Gilmore Girls and Golden Girls Writer Stan Zimmerman on His Hollywood Career: ‘I Was Lucky’ (Exclusive)

If you’ve ever laughed at the legendary Bea Arthur Golden girls glare, or faints when Logan Huntzberger (Matt Czuchry) reappears in Rory’s life on Gilmore Girlsyou can thank Stan Zimmerman. A writer whose long list of credits includes those beloved series, along with films like Campy Brady Bunch movie series, Zimmerman has written many memorable pop culture moments. He reflects on his Hollywood career – and the stars who brought it to life – in a new book, Girls: From Golden to Gilmore.“You’re lucky in your career if you’re on one hit show, but I’ve been lucky enough to be on three hit shows,” Zimmerman tells PEOPLE. “And not just popular at the time.”

‘Girls: From Golden to Gilmore’ by Stan Zimmerman.

Indigo River Publishing

Zimmerman, who grew up in Michigan, has always been interested in show business. He intended to become an actor, attending the theater program at New York University, where he met journalism student James Berg. After graduation, the future writing partners moved to Los Angeles to try their hand at television writing.”We watched [scripts] like frizzy hair,” says Zimmerman. “We’d just brush it and [it would] you get smoother and smoother.” After brief appearances on other shows including Glory and George Burns Comedy Week, the two were eventually hired as writers on a new NBC sitcom about four older women living together in Miami. That show, of course, became Golden girls.

“When I was on Golden girls, I was just obsessed with doing a good job, keeping a job, learning,” Zimmerman reflects. “It was really ‘Writing 101’ for us. I didn’t think I was a very funny writer. And then they’d say, ‘Go throw out a bunch of jokes for the end of the Bea Arthur scene.'”

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Zimmerman and Berg, who worked on the show’s first season, were the brains behind some of the sitcom’s most beloved gags, including Dorothy Zbornak’s grim look.

The cast of “The Golden Girls”.

Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank

“We wrote [the phrase] “Dorothy gave her a look,” Zimmerman says. ‘And that has now become a thing in writing, ‘to take a look’. But that’s something very few actors can do. Bea Arthur could catch the eye, and you knew exactly what she was thinking.”

The team also wrote episodes such as “Blanche & the Younger Man,” “Rose’s Mother,” for which they were nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award, and “Adult Education.” The last episode dealt with sexual harassment, which was “unheard of” in television script at the time. “I learned early from Golden girls that people are much more open to accepting new ideas when they’re laughing,” Zimmerman says. Despite the many progressive aspects of the series, he reveals that the set itself was still of its time and that he had to hide the fact that he was gay. “We had to be in the closet then,” he says. “We were told by our representatives that if there is a function that deals with a TV show, we have to bring a woman as a companion.” Because of this, Zimmerman formed a special bond with one of the stars of the series.

The cast of “The Golden Girls”.

Joseph Del Valle/NBCU Photo Bank

“Only Estelle Getty picked up on that pretty quickly and said she was going to have our backs and keep our secret,” he says of the late actress who played Sophia. “She was the first ally of the LGBTQ community and I have a lot of respect for her.”

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Zimmerman also worked on shows like Roseanne, where he and Berg co-wrote the 1994 episode “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which famously featured a same-sex kiss and earned them a second WGA nod. On Roseannehe met fellow writer Amy Sherman-Palladino, who later hired Zimmerman and Berg to write for the fifth season of her early 2000s series. Gilmore Girls. Zimmerman, who is behind episodes like “Norman Mailer, I’m Pregnant,” admits he was initially shocked by some aspects of the small-town drama series. “I was horrified. Would you give your daughter coffee? Don’t start her so young,” he says of the copious amounts of caffeine consumed by the show’s characters. “But there’s no way [Rory] could talk so fast that she didn’t start drinking coffee.”

While his favorite character to write for was the vivacious Lorelei Gilmore (Lauren Graham), Zimmerman was particularly taken aback by Alexis Bledel, who made her television debut as Lorelei’s book-loving daughter Rory.

Lauren Graham (right) and Alexis Bledel in ‘Gilmore Girls’.

Richard Foreman / The CW / Courtesy of the Everett Collection

“They said Alexis was very reserved,” he says. “She was so open with me. One day she was reading at the table, I don’t know why, but she picked me up and carried me around the room. She is small. How did she pick me up?”

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Zimmerman is also surprised by the lasting impact of the projects he’s worked on (although he’s not credited, he’s behind the meme-worthy line “Sure, Jan” from 1995. The Brady Group Moviewhich he says still “really tickles him”.) Golden girls was a rewatch favorite during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Gilmore Girls was one of the 10 most streamed shows of 2023.

“Something about those shows still speaks to this new generation,” he says, of their enduring popularity.

Zimmerman remains a self-proclaimed “theatre geek,” and one of his recent projects is an adaptation of Wendy Kesselman’s play, Diary of Anne Frank. Zimmerman decided to cast his version with Hispanic actors, in response to the Trump administration’s family separation policy. Philip Rosenthal and Monica Horan, of Everyone loves Raymond fame, helped bring school groups to see the play through the Rosenthal Family Foundation. After several performances, a conversation with Gabriella Y. Karin, who survived the Holocaust, was held in the theater.

Stan Zimmerman.

Braden Davis

“It was very intense, but I think it’s important for the kids [be] making the connection that this is still happening, the persecution and singling out of people,” Zimmerman says.

While any career in the arts is far from a sure thing, Zimmerman states that believing in the process and seeing life as an “amusement park ride” has helped keep the uncertainties at bay. It is crucial for him to trust the rhythm. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. [of the rollercoaster] and you say, ‘Let’s do it again,'” he says. “I wake up like that and I want to do it again every day.”Girls: From Golden to Gilmore will be published on February 13 by Indigo River Publishing.

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Source: HIS Education