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Saturday Night Live, should be quite the show, I hope the writers have really been working hard on doing some funny skits with her!!
I'm excited for shizzle.
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Can't wait to see Betty teach those SNL punks a thing-or-two about a thing-or-two. I heard Betty mention that there are going to be some other surprise guest stars from classic television (likely pals of hers).
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I'm just so surprised at how WITH IT she is. Like on the Tonight show a while back weeks or a month, I forget, she didn't miss a beat with anyone, Leno nor the guest sitting beside her. I have barely ever seen a person her age, so with it. I mean around Indiana, when your 88 you are just about dead, catatonic, etc. I hope, if I live that old, I'll be so with it like Grandma White.
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I'm just so surprised at how WITH IT she is. Like on the Tonight show a while back weeks or a month, I forget, she didn't miss a beat with anyone, Leno nor the guest sitting beside her. I have barely ever seen a person her age, so with it. I mean around Indiana, when your 88 you are just about dead, catatonic, etc. I hope, if I live that old, I'll be so with it like Grandma White.
Yes, and she's still got a filthy sense of humor, too. She recently attended the opening of a new hot dog joint as the celebrity guest, and she made a comment about the length of the hot dog being obscene. LOL
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Posted: |
May 6, 2010 - 5:18 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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Some years ago, once I retired, I decided to do some charitable work to fill some of my extra time. Debbie Reynolds had called me and asked that I help with her group, The Thalians, which has supported pediatric AIDS and mental health issues at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles for fifty years now.
I agreed to help her and for about ten years I produced the film clips segments for the big annual Thalians Ball, raising money for the hospital by honoring a famous personality each year. In 2001, the honoree was Mary Tyler Moore. One of the segments I had developed each year was a sort of good humor "roast" of the personality in question. For Mary Tyler Moore I decided I'd do a comedy video sketch illustrating a physical make-over of Moore. The idea was that Moore has looked the same for years, and now a bitchy Sue Ann Nivens has gotten tired of that look and is proposing a styling make-over on Moore to bring her into contemporary times.
I wrote the script for the whole video, and called Betty White's secretary to see if I could talk White into re-creating her Nivens character. The secretary informed me that she didn't think White would be interested---White was very careful about the material she chose---but if I'd Fedex the script to her, she'd pass it along to White. I did that and two days later I got a call from the astonished Secretary saying that White thought the script was very funny and would love to do it. I was thrilled, and also proud that I had succeeded so well at writing Betty White material.
Eventually the day came to shoot the video and I took my crew to White's lovely home. She greeted me personally at the door, we talked about where I would set up, and she went off to get changed. When she came down, she looked wonderful: Tommy Cole---you'll remember him from the original Disney Mousketeers in the '50s---"I'm Tommy!"---had done her makeup in his usual professional and creative manner, and she was perfectly turned out. We went over the script for a few moments, she was then wired for sound, and finally took a seat in a pictorial easy chair.
As we went through the script and I shot various readings and takes, including several of her suggestions, I felt I was watching a sneaky and nasty Sue Ann Nivens tearing poor Mary apart, moment-by-moment, but in a backhandedly loving way. It was hysterical!
Needless to say, the Sue Ann Nivens Make-Over Video was the hit of the evening, garnering great laughs, even from Mary Tyler Moore---who was a very good sport and thanked me personally.
It was a special moment for me to meet and work with White on this project. I loved her! She was generous with her time, and gracefully open to having a strange crew take over her home for a day.
A week or so after the banquet, I sent a nice letter to Betty to thank her for her participation in the project---and I also enclosed a very carefully hand-drafted letter to her from one of OUR kitties, "Cuddles", in which "Cuddles" talked about his kitty friends and family here at our house and asked White about HER animals.
Several weeks later I was not only astonished to receive a handwritten reply from White to MY letter, but also enclosed was a specially hand-written and detailed reply to "Cuddles." It was delightful.
What a witty, smart, funny, and very thoughtful lady!!! She deserves all the accolades which are currently coming her way!
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Holy cow, M! That was a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing it. Love that Betty (and Mary, too)!
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Where did this sudden resurgence of "Betty White Mania" come from? I know she's done a lot, but it seems like about a year ago or so, something just happened and now she's suddenly everywhere and doing everything. It's like I can't turn on the TV without seeing something about her. Not that I hate her or anything, but it's definitely gotten to the point where it's just annoying. Oh well.
She's been around a long time and has more than paid her dues, I was a little too young for her 1950's series LIFE WITH ELIZABETH and A DATE WITH THE ANGELS, but I've seen many of them in PBS retros and on DVD. She was married to Allen Ludden and was on a ton of game shows in the 60's, and of course I do remember her as Sue Ann Nivens on THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, and of course as Rose on THE GOLDEN GIRLS.
I'd say that the attention and adulation is MORE than deserved. For you see. she's
ONE HELL OF A DAME ! 
She was also a pretty close friend of Lucy, and that makes her OTAY.
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Posted: |
May 6, 2010 - 10:29 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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.....Where did this sudden resurgence of "Betty White Mania" come from? I know she's done a lot, but it seems like about a year ago or so, something just happened and now she's suddenly everywhere and doing everything. It's like I can't turn on the TV without seeing something about her. Not that I hate her or anything, but it's definitely gotten to the point where it's just annoying. Oh well.....
I think that this "sudden" resurgence in recognizing Betty White comes from different elements. She was one of the very first pioneers of the American television industry, performing live in the Los Angeles area in the late '40s/early '50s even before her early filmed TV series. The fact that she is STILL performing, and quite successfully, after a 60-year career makes people within the industry stop and think about longevity in a medium which has often been thought of as ephemeral. That she could hang on so long, in the cut-throat industry that is show business, is a real achievement.
She is now 88 years old, and, like George Burns, is still very much in control of her faculties and her comic timing. (Her SAG Award speech was hilarious, but also serious, and she was able to pull off that kind of contrast successfully.) People admire that.
The PASSWORD shows, THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, and THE GOLDEN GIRLS series---all very successful television---have made her an iconic figure, and like Jack Benny, audiences know precisely what her public character persona is. They also like that slightly bawdy, edgy, quality coming out of a very prim kind of physical figure. Her coming timing is impeccable and something you can't learn without years of experience behind you.
I think the highly successful release of THE PROPOSAL with Sandra Bullock didn't hurt her career in any way, and made her suddenly known to a much younger generation. A promo for this film, in which she "trashes" co-star Ryan Reynolds, is hysterical, and was all over YouTube last year. I'll bet millions of people saw it.
I'm sure many will think of her as overexposed today---some have already---but let's face it, at 88 years old, she won't be in their faces forever. I think she deserves her due now, while she can still enjoy it.
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I think her career took another leap forward when she made Lake Placid. To hear Betty White, who looks like sweet dear Grandma say such vulgar things in that film was just priceless. Also the superbowl commercial was legendary. Then the facebook page to get her on SNL. I hope they ask the guy who started and really helped get Betty on SNL, to come to the taping of the show, that would be a very nice gesture I think.
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She was great on SNL, and she was in almost every single sketch! I think we'll see her return to SNL next year. The media has good buzz about it.
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I watched it last night on DVD and it was FUNNY as heck. She was in, I think every skit. Highest ratings since Tina Fey did Palin back in November 2008. She was incredible and the applause she got in the first bit was, well I haven't seen/heard that in years for a star.
88, I just can't believe she's 88, I'm just completely dumbfounded how she looks and acts and is so with it, WOW, just WOW.
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