Betty White Appreciation Thread

[ClassyCo]

In remembrance of the late Betty White, the wife and I watched some GOLDEN GIRLS episodes that I consider standout episodes for White's Rose Nylund. All the episodes we watched were from Seasons 3 through 7. We'll touch-base on the first two seasons sure enough.

"A Visit From Little Sven" (Season 3, Episode 9)
Air Date: November 21, 1987

Rose's cousin Sven (guest star Casey Sander) comes to visit the ladies in Miami. During his visit, Sven falls for Blanche, who decides to let him down gently. Rose is furious with Blanche because of the mix-up, and decides to call of Sven's father to help Sven get over Blanche and come back home to St. Olaf.

"High Anxiety" (Season 4, Episode 20)
Air Date: March 25, 1989

Rose beats a decades-long dependency on prescription pain killers with the aid of Dorothy, Blanche, and Sophia. Meanwhile, Dorothy and Sophia are picked to star in a TV commercial for a local pizzeria. (This episode contains one of my favorite bits concerning Rose's "St. Olaf Monopoly" game.)

"Twice in a Lifetime" (Season 5, Episode 20)
Air Date: February 24, 1990

Rose's old flame Buzz (guest star Eddie Bracken) comes to visit her in Miami and old feelings are rekindled. Rose's budding romance with Buzz causes issues with long-time boyfriend Miles (Harold Gould). In the meantime, Sophia's fed up with Dorothy's rules and decides to move out.

"Ro$e Love$ Mile$" (Season 7, Episode 10)
Air Date: November 16, 1991

Rose is hopelessly in love with Miles, but she has grown tired of his penny-pinching ways. At the urging of Blanche, Rose decides to see a wealthy Texan, who has agreed to take her to a fancy restaurant. When Miles catches Rose, the two of them have hurdles to jump over on their road to working out their relationship.

"Rose: Portrait of a Woman"
Air Date: March 7, 1992

For Miles' birthday, Blanche talks Rose into getting sexy boudoir photos taken for him. When Miles open the photo before a group of his college colleagues, Rose is humiliated. Meanwhile, Dorothy rekindles a relationship with an old student, who decides to give her an easier job as a reward for helping him when he was in high school.

I know we'll dive into more Rose-themed episodes here in the net few days (time permitting). With Betty White's death, it's got me reevaluating Rose Nylund and Betty White's performance.

Do you have any favorite GOLDEN GIRLS episodes featuring Rose?​

 

[DallasFanForever]

Do you have any favorite GOLDEN GIRLS episodes featuring Rose?

It would have to be the episode where she brings home a date for dinner and he is, let’s say, the vertically challenged psychiatrist Jonathan. I think it’s from the very first season and might be my all time favorite episode.

 

[ClassyCo]

It would have to be the episode where she brings home a date for dinner and he is, let’s say, the vertically challenged psychiatrist Jonathan. I think it’s from the very first season and might be my all time favorite episode.

That's "A Little Romance" from the first season. It is easily one of the funniest episodes of the series! I actually have the script to that episode.

​

 

[tommie]

People magazine didn't expect it. This week their regular edition and a special commemorative edition featured Betty White celebrating her 100th birthday.

Well, she was 99. My dad always said that after 75 you can just kind of... die. There's no real reason behind it except you're old. I'm happy she seemingly lived a healthy life with her mind still intact and (hopefully) passed away peacefully.

 

[Karin Schill]

Seriously?

Yes I am serious. I think the Golden Girls were being shown on Swedish TV in the 1990s when I was a teenager and at that age I was more interested in watching Growing Pains, Full House or Saved By the Bell that had teenage characters in them that were easier for me to relate to than a show about a bunch of ladies who were about my grandmas age!

I did like the song used in the opening credits though. Also in Swedish the show was called "Pantertanter".

 

[ginnyfan]

Did she ever star in any classic movies, as support or just an extra??? I think I saw her once in something but no way I can remember now. I know she was a full on TV star but surely she tried getting into movies at some point???

 

[Crimson]

Did she ever star in any classic movies, as support or just an extra??? I think I saw her once in something but no way I can remember now.

She had a supporting role in 1962's ADVISE & CONSENT, which is pretty much her only "classic" film. I don't think she appeared in another theatrical film until the 90s.

 

[ginnyfan]

Oh yes, that's the one I saw her in. Thanks.

