I never worked with her but did meet her on several occasions. The last time was for a panel I moderated. She was just a kid then — maybe 94. We sat backstage beforehand and she was working a crossword puzzle. We chatted a little. She was sharp as a tack.
My father actually knew her way better than me. He was in local advertising in the early ‘50s and hired Betty on several occasions to do live TV commercials for him.
No one I’ve ever met in the industry had a single bad word to say about Betty. Everyone loved her. She was nice, she was kind, she was professional, and ohmygod was she funny.
Did you know she was literally the first woman on television? In 1939 in an experimental broadcast she was the one on camera. Fitting, no?
For more about this National Treasure, there’s a great new book out called BETTY WHITE: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Career by Ray Richmond. You can find it here. I really recommend it.
Over the next few days I’m sure you’ll see tons of tributes and film clips. I just want to add my appreciation. She was the best that ever was.
And what an almost poetic way to end this shitty year.
RIP Betty. May you now be reunited with Allen and after-live happily ever after.
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I was genuinely hoping for her to make it to 100, and saw a few blurbs about various TV celebrations planned for her. It's been a long time since a celebrity's death had me in utter shock. What a loss, esp. so close to such a milestone.
I am heartened by the outpouring of lover for Betty White. It makes me hopeful that I will live long enough to hear the deafening silence that will accompany the passing of a certain orange-haired politician. I’ll bet she never grabbed anyone by the pussy.
Shame. She really did seem like she'd go on forever.
wg
Just an incredible career and life. May her memory be for a blessing.
@Fitz I'm afraid time will make people remember said politician more fondly than they should. We're already seeing revisionist history about George W. Bush and it's only been 13 years since he left the White House.
I don't remember a time before I knew who she was. I was watching LIFE WITH ELIZABETH before I'd learned to read. We've been hearing so much about Lucille Ball lately, but Betty was there first. She invented being a funny woman on TV sitcoms. Lucy, Joan Davis, Roseanne, all the other Golden Girls, they were all following in Betty's high heel footsteps.
On my Facebook page, I posted, 2021, you weren't a shitty enough year? You had to kick us all in the teeth one last time as you passed out of existence?
Betty's 100th birthday is only 18 days away. I was so looking forward to celebrating her centenary, "The Betty White Century: We Only Lived in It."
I worked with her once, way back in 1974 at KGIL, and she was charming and delightful and funny. Her home phone number was in my address book for years.
A world without Betty White. Who knew there could be such a thing? Who would want to live in such a world?
Fuck you, 2021, fuck you twice.
What a devastating loss. May she be at peace with Allen again.
Talk about an horribly appropriate way to end this jacked up year. But at the end of the day Betty will always be here because she's left over 7 decades of iconic work that will always be here so she's not really gone in my view. Although I wish she was able to make it at least to 100 even if only for a week, a month etc. but we were truly blessed to have her for this long and at all. Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty, Bernie Mac, Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, John Ritter, Michael Jackson, Dean Stockwell, Doris Roberts, Peter Boyle, John Hillerman, Ed Asner, Mary Tyler Moore, Leonard Nimoy, Rodney Dangerfield and so many more are all legends that we will never see the likes of again in this lifetime or perhaps the next.
@Fitz Yeah, taking what's supposed to be about Betty and making it about said orange haired troll politician is a real class move, buddy smh. How about a little respect for this iconic woman?
NBC Nightly News aired a brief clip this evening of Ms. White hosting "Saturday Night Live," and it was nice hearing her introduced off-camera by another television veteran, announcer Don Pardo, whom we also miss.
Kendall Rivers said it well--Ms. White's death on this last day of a dreadful year is "horribly approriate," and, sadly, brings to nine the number of those associated with the MTM company lost in 2021. The others once more: Ed Asner, Frank Bonner, Allan Burns, Cloris Leachman, Norman Lloyd, Gavin MacLeod, Jay Sandrich, and Peter Scolari.
Betty White (1922-2021).
@Kevin FitzMaurice
Thanks for the compliment, it just seemed to fit. Also, the only surviving members of the MTM show is John Amos and Phyliss' daughter. Amos himself just turned 82.
I'm just heartbroken.
