Meet Betty White
Friend of John Steinbeck. From WMFU's Beware of the Blog:
Betty White is universally loved. Best known for her work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls, she has been in show business for over sixty years. But what is it that made Betty White so famous in the first place? A recent blitz of cliché-laden profiles aggrandize about Betty's enduring television career, but rarely do they delve into detail.Betty White was a ubiquitous show business personality long before she ever played Sue Ann Nivens or Rose Nylund. As the most prolific female of nineteen fifties television, she was consistently attacked by newspaper critics. Open war was declared on White who, with her safe exuberant demeanor, was said to represent everything that was wrong with the medium. During that first decade of television she was often dismissed as too perky, too saccharine - even vacant.
In real life she was anything but. Those critics would have been shocked to learn that she was closest of friends with John Steinbeck. Betty White was more than just a sitcom star, singer, game show panelist and television producer. She was the first woman to host a daytime talk show. She helped a struggling film student, the very un-saccharine Sam Peckinpah, obtain his first job. Twenty years later she discovered a small town weatherman she thought had potential named David Letterman. With a starring role on a program that aired five and a half-hours a day, six days a week, for four consecutive years, and all that has come since, it is arguable that she has spent more time on television than anyone else alive.
This is the early Betty White.
via @colbycosh
I vaguely remember that she was also known for having the best legs in show biz.
Richard Cook at April 4, 2010 4:14 AM
I'm so glad they're having her host SNL on May 8. It's about time. She's entertained millions of people over decades, but SNL gives their spotlight to the latest fly-by-night.
Who talks about Michael Phelps now? (Who was, by the way, absolutely terrible as SNL host.) Why does he get this honor but not Betty White. I mean, talk about fucked up priorities.
And I've loved Betty White on so many things over the years, and Golden Girls showed she was just as funny as ever. Unlike Bea Arthur (whom I absolutely adored), Betty White could do a variety of things. I loved Bea Arther for her acerbic wit and sarcasm, but she was bound into one role. From Yente the Matchmaker on Fiddler on the Roof to Golden Girls, Bea played the sarcastic wit...superbly, yes, but that was her only role.
So, when are you going to host SNL, Amy?
Patrick at April 4, 2010 6:38 AM
My Mom was always shocked at Betty White in MTM- she was such a hussy!
Eric at April 4, 2010 8:22 AM
I LOVE Betty White! I wish I could be her when I grow up!
I loved her in the Snickers commercial during the Super Bowl, did you guys catch that? She was hysterical!
http://tinyurl.com/Bettycom
o.O
Flynne at April 4, 2010 10:15 AM
What's with the sudden Betty White obsession? Everywhere I look there is an article about her...
NicoleK at April 4, 2010 2:44 PM
Oh, NicoleK, I hope my mind is still active when I'm your age...
(Sue Ann Nivens)
We just want to hear about people who get going and make a success of themselves without a government program or a scandal dogging them.
Radwaste at April 4, 2010 7:35 PM
I didn't know Bea Arthur was Yenta! Awesome.
I loved Betty on MTM and Mama's Family, but I loved her most on Golden Girls. I have always said that it takes someone truly intelligent to play dumb so comically and convincingly (she could show present-day game show contestants a thing or ten). I especially like when Rose bites back at Dorothy or Blanche. The comic timing on that show is unbelievable.
Anyone else check out her SAG acceptance speech this year? Priceless.
Flynne, that was definitely the best commercial of the Super Bowl. I'm a little upset they hardly ever show the full version, though, because, c'mon, Abe Vigoda! Didn't know Fish was still alive, actually. I need to watch the episode of Barney Miller with the hash brownies again.
NumberSix at April 4, 2010 8:02 PM
I still like to watch the old Password episodes from the early 1960s that Betty was on. GSN runs them occasionally overnight, when they aren't pre-empted by infomercials. Betty was one of the best celebrity players. I've seen the episode where Allan Ludden, the show's host, proposed to her on the air. Betty and Allan were a classic Hollywood couple. He died of cancer in the 1970s and she never remarried.
Password in the 1960s was a smart show; it wasn't the dumbed-down version that it became in the mid-'70s. The rules were strict and you had to have a pretty good working vocabulary to win at it. I once recall Betty getting the word "robot" as the password. She gave the clue "automaton" to her contestant parter. Great clue! And he got it too. And this was back when the word "robot" had not really entered the popular lexicon yet.
Cousin Dave at April 5, 2010 8:50 AM
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