Unless you are a scientist, 88 is an unlikely time to be at the top of your game. Even more unlikely is being such an essential part of the zeitgeist at that age. For Betty White, life is about as unlikely as it can get.
Her first movie credit came from a short entitled “Time to Kill”, released in 1945. From there, White’s career was slow-going until her fateful guest role on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The show’s writers were looking for an edgy Betty White type for what was supposed to be a one-time character.
Mary Tyler Moore, who was friends with White, recommended her. The show’s producers didn’t quite believe White could pull off the sassy role, but called her in anyway. They immediately fell in love with the way she portrayed Sue Ann Nivens. Audiences loved her and the writers wrote her in through the rest of the show’s run, which lasted seven seasons. White was so loveable, in fact, that it lead to her own show after The Mary Tyler Moore Show ended.
The Betty White Show had a very short run, only fourteen episodes. After her show ended abruptly, she went on to have small roles in such memorable shows as The Carol Burnett Show and The Love Boat.
It wasn’t until she got cast as Rose Nylund in The Golden Girls that White would be back on tv regularly. At the time of casting, White read for the role of Blanche Devereaux and Rue McClanahan read for Rose. Producers liked them both, but switched their roles since White had already played a more assertive character on Mary Tyler Moore and McClanahan had already played a more reserved character on the hit series Maude.
America fell in love with Betty all over again and The Golden Girls went on to last for seven seasons, earning four Golden Globe awards, nearly a dozen Emmys and 80 other nominations.
White has become such a pop culture icon that earlier this year, facebook fans came together to encourage Lorne Michaels to invite her to host Saturday Night Live. The show was a huge success, drawing some of the higest ratings of the season.
Betty can now be seen on her new comedy series “Hot In Cleveland” costarring Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick on TV Land. Only in its first season, the show has just been picked up for a second and is sure to be yet another long-running hit for White.
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