Unless you live under a rock, there is no way you haven’t heard of the mega-hit show, The Golden Girls. The show aired from 1985 to 1992 and captured the hearts of audiences worldwide.
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.
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.”
