{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Media Path Podcast","title":"Writing TV's Iconic Women & A Front Seat In The Inner Circle with Stan Zimmerman","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":4174,"description":"Co-Host Lisa Arch joins us with our guest, Stan Zimmerman.From a supportive teacher who first recognized his talent to writing some of television’s most beloved episodes, Stan Zimmerman’s journey is a testament to passion, persistence, and perfect timing.He sets it all out in his new book 'The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore,’ which draws from journals he has kept religiously since college, offering a deeply personal look at a life lived inside television history. In a conversation both heartfelt and hilarious, Stan reflects on how he took school theater as seriously as if it were big time show biz, because to him, it was. Theater kids were his tribe, and storytelling was already his calling.That destiny led him to Hollywood, where in his early 20s, at meeting that had not gone well, on his way out the door, he pitched a Hail Mary Golden Girls story idea that launched his career. The episode he co-wrote with his writing partner, Jim Berg is titled “Blanche and the Younger Man.” It earned the team a Writers Guild nomination and carved the trailhead for a groundbreaking career path.  Working in the 1980s during the height of the AIDS crisis, Stan recalls how even in Hollywood many people were still in the closet, and that while building career relationships, on a show that would become a gay obsession, he felt pressure to hide his personal life. We also hear stories that could only happen in show business: hanging out with Sandra Bernhard when an answering machine message from Madonna sparked the beginning of their friendship; witnessing Estelle Getty struggle with early-onset dementia on set, and later realizing that Betty White’s jokes to the studio audience, which he thought were at Estelle’s expense, may have been acts of quiet kindness, allowing Estelle space to recover her lines.Stan reflects on the enduring legacy of The Golden Girls, a show whose cultural impact he couldn’t have imagined while he was in the writers’ room. He talks about passing on season one...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/1GgYXD_hiwnssFuMS_Ei9MsCDyCcGaTzCMtzybbX1pQ/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzEzNjgxLzE1OTg0/NjUyMTktYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}