It's fascinating how she became this cool, beloved type of celeb known from anyone from 10 to 100 years old. The fact her health served her well and she could work up until the end, made it possible of course. She was omnipresent on tv, online, social media etc. The only other universally loved celeb is Dolly, I guess....

 

[Jimmy Todd]

In remembrance of the late Betty White, the wife and I watched some GOLDEN GIRLS episodes that I consider standout episodes for White's Rose Nylund. All the episodes we watched were from Seasons 3 through 7. We'll touch-base on the first two seasons sure enough.

"A Visit From Little Sven" (Season 3, Episode 9)
Air Date: November 21, 1987

Rose's cousin Sven (guest star Casey Sander) comes to visit the ladies in Miami. During his visit, Sven falls for Blanche, who decides to let him down gently. Rose is furious with Blanche because of the mix-up, and decides to call of Sven's father to help Sven get over Blanche and come back home to St. Olaf.

"High Anxiety" (Season 4, Episode 20)
Air Date: March 25, 1989

Rose beats a decades-long dependency on prescription pain killers with the aid of Dorothy, Blanche, and Sophia. Meanwhile, Dorothy and Sophia are picked to star in a TV commercial for a local pizzeria. (This episode contains one of my favorite bits concerning Rose's "St. Olaf Monopoly" game.)

"Twice in a Lifetime" (Season 5, Episode 20)
Air Date: February 24, 1990

Rose's old flame Buzz (guest star Eddie Bracken) comes to visit her in Miami and old feelings are rekindled. Rose's budding romance with Buzz causes issues with long-time boyfriend Miles (Harold Gould). In the meantime, Sophia's fed up with Dorothy's rules and decides to move out.

"Ro$e Love$ Mile$" (Season 7, Episode 10)
Air Date: November 16, 1991

Rose is hopelessly in love with Miles, but she has grown tired of his penny-pinching ways. At the urging of Blanche, Rose decides to see a wealthy Texan, who has agreed to take her to a fancy restaurant. When Miles catches Rose, the two of them have hurdles to jump over on their road to working out their relationship.

"Rose: Portrait of a Woman"
Air Date: March 7, 1992

For Miles' birthday, Blanche talks Rose into getting sexy boudoir photos taken for him. When Miles open the photo before a group of his college colleagues, Rose is humiliated. Meanwhile, Dorothy rekindles a relationship with an old student, who decides to give her an easier job as a reward for helping him when he was in high school.

I know we'll dive into more Rose-themed episodes here in the net few days (time permitting). With Betty White's death, it's got me reevaluating Rose Nylund and Betty White's performance.

Do you have any favorite GOLDEN GIRLS episodes featuring Rose?​

I love the episode in which she tells the mean lady next door to "Drop dead," and then the woman does!

Then there's also the one in she wins St. Olaf's "Woman of the Year" award. Too funny!

 

[DallasFanForever]

I love the episode in which she tells the mean lady next door to "Drop dead," and then the woman does!

The scenes in the funeral home with Mr. Puh-Feiffer are priceless! I love when he asks how the neighbor died and Sophia points to Rose and says “She killed her.”

 

[cws]

My favorite line has to be towards the end of the series and Sophia was making her will and decided to make Rose her executor. Rose says," I know what I'm doing. Every Thursday I watch la law"!!!!!! Dorothy says, "that's La Law". Rose then replied "that's why Susan Dey doesn't have a French accent".

 

[AndyB2008]

My favorite line has to be towards the end of the series and Sophia was making her will and decided to make Rose her executor. Rose says," I know what I'm doing. Every Thursday I watch la law"!!!!!! Dorothy says, "that's La Law". Rose then replied "that's why Susan Dey doesn't have a French accent".

LA Law, which aired on NBC too, outlived The Golden Girls show by two years, ending in 1994.

Although by 1992, the series was on last legs. ITV dropped the show, with Sky One airing the last 2 seasons, and Jimmy Smits, Susan Dey and Harry Hamlin were gone.

Not to mention it did a Knots Landing midway for Season 7 - Mark Tinker and John Masius came in as new showrunners, and made it similar to their own St Elsewhere. The first episode of S7 featured Dan Castellaneta, dressed and voiced as Homer Simpson (yes really), juxtaposed with the LA Riots where Stuart Markowitz was injured.

Anyway, the ratings were so bad for S7 that production was shut down midway (gather NBC saw the ratings and ordered 20th Television to make changes), Tinker and Masius were gone and in came William M Finklestein, who returned the show to the original premise. And the ratings recovered for NBC to give it a 8th and final season.

