We're thrilled to welcome producer, director, screenwriter, and debut author, Stan Zimmerman, to Ashland for this virtual meeting! He'll be discussing his new book "The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore". From personal experiences to the insider scoop, Stan will take us down memory lane about some of our most cherished TV shows - the making of, the stars, and the challenges.

About the book:

The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore is the story of Stan Zimmerman, a gawky Jewish boy who dreamed of becoming a wildly successful actor, rich enough to build his own mansion in the Hollywood Hills. While the actor part didn't quite pan out, Stan found success as a writer, producer, director, and playwright, working on such shows as The Golden Girls, Roseanne, and Gilmore Girls.

Growing up in a small suburb of Detroit, Michigan, Stan was surrounded by three strong, intelligent women-his mother, his grandmother, and his sister-all of whom supported his imagination and creativity. Instead of playing outside, he spent time in his basement directing and acting in plays with the neighborhood kids. At seven-and-a-half years old, he was the youngest student accepted into a prestige summer theater school program.

After high school, he was awarded a work/study scholarship to NY/Circle in the Square, where he met his first serious boyfriend and became Andy Warhol's unwitting photo subject one night at Studio 54. He also met Jim Berg, a journalism student at NYU's University Without Walls, forming a writing partnership that continues to this day. Their latest project is naturally an all-star, female ensemble Christmas comedy movie for Lifetime!

Throughout his life, most of Stan's friendships have been with females. He credits those friendships and the women in his family with his ability to connect with creative women who have played a part in his career success.

Accompanied by journal entries, The Girls details Stan's relationships with some of entertainment's most notable women, including Roseanne Barr, Lily Tomlin, Sandra Bernhard, Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, and, of course, all four Golden Girls.

The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore is a candid, funny, and sometimes poignant testimony about how a young boy turned his dream into reality.

About Stan:

STAN ZIMMERMAN is a man of many mediums (TV, film and theatre). He’s been nominated for two WGA Awards for Best Comedy Writing – The Golden Girls and Roseanne. Stan’s also written and produced on Gilmore Girls, co-created the Lifetime sitcom, Rita Rocks, wrote on both Brady Bunch movies and rewrote the ABC-TV movie of Annie. Stan has a BFA-Drama from NYU/Circle-in-the-Square and has directed such LA productions as The Diary of Anne Frank-Latinx (eight iterations since 2018), Entertaining Mr. Sloane, A Tuna Christmas, Gemini, Spike Heels, Pledge, Heartbreak Help and his original plays -- Meet & Greet, Knife to the Heart, Yes Virginia and Have a Good One. Stan directed Off-Broadway’s Hyprov (Daryl Roth Theatre). TRWplays has published and licensed three of his works -- Yes Virginia, Silver Foxes and his suicide awareness play, right before I go, which Stan has appeared in across the U.S. Zimmerman & Berg wrote the recent Lifetime Christmas movie, Ladies of the 80’s: A Divas Christmas starring Donna Mills, Linda Gray, Morgan Fairchild, Loni Anderson, Nicollette Sheridan. Stan will be directing the West Coast Premiere of the World Premiere of Peter Ritt’s High Maintenance at The Road Theatre Company in North Hollywood (April ’24).

Presented in partnership with Ashland Public Library and a multitude of partners. Sponsored, in part, by the Groton Public Library Endowment Trust.

Image by: Dusan Vuksanovic

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