Golden Girls Writer Recalls Joke About Betty White’s Hair: ‘Didn’t Last Very Long’ (Exclusive)

Writer Stan Zimmerman has written for some of TV’s most famous shows, including Golden girls, Gilmore Girls and Roseanne. Even with the laugh-out-loud moments, some jokes just didn’t work, he says — including the one about Betty White.” Golden girls the joke I threw out was making fun of Betty White’s hair because it looks a little like George Washington’s hair,” Zimmerman, who wrote the sitcom’s first season, tells PEOPLE. “I thought it was funny. It didn’t take long. I don’t think it ever made it into the actual script.” “You go through so many jokes and everything is often rewritten,” he says. “As a writer you learn not to be precious and stick to things. The good ones stay, and the others go and live somewhere else in the world.”

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Zimmerman describes his Hollywood writing career in his new book, Girls: From Golden to Gilmorewell, now from Indigo River Publishing. After graduating from New York University, Zimmerman and his screenwriter, James Berg, moved west in 1982, where they continued to write for one beloved series after another. “You’re lucky in your career if you’re on one popular show, but I’ve been lucky enough to be on three popular shows, and not just popular at the time,” Zimmerman says, adding that “something about those shows still speaks to this new generation.”

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Zimmerman and Berg helped illuminate many well-known television moments, including the famous same-sex kiss in the episode “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Roseanne, and the unforgettable “Norman Mailer, I’m Pregnant!” episode included Gilmore Girls.Regarding Golden girlsZimmerman shares his remarkable behind-the-scenes moments in his memoir, including Bea Arthur’s hesitations about how young the show’s writers were.

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“I have a feeling she meant it [Berg and I] because we looked like high school students,” Zimmerman writes. “But we heard she changed her tune when she saw the quality of the script week after week.” The writing team even coined the phrase “Dorothy shot her a look”, which became a mainstay in many episodes of the series. “Everything she had to do [was] look at Betty White and you knew what she was thinking,” Zimmerman says. “It saved us a lot of time because we didn’t have to come up with words.”

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Zimmerman, who has kept a diary all his life, says he looks at old entries to write Girls brought back many feelings.

Indigo River Publishing

“The intensity of the feelings was surprising and the fact that we had to live so much of our career [hiding] who we were,” he says. Zimmerman recalls having to hide his sexuality Golden girls set, but found support from Estelle Getty. She was an ally of LGBTQ people on the show and said she would “have our backs and keep our secret.”

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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 celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Overall, Zimmerman agrees that Golden girls it remains a favorite through the decades for good reason. “Those four women were the best of the best and there was something special about them,” he says. “I’m so glad the producers saw that as the heart of the show.”Girls: From Golden to Gilmore is now available.

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Source: HIS Education