 

[Crimson]

Perhaps already mentioned in one of the Betty White threads, but one of my favorite appearances of hers was one of the more obscure: THE JOHN LARROQUETTE SHOW.

She won an Emmy playing a Norma Desmond-ish version of herself , mounting a musical version of GOLDEN GIRLS and forcing John to play Dorothy.

 

[ClassyCo]

Betty White's primary claim to fame was her television work. She was on TV practically at the birth of the medium, starring in shows like LIFE WITH ELIZABETH and the first in a series of unrelated shows called THE BETTY WHITE SHOW, which I believe was a talk/variety show originally. Throughout the '60s and early-'70s, she was known primarily as a guest star on game shows, such as PASSWORD (where she met her husband Allen Ludden), THE $25,000 PYRAMID, THE HOLLYWOOD SQUARES, and THE MATCH GAME.



So well-known was White as a game show performer that she saw it virtually impossible to get the role of Sue Ann on MARY TYLER MOORE, even though Mary Tyler Moore herself said, "We need someone who can play ickingly sweet, like Betty White" for the part. After a few other actresses were shuffled through, Moore reached to White herself. White guest-starred during the fourth season of the show in 1973, before eventually become apart of the main cast after the exit breakout star Valerie Harper for her RHODA spin-off the following year. White remained on the show as Sue Ann until in concluded in 1977, winning two Emmy awards for her work.



White's MARY TYLER MOORE gig redirected her career towards being a star of TV comedy. When THE GOLDEN GIRLS was tabled as a new comedy for NBC in 1985, White was one of the very first actresses considered for a role on the forthcoming show. The producers had originally wanted White to play Blanche, the sexy Southern belle, although Jay Sandrich, who directed the pilot, felt that White would be better-suited for Rose, the terminally innocent native of St. Olaf, Minnesota. White starred on the series for seven seasons, from 1985 to 1992, and won another Emmy award for her work in 1986.



I believe it was James L. Brooks, co-creator of MARY TYLER MOORE, that said White "could've been a dramatic actress had she wanted to" in response to her disciplined performance as Sue Ann Nivens. Brooks remembered that White needed less direction than the rest of the cast, and complimented her ability to know who her character was and where she wanted to go with it.

White didn't seem to make a lot of movies until she became a phenomenon in the 2000s. With the image of her so thoroughly engraved in my mind as a television star, it would be quite hard for me to picture her making too big a splash on film. Of course, this doesn't mean she couldn't have done well in movies, I just think I'd have a hard time picturing her doing so.​

 

[ClassyCo]

I love the episode in which she tells the mean lady next door to "Drop dead," and then the woman does!

Then there's also the one in she wins St. Olaf's "Woman of the Year" award. Too funny!

"It's a Miserable Life" from Season 2 is easily one of my favorites. That whole episode is jammed with one good one-liner after another. Funny stuff.

The whole bit of them at the funeral parlor is hilarious.

 

[ClassyCo]

My favorite line has to be towards the end of the series and Sophia was making her will and decided to make Rose her executor. Rose says," I know what I'm doing. Every Thursday I watch la law"!!!!!! Dorothy says, "that's La Law". Rose then replied "that's why Susan Dey doesn't have a French accent".

"From Here to the Pharmacy" from Season 7. That episode has some really good lines too.

 

[cws]

"From Here to the Pharmacy" from Season 7. That episode has some really good lines too.

YES!!

 

[DallasFanForever]

The whole bit of them at the funeral parlor is hilarious.

“Hey, Puh-Feiffer, how would you like a punch in your puh-face?”

That line never gets old for me

 

[ClassyCo]

“Hey, Puh-Feiffer, how would you like a punch in your puh-face?”

That line never gets old for me

I'm more partial to this one:

DOROTHY:
Mr. Puh-Feiffer, about the puh-funeral...

LOL​

 

[Jimmy Todd]

There were so many great little lines on that show. Rose had some wonderful ones that hinted at life in St. Olaf. One O
I remember was when she was telling a story that involved a man named Pigeon Johansson.
Rose: That was his nickname
Blanche: Pigpen?
Rose: No, Johansson

Another was when she was confessing to Dorothy how competitive she is.
Rose: I never told anyone this, but I once had to transfer schools over a field hockey incident.
Her facial expression when she says this makes it even funnier.