If you watched television in the 90s, chances are that you were a Roseanne fan. The show captivated audiences all around the world. People were obsessed with the show and even today, they talk about it! You cannot talk about groundbreaking comedy shows without bringing up Roseanne and the brilliant writing in the show tackling such complex situations and highlighting everyday Americans and their lives. Newsner sat down with Stan Zimmerman, a writer for Roseanne’s sixth season, as he gave us behind the scene details into what happened on set and his experiences with comedy’s most controversial darling, Roseanne Barr. Keep reading to get the exclusive scoop!
Behind the scenes of Roseanne
Working on big television shows has been something Stan Zimmerman is used to. The writer was a staff writer for Roseanne’s season six, and during his time on the show he saw a lot.
One of the things he distinctly remembers is when Roseanne Barr and her then-husband Tom Arnold gathered all twenty-one writers for the season and asked them to wear t-shirts with numbers on them. Stan recalls the incident saying, “And I didn’t know what it was about. So I just thought, well, my birthday’s October 13th, so I’m getting number 13 and I’m pushing people away and they’re all getting mad, not at me, but at what? Why? What’s going on? And then, as I’m getting closer to get my t-shirt, I learn that’s why they got those numbers so that Roseanne could just point and say, ’13, you’re fired’.”
According to Stan, the couple did it so they would not have to remember anyone’s names. He remembers it as “a prank, a joke. Maybe it was a little threatening.”
Zimmerman said that Roseanne and the other higher-ups on the show did not hide their disdain for writers. At one point, Zimmerman had the hilarious thought that perhaps all Roseanne needed in her life was some warmth. He said, “So I would tell the writers, you know, if I could just give her a hug, maybe she’ll trust us and love us.”
To which they would say to him, “They’re like, ‘Stan, don’t touch her. Don’t go near her. You will not come out alive.’ But I just had this idea that she just needed more love.”
Roseanne’s struggles with her mental health were also evident on set and witnessed by the cast and crew. Stan recalled a day when Roseanne was clearly not doing too well. He said, “I mean, Roseanne has been very vocal about her struggles with mental health, and I read all the books before we got on the show. And, during the show, I just really wanted to understand her.”
He went on, “And many of the books talk about her multiple personalities.”
He talks about how Roseanne is now, something that upsets him, “what she’s doing now is she’s just screaming at people, and she seems so angry and not really sensitive to other people.
Roseanne rarely interacted with the staff writers, so the one time she directly summoned Stan is something he remembers well. He tells the story, “We were down on set a few weeks before we filmed that episode, and all of a sudden we hear, ‘who the hell wrote this?’ And all the writers just parted. And then, only we were left. It was like walking to the Wizard of Oz, you know, like I was the scarecrow. My legs were shaking and I said, ‘we did’, and she was like, ‘yeah? Its effing funny’. So I knew she appreciated what we were writing, but I think it was very difficult for her to fully really acknowledge that.”
Controversial moments and the impact
Stan was one of the writers who wrote Roseanne season six’s controversial ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ episode that featured the same-sex kiss Roseanne shared with Sharon, played by guest star Mariel Hemingway. Zimmerman recalled how in 1994 this was unheard of. The network was afraid advertisers would get spooked and not pay for ad spots during the show.
Zimmerman recalled, “So the network said, you’re not going to write this episode. When they heard about the storyline, which was, Roseanne got kissed by a woman at a lesbian bar.”
He said ABC went as far as telling Roseanne they would not air the episode, to which she threatened to buy it back from them and put it on HBO, to which the network relented. The ratings for the episode were successful and as Stan said, “The world did not explode.” He credits that moment in television history for opening the doors later for shows like Ellen and Will and Grace.
But the scene with the iconic kiss is also one scene Zimmerman wishes he could change since that was not how it was originally written. He said, “When she kisses Meriel Hemingway, and then she kind of wipes it off with her arm. That was not in the script. That was an ad-lib that Roseanne did at the taping. And I went to the producer, and I said, ‘I don’t think it’s funny.’ I don’t think at that moment she would have that ick factor. I think it’s more versus just like, ‘what did I just do’?”
“And, you know, I fought the good fight, but I wasn’t the showrunner. That’s their job. So all you can do with those jobs is give your thoughts. That’s what they’re paying you for. And then you have to learn to let it go and not hold on to things,” he ended.
In 2018, Roseanne made headlines for a racist tweet against Obama’s adviser Valerie Jarrett. At the time, Stan understood the gravity of the situation but believed this was the chance to begin a larger dialogue about racism. He says of the incident, “We don’t really want to talk about [racism]. And, I thought she could have, you know, move the needle some by having that discussion, but she didn’t.”
But recently, he has had a hard time seeing how she has been conducting herself publicly. “It’s really difficult to see her go so far into the conspiracy theories and just, I mean, it’s just so nutty. I can’t even explain it. And it’s disappointing, to be quite honest,” Stan says.
But he has hope, Zimmerman tells us, “You know, I always have that little hope thinking that maybe she’ll come around.”
Zimmerman wrote about his enthralling experiences with Roseanne The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore. Within its pages, he details his experiences with some of TV’s biggest women, including the four Golden Girls, Lauren Graham, Lily Tomlin, and more!
Stan Zimmerman is currently touring with his play ‘Right Before I Go‘, a poignant story inspired by a close friend’s suicide thirteen years earlier. Share this piece with other Roseanne fans who might want to know about these little-known facts!
