‘The Office’ Has an Interesting Connection to ‘The Golden Girls’
The Office has an interesting connection to The Golden Girls, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey revealed during their Office Ladies podcast. One of the people who worked on their show actually inspired a character’s name on The Golden Girls and he’s thrilled to be tied to such an iconic show.
‘The Office’ said goodbye to a beloved producer
During the May 5 Office Ladies podcast, Fischer and Kinsey discussed the episode “Goodbye, Toby” and noted that it was the last episode their production manager Kent Zbornak worked on. While discussing how much they enjoyed working with him, they dropped a fun fact about Zbornak’s connection to The Golden Girls.
Fischer explained that Zbornak went on to produce other shows after The Office. “After this he moved on and he became the producer and production manager for Anger Management, Dear White People, and most recently, The Connors.”
“He is an amazing, amazing production manager,” she added. “You guys, we were so lucky to have him for four seasons, and Office Ladies has been so lucky that he saved like everything. Talk about a digital hoarder.”
‘The Office’ producer inspired a ‘Golden Girls’ character’s name
Fischer then shared the amazing way Zbornak is connected to The Golden Girls. “I want to share one of my favorite fun facts about Kent as we say goodbye to him,” she said.
“In his youth, Kent was an assistant to the creator of Golden Girls. Her name is Susan Harris,” Fischer explained. “And she loved Kent’s last name so much that when she wrote Golden Girls, she named Bea Arthur’s character Dorothy Zbornak.”
Zbornak shared more than just a name with the character, as he made a connection with Arthur on the show. “He was the inspiration behind that name,” Fischer said. “He told me he was beyond excited by this honor. He was like, ‘I mean, who wouldn’t be?’”
“And then he went on to be the first assistant director on Golden Girls,” she added. “And he said Bea Arthur was like a second mother to him. He just loved her.”
Kent Zbornak was so accommodating to Angela Kinsey during her pregnancy
During their discussion, Kinsey shared that she was toward the end of her pregnancy while they were filming the episode and almost missed being in the party scene because she had to be hospitalized. It could have been a big issue because Andy proposes to Kinsey’s character.
Everyone on the show thought there was time to do the episode before Kinsey would be leaving to have her baby because her due date was still a few weeks away.
Zbornak called her at the hospital to get an update and, Kinsey explained, she wasn’t sure if she would be having the baby but “it turned out to be false labor” and she was released.
“And let me tell you, Kent had already hired a stunt woman,” Kinsey shared. “Her name was Melissa Barker and she was to be my body double for the rest of this shoot. They really wanted to try to make sure I did not have to work if I was not in a speaking scene.”
Zbornak sent an email to the cast and crew to tell everyone they would all have a “more grueling than normal” schedule so they could film Kinsey and allow her to leave and rest before the baby came.
Fischer recalled, “I do remember the whole cast and crew were a little worried, we were concerned. We wanted to make sure that we got your work done first so that you could leave.”
