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‘Golden Girls’ Writers Felt the Need to Stay in the Closet, Despite Show’s Massive Gay Following

Toxic homophobic set.

One co-worker even told Zimmerman to burn thrifted sweaters from a garage sale because they had probably belonged to “somebody that died of AIDS.” But the writer — who later worked on “Gilmore Girls” — said that was just “the climate then.”

“I know you see all these progressive scenes and you think, ‘Oh, it was one big gay party there,’ but we couldn’t be who we really were,” Zimmerman explained during a Pride LIVE! Hollywood panel (via The Hollywood Reporter).

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by Anonymousreply 15July 10, 2025 8:10 PM

Marc Cherry is a pretentious MAGA ass, so no surprise

by Anonymousreply 1July 10, 2025 6:53 PM

R1, he wasn't the show runner just a gay writer in the last season.

by Anonymousreply 2July 10, 2025 6:57 PM

R1, Marc Cherry is anti-Trump. Do you spend all day talking out of your ass. Stan Zimmerman confirmed it.

by Anonymousreply 3July 10, 2025 6:58 PM

Marc Cherry worked seasons 6 and 7 of The Golden Girls. This is Stan Zimmerman and the other gay writers. Not simply Marc Cherry and to the idiot calling Marc MAGA:

[quote]However, in 2018, Cherry said that he "stopped being a Republican the second [Donald Trump's] foot hit the escalator."

Cherry was the closet to Bea Arthur out of all of them.

by Anonymousreply 4July 10, 2025 7:01 PM

Did it really have a “massive” gay following? Everyone watched the show, most demos, right? We only had three channels. I figured the gay audience thing was in reruns.

by Anonymousreply 5July 10, 2025 7:02 PM

“Our first day on the set, we noticed Estelle [Getty] come running toward us, and she’s like … ‘I know. Your secret’s safe with me. You’re one of us.’ I thought she meant Jewish,” he laughed. “But she meant gay. She wasn’t gay, but she was probably the first ally ever.” Getty was already deeply entrenched in the queer community, having played Harvey Fierstein’s mother in Broadway’s “Torch Song Trilogy,” the landmark play (and later film) about a gay, Jewish drag performer.

Bea Arthur, too, seemed to have a finely tuned queer radar. Script supervisor Isabel Omero would later come out as transgender decades later, and at one point during the show’s long run Arthur offered Omero a sari she had received on a trip to India.

“In my closeted, panicked, paranoid brain, all I knew is that at that moment Bea Arthur was offering me a dress to wear around the house, and I wish I had been in a place where I could have said something, to even accept the gift without ever using it, just so I could express something to someone,” Omero said during the panel. “But fear and shame is a big thing.”

by Anonymousreply 6July 10, 2025 7:03 PM

Yes, r5. Gay bars would stop to watch every week.

by Anonymousreply 7July 10, 2025 7:03 PM

Interesting!

by Anonymousreply 8July 10, 2025 7:04 PM

Mein closeted Fuhrer.

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by Anonymousreply 9July 10, 2025 7:09 PM

R5, where did you live that you only had three channels in the mid 80s?

by Anonymousreply 10July 10, 2025 7:11 PM

R10, most people only got a few channels. Most of the country wasn’t wired for nor could afford cable.

by Anonymousreply 11July 10, 2025 7:16 PM

By the mid-80's a majority of households had cable. I guess you were in the minority.

by Anonymousreply 12July 10, 2025 7:27 PM

Writer Winifred Hervey was a Bea fan, too. Said she was her favorite character to write.

by Anonymousreply 13July 10, 2025 7:38 PM

[quote]By the mid-80's a majority of households had cable.

Wrong.

[quote]By November 1986, 48.1% of US households were subscribed to cable TV.

by Anonymousreply 14July 10, 2025 7:47 PM

At R11 you stated: Most of the country wasn’t wired for nor could afford cable. 48.1% is not MOST of the country, it's 1,9% less than 50%.

I have different stats: By the mid-1980s, 68% of all American households had cable.

So, I'm sorry if you grew up in Bumfuckwherever, where the three dirt roads lead to the big fishing hole and the outhouse is just behind the barn, but 68% is most definitely in the majority. We can play this game all day, but I must be moving on. Have a great OCD day.

by Anonymousreply 15July 10, 2025 8:10 PM
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