More than 3 decades after the beloved show Golden Girls wrapped up, the creator of the show is opening up about the cast’s dynamics.
Stan Zimmerman, who wrote several scripts for the show recently got candid with Fox News Digital and revealed interesting details about Estelle Getty and Betty White's relationship.
He recalled that Getty was struggling to remember her line at the time and that everyone thought that she wasn’t “studying hard enough.”
He shared, “When we would break because of a mistake from Estelle, Betty would go walk over to the bleachers and start making jokes. And, at the time, because I was close with Estelle, I felt, ‘Why is she making fun of Estelle?’”.
But while Stan’s initial thought was that White was making fun of Getty, he later realized that she was doing it on purpose to divert attention away from her co-star.
He recalled, “I think Betty was steering the attention away from Estelle, going up to the audience so that people would be looking at her over there and let Estelle have the moment to collect herself, look at the script”.
Stan also revealed that after an extensive career in theatre, Getty’s struggle to memorize lines was causing her panic attacks and that White was also aware of that.
Although Stan believed that Getty was already suffering from symptoms of Dementia at the time, it was not until mid 1990s and two misdiagnoses later that she was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia. A brain disorder that affects movement, thinking, mood and behaviour. After battling with the disorder for 9 years, Getty died in 2008, at her home in Los Angeles.