She's just one of those I figured would be around forever...
Not "too soon."
Please, Jesus Christ, will people stop saying THAT.
Necco, if you'd talked to her a week ago, you'd have expected her to keep going at least another year if not more.
Thank you for your lovely words here, Ken. I keep crying but this was beautiful.
Lighten up Frances.
Yes. Lisa Gerritsen, who played Cloris Leachman's daughter, appeared in the first scene of the first episode in 1970. Joyce Bulifant also survives. She played Gavin MacLeod's wife occasionally throughout the seven-year run.
Please, pretty please, someone got a few cells of Betty White and freeze them. And whenever they get the technology perfected, clone her.
Her Macgruber sketch got me through 2020 and 2021. We have lost a national treasure.
Top 20 Betty White Moments is on YouTube, it was going to run on 1/17 but they posted it today. Also there's a Hot in Cleveland marathon on the TVLand live channel on PlutoTV, and the Mary Tyler Moore Show is available on demand on PlutoTV. I'm going to have hot dogs and vodka in her memory!
I had written a blog post for Jan 16, the day before her 100th birthday. I had to change stuff to the past tense a lot. I am incredibly sad. I watched her my whole life, on Password, Match Game, Bob, The Practice/Boston Legal, Hot In Cleveland and countless guest appearances on My Name Is Earl, The John Laroquette, SNL, heck too many to mention... And of course MTMS and GG.
Did I mention I was very sad?
I've seen it pointed out in several places online, that Betty White was one of the few remaining celebrities who was loved across the board, and transcended the country's divide. Alex Trebek was another. There aren't that many left. I've seen tributes to Betty White from every direction, and from every political persuasion. I hope that what she represents - the pure joy of a life well-lived - can make a comeback.
On a lighter note, I saw this on a comment board and thought it was worth repeating:
"You got to admit, having an entire magazine devoted to your 100 birthday hit the racks and then dying before that birthday is excellent comic timing."
Betty White! In my opinion, the funniest line in the classic Chuckles Bites the Dust episode of MTM occurs when Mary asks Sue Anne why everyone is being so callous about the death of Chuckles. "Callous?" she asks with that bright emphatic delivery. "Well, I'll have you know, dear, that Chuckles and I were very close. I baked the first custard pie he ever sat in."
Lesser known gems from this great lady include her turn as Joyce Whitman, actress of "Police Woman" parody "Undercover Woman" (check out her stunt double). Georgia Engel was her best friend Mitzy but the show never caught on. I always wished it had gone on longer.
She also did a great job when they retooled Bob Newhart's show "Bob" in the second season. There's a great scene in which as Syliva Scmidt she unsubtly manipulates Cynthia Stevenson and Jere Burns into a cuddle at the dinner table.
Just glad we had her for so long, and I can't imagine that she would not find the humor in a magazine cover celebrating her upcoming 100th birthday a day or so before she left us.
My God, she had the best comic timing of anyone I ever heard! And she had it till the end. She was a joy to watch and listen to.
Who is left from the black and white TV days? William Shatner, Clint Eastwood, Tina Louise? Who else?
I just watched the MTM episode "Sue Ann Falls in Love." Hilarious as always. God Bless you, Betty.
Who is left from the black and white TV days? William Shatner, Clint Eastwood, Tina Louise? Who else?
DIck Van Dyke (knocks on wood)
and how I came across this knowledge recently I don't know, but Joyce Randolph is still with us (knocks again)
Tim G, I loved THE BETTY WHITE SHOW. She and John Hillerman worked well together. I've never forgotten the scene in which she said to him, "I see you've grown a moustache...or did you have anchovies for lunch?"
I don't believe in an afterlife, but if there is one, I like to imagine Allen and Betty reunited for an all-star Heavenly revival of PASSWORD, with Elizabeth Montgomery and Patty Duke.
Oh my, Thank you, Jim, Cheers fan! Of course, Dick Van Dyke is still with us (knock on wood).
How could I forget. A great one, too!
I think the best thing you said about Betty White was that nobody ever said a bad word about her.
@Andrew Could we add Dolly Parton to the universally-loved list?
@Ace,
Yes and Amen!
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