Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of the immensely successful television show The Golden Girls. The show, which aired from 1985 until 1992, captured the hearts of people everywhere.
People are still talking about a show that was never meant to go beyond its first season, over 30 years after its last episode aired!
Newsner just had a conversation with Stan Zimmerman, the staff writer for Season 1 of The Golden Girls, to find out more about some of the backstage stories! Continue reading to uncover secret information about everyone’s favorite show.
We will never forget the resilient Estelle Getty, who portrayed Sophia Petrillo in The Golden Girls.The audience remembers her for her famed one-liners and scathing insults, but Stan Zimmerman recalls her for something quite different—her tenderness.
When Getty first approached Zimmerman, a young writer at the time, he recalls being “very excited that she was coming over to talk to me and my writing partner, Jim.” “I’m so small,” she adds. When she arrived on her layover, she exclaimed, “Come here, come here.”
“We just follow her when she drags us to the back of the set,” he adds. The real Estelle Getty is here! She assured us, “Your secret is safe with me.” I thought we were Jewish, too. Actually, it was our sexual orientation. She also met a lot of LGBT folks through the Torch Song Trilogy show.
He explained how his then-management suggested he keep his identity a secret during filming. “People have a hard time believing it,” he said. But at work, we couldn’t talk about who we truly were. This was in 1985, you know. And our representatives have told you to keep that quiet. She was willing to do it for us as well. And I thought that was really nice and wonderful.
A little-known aspect of Estelle Getty
Despite being a zinger on screen, Zimmerman claimed that her real-life personality was maternal. He recalled, “She had that very motherly quality.” Years later, when I wasn’t writing Golden Girls, we would still talk on the phone. She would also frequently inquire, “Who are you dating?” Where do you work? I’m also not hesitant to give advice on any of those subjects.
Despite being the eldest Golden Girl, Estelle was younger than Betty White and Bea Arthur! In order to make her appear older, the makeup artists would have to apply cosmetics.
Stan said, recalling a funny story about this, “She had to put on old age makeup.” Then, sometime between seasons one and two or two and three, I think she had a facelift.
“Estelle, we have to do your makeup now,” the cosmetics team remarked. Why do you look better? But I think she was just happy to be in Hollywood. And can you imagine spending your entire life striving for something, never succeeding, and maybe even thinking about giving up on it multiple times?” he wonders.
Unfortunately, Zimmerman recalls seeing his friend deteriorate. At the time, they didn’t know what was wrong with her. The author remembered, “At the time, we were unaware that she was suffering from early onset dementia.” In addition, I think her increased tendency to forget lines and her nervousness of performing in front of a live studio audience were major concerns.
He recalled the filming nights and remarked, “And so Friday night tapings were anxiety filled for her.” I am aware that she worked very hard to get over it, but all three of the women were very protective of her in order to make sure she was in the greatest possible frame of mind to do so.
Being close to Zimmerman, she informed him that, although few on set knew it, she went to treatment several times a week. He said, “They thought she was out at Hollywood parties every night in the writer’s room.” Because of this, she wasn’t at home learning her lines.
He revealed the drastic measures they took. I remember that they called in the executive producers, her managers, with whom we were familiar, and instructed them to monitor her. Make certain she comprehends the lines.
Getty was not diagnosed with dementia at the time, but she was experiencing challenges at work. “When you have dementia, it’s really frightening because you know, all the studying you can do, if you can’t, if your brain can’t retain those lines,” Stan says.
He reveals the actions they performed to help Estelle speak her lines. Therefore, we wrote some of the lines on her hands, and sometimes they taped it to the furniture, which is why you see her eating raisins in the TV show. They also had some cue cards, I think, to help her later on.
Notwithstanding her challenges, Estelle continuously created high-caliber work. Stan claims that “every time she sent her lines, they were like home runs” in spite of everything. I mean, it was really amazing to see her. We also always looked to her for them because we knew she would always have a great joke at the end of the performance.
Something was wrong with Betty White.
However, Zimmerman’s initial impression of Betty White wasn’t very positive. When Estelle Getty botched her lines during tapings, he told Newsner, White would often turn to the studio audience and joke about her.
Zimmerman said, “She would come up to the stands with the crowd watching the taping and make jokes.” And I thought it was quite rude of her.
But as Stan has become older, he has just developed a new perspective. “Until recently, I thought, oh, maybe she was going over there to draw attention from the audience and give Estelle a chance to collect herself and remember the lines,” he continues.
He recalled some rumors of conflict between Bea and Betty, saying, “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 operated in different ways. Since Bea was a theater actor, you don’t go against the grain. Therefore, I think Bea did not appreciate it when she saw Betty just kind of be herself and go up and talk in the middle of a scene, even if we were on break.
The Golden Girls are unmatched because of this.
Stan also revealed that during interviews, the four female Golden Girls actresses did something that is uncommon for Hollywood actors: they acknowledged and thanked the creators. “I have to thank those four women for going out and talking about the writers on practically every talk show,” Stan said. They were always favorable as writers. Furthermore, you don’t usually see that. For that, I will always be grateful.
Furthermore, contrary to popular belief, the women never did ad-libs on the show! According to Stan, audiences often think that certain scenes were improvised, with the women generating ideas on the spot, although this isn’t always the case.
Stan recalls, “They said every word, every comma, every period.” They said what we had written.
Zimmerman wrote about his fascinating experiences with The Golden Girls and other subjects in his book The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore.It includes his encounters with some of the biggest TV actresses, including Roseanne, Lauren Graham, Lily Tomlin, the four Golden Girls, and more!
His poignant play “Right Before I Go,” which is currently on tour, is inspired on the tragedy of a close friend who committed suicide thirteen years ago.
Encourage other Golden Girls fans who might be curious about these little-known facts to read this article!
