AN INTERVIEW WITH A QUINTUPLE THREAT: PLAYWRIGHT, AUTHOR, DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, ACTOR
Celebration of the power of the arts at Powerstories Theater
September 20-21, 2024
Powerstories presents a theatrical fundraising event featuring the celebrity staged reading of Stan Zimmerman’s poignant play, right before i go, narrated by Zimmerman himself.
You may recognize the name from television and film connected to Gilmore Girls, Golden Girls, Roseanne, or Brady Bunch movies, or his book, The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore, but Hollywood’s Stan Zimmerman has a special place in his heart for live theatre.
Zimmerman reflects on his extensive television and film career, shares insights with The Artisan Magazine about his poignant play right before i go, inspired by a friend’s tragic suicide, and discusses his latest book.
The Golden Girls tackled many social issues with humor and sensitivity. How did you balance these elements in your writing?
As staff writers on Season 1 of Golden Girls, we were told they didn’t want the episodes to feel like Facts of Life issue of the week. They wanted us to tell important but truthful stories that would feel organic for the four female characters and their age bracket.
How did your experience on Golden Girls influence your later work on Gilmore Girls?
Golden Girls was kind of a Writing 101 class for us. We learned from the experienced writers we spent every day with, but I credit Rue McClanahan for teaching us about honestly exploring sitcom characters in all their complexities. She walked over to us on one of our first days on set and asked us to really challenge the character of Blanche. That’s how we came up with the “Adult Education” episode when Blanche had to deal with sexual harassment from her college professor. We took that lesson onto all the shows we worked on for the rest of our careers.
How did you approach writing for the fast-paced, witty dialogue Gilmore Girls is known for?
I found consuming large amounts of coffee, much like the residents of Stars Hollow, helped in writing so many words for Gilmore Girls. Hour shows usually work out to one minute per page. Gilmore Girls scripts would sometimes reach more than 90 pages.
What do you think is the legacy of Gilmore Girls in the landscape of television today?
I believe the legacy of Gilmore Girls is that audiences are not scared of complex, multi-layered storylines. And that the world is starved for shows that mothers and daughters can sit down together and watch. A true shared experience.
Roseanne had such early pro-LGBTQ representation, including a same-sex kiss and a gay wedding. How did you approach writing these groundbreaking episodes, and what was the reaction from the network and the audience when Roseanne aired these episodes?
Jim and I wrote the infamous lesbian kiss episode for Roseanne. Using what Rue McClanahan taught us, we were challenging the “Roseanne Conner” character, who thought she was so cool until she was kissed by a woman. I also must give credit to Roseanne and her (then) husband, Tom Arnold. They fought the network, who did not want us to write or film that episode. Tom and Roseanne threatened to buy the episode back and pay for time on HBO. Luckily, ABC agreed to air it. Shockingly, the next day, we had huge ratings, and the world didn’t explode.
How do you think the representation in Roseanne influenced other T.V. shows and the broader media landscape?
I don’t believe we would have had the Ellen sitcom or Will & Grace without Roseanne. And we wouldn’t have had Roseanne without Soap, All in the Family, or Love, Sidney. We all stand on the shoulders of strong artists before us.
How did you transition from writing for television to playwriting?
I first started directing theatre right after our stint on Gilmore Girls. I loved directing published plays because no re-writing was involved. I just had to interpret the finished script. That is until Broadway producer Larry Hirschhorn, urged me to start writing for theatre. Now I can’t stop!
What inspired your poignant play right before i go first performed in 2015, with talkbacks following each performance?
With the death of my very close friend Kevin Gill by suicide, I saw there was so much shame around the topic. But I first thought I’m a comedy writer; how can I tackle a subject as serious as this? And then I thought, no, my perspective is an important one, and I also started searching online for real suicide notes because I wanted to know why he did what he did. I couldn’t get ahold of the note he had sent to his ex-boyfriend, and I was mentioned in the note, so I thought maybe these other notes would give me the answers to why. I just googled, and suddenly, I got Kurt Cobain, war veterans, and Virginia Woolf, and I would copy and paste them and put them in a folder. Then all of a sudden, I thought this was a play like Vagina Monologues or Love Letters with four actors on stools with music stands…. I found out more people our age have a problem talking about suicide. Young people are used to dealing with stuff like this because they’re out there communicating, reading, seeing everything, going to school, and not knowing if they’ll come home alive. They would keep me out on the street talking about the play for an hour. They just wanted to talk about it, and that’s when I knew that I had something.
Lastly, what inspired you to write your new book, The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore, and what do you hope they will take away from reading it?
I wanted to answer the question I keep getting about how, as a man, I can write for women. I also wanted to celebrate all of the wonderful women I’ve worked with during my long career. And the wonderful women in my life outside of show business. Especially my mom, who was my biggest fan. I hope people come away from my book, seeing how, through perseverance and hard work, you can get past the tough times of constant “no’s” and rejection. I also want the readers to know how important it is to celebrate your uniqueness, no matter what field of work you go into. Really, just in life.
