner, 72, is enjoying his time as a "first" - the first "Golden Bachelor" in the looking-for-love series franchise.

"It was too much fun getting to where I wound up. And I want everyone to enjoy it along with me," said Turner.

Turner says he was mildly familiar with the series, mostly thanks to his daughters and granddaughters. They encouraged him to apply, he was chosen, and then he was set to meet his 22 beautiful bachelorettes.

He told host Jesse Palmer that it's all about staying hopeful.

"I'd been a casual viewer of Bachelor/Bachelorette so I knew in general what was going to happen," said Turner. "But when it got down to the specifics of the night, and the dates and so forth, it was full of surprises. I had looked forward to that night for months. And I was so excited that I just couldn't wait for each of the individual women to get out. I wanted to hold their hands, I wanted to hear their names, and I wanted to know a little bit about their story. And gosh, that was the best night. Ever."

Turner says he was looking to have conversations that got "under the surface" with no simple "yes" or "no" answers.

"One of the easy ones was, 'What do you do on a normal day? What's a mundane, non-special day? What does it look like?' I wanted to know what they did with holidays. That was a big one for me. We talked about values. We talked about previous relationships, on both sides, hers and mine. I really needed to know history."

Turner also knows with age comes maturity and different goals.

"Everyone will see a new wrinkle in the franchise...70 to 30, it's the difference between love and lust. At 70 we're really trying to find the emotional and intellectual connection. We're not looking first for the physical side of it," he said.

So, will his show make history with a true love ending?

"I've always been a happy person so I would say I was happy throughout the process," said Turner. "But if you're asking if I found my person at the end, you're gonna have to watch for that! I'm not gonna give that one up."

"The Golden Bachelor" airs Thursdays on ABC.