A show that was not expected to run beyond the first season became such a massive success that it’s even still talked about over 30 years after its last episode aired!
Newsner recently sat down with Stan Zimmerman, staff writer for Season 1 of The Golden Girls, to get to know some of the stories behind the scenes! Keep reading to learn little-known facts about everyone’s favorite show.
No one can forget the formidable Estelle Getty in her role as Sophia Petrillo in The Golden Girls. While viewers remember her for her iconic one-liners and sizzling put-downs, Stan Zimmerman remembers her for something else entirely; her warmth.
Zimmerman, a young writer at the time, recalls the first time Getty came over to talk to him: “I was very excited that she was coming over to talk to me and my writing partner, Jim. And she’s like, teeny tiny. And she came in her layover and she’s like, ‘come here, come here’.”
He goes on: “She pulls us to the back of the set and we’re like, ‘just follow her. She’s Estelle Getty!’ And she said to us, ‘your secret’s safe with me’. And I thought that we’re Jewish. And it was actually, that we’re gay. And she had got to know a lot of gay people through this play, Torch Song Trilogy.”
He shared how at the time he was told by his management that he should keep his identity a secret on-set. He said, “People find it hard to believe. But we could not talk about ourselves, our true selves at work. And, this was, you know, 1985. And our representatives said you had to keep that quiet. And she was, willing to do that for us. And I thought that was really nice and, very sweet.”
Estelle Getty’s lesser know side…
Zimmerman shared that while her character delivered zingers on camera, in real life, she had a motherly quality about her. He recalled: “She had that very motherly quality. And even years after, when I was not writing Golden Girls, we would talk on the phone. And she’d always like to know, like, ‘who you’re dating? Where you working?’ And, you know, and not shy about giving advice about any of that.”
And while Estelle played the oldest Golden Girl, she was younger than both Bea Arthur and Betty White! As a result, the makeup team would have to make her appear older through the use of makeup.
Stan recalled a funny story about this: “She had to put on old age makeup. And then I think between season one and 2 or 2 and three, she went and got a facelift.
And then, like [the makeup team were like] ‘Estelle, now we need to do your makeup. Why are you looking better?’ But I think she was just so excited to be in Hollywood. And can you imagine your whole life you strive for something and never reaching it and you know, and probably many times you thought of giving it up,” he says.
Sadly, Zimmerman also recalls seeing his friend deteriorate. At the time they didn’t know what was going on with her. The writer recalled: “We didn’t know at the time that she was, experiencing early onset dementia. And I think that with, the anxiety she had of performing in front of a live studio audience, knowing she was starting to forget lines really troubled her.”
He recalled taping nights: “And so Friday night tapings were anxiety filled for her. And I know she worked really hard to get through that, but all three of the women were very protective to make sure, you know, that she was in
the best state mentally to get through it.”
Since she was close to Zimmerman, she confided in him about going to therapy several times a week, a fact that not many knew on set. He said: “In the writer’s room, they thought that she was out going to Hollywood parties every night. And that’s why she wasn’t home studying her lines.”
He revealed the drastic measures they took. “And so I remember they called in her managers, who we became friendly with, the executive producers and said, you’ve got to be on top of her. Make sure she learns the lines.”
At the time Getty didn’t have a dementia diagnosis and was struggling through her work. Stan recalls: “But when you have dementia, you know, all the studying you can do, if you can’t, if your brain can’t retain those lines, then it’s very scary.”
He reveals the measures they took to help Estelle with her lines. “And so when you see in the TV show, if she’s sitting there eating raisins, it’s because we wrote some of the lines on her hands and, or sometimes they taped it to the furniture. And I think in later years they actually had some cue cards to help her out.”
But even with her struggles, Estelle delivered every time. Stan says: “But even through all of that, when she sent her lines, they were like home runs every time. I mean, it was so amazing to see her. And we always went to her for those jokes at the end of the scene, because we just knew that she was going to, you know, hit it out of the park every time.”
Something wasn’t right with Betty White…
Meanwhile, Zimmerman’s initial impression of Betty White wasn’t all that positive. He revealed to Newsner that during tapings – if and when Estelle Getty messed up her lines – White would often turn to the studio audience and make jokes at Getty’s expense.
Zimmerman said: “She would walk up to the stands with the audience watching the taping and make jokes. And I thought that was very cruel of her.”
Though recently, as he has grown older, Stan has developed another perspective on it. He says: “And it was until recently when I thought, oh, maybe she was going over there to draw the attention of the audience and giving Estelle moments to collect herself and remember the lines.”
He also recalled some murmurs of tension between Bea and Betty, sharing: “I’ve heard stories, I didn’t see it particularly when we were there that there were some, I think, personality clashes between Bea and Betty. They had different working styles. So, because Bea was really a theater actress; you don’t break character. So for her to watch Betty just kind of become Betty and go up and talk in the middle of a scene, even though we were on a break, I think Bea did not like that.”
No one can match the Golden Girls for this reason…
Stan also revealed something the four female stars of The Golden Girls did which actors in Hollywood seldom do; thank the writers and credit them in interviews. Stan said: “And I have to say and thank those four ladies because they went and talked about the writers, pretty much every talk show. They always complimented us as writers. And you don’t usually see that. And so I’m forever grateful for that.”
And, contrary to popular belief, the actresses never did ad-libs on the show! A lot of times, Stan says fans think certain scenes were ad-libbed, with the actresses coming up with things on the spot, but that was not the case.
Stan recalls: “Season one, they said every word, every comma, every period. They said what we wrote.”
Zimmerman wrote about his enthralling experiences with The Golden Girls and more in his book The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore. Within its pages, he details his experiences with some of TV biggest women, including the four Golden Girls, Roseanne, Lauren Graham, Lily Tomlin, and more!
He is currently touring with his play ‘Right Before I Go‘, a poignant story inspired by a close friend’s suicide 13 years earlier.
Share this piece with other Golden Girls fans who might want to know about these little known facts!
