The Sunday Memory Drawer - Betty White

 

I never met Betty White.   I don't have a Betty White story.   And the closest I came to her in person was at a Paley Center retrospective for "The Golden Girls."  And at a TV Academy panel with "Hot in Cleveland."

But I feel like I lost a friend.   In fact, we all did.

These days, I like to gravitate towards friends who knew me when I was a kid.   Pals who actually knew my grandparents and parents.  Well, it works in the other direction as well.   Because my grandparents and parents knew Betty White.  That's what happens when a life goes on for 99 years and you crosscut several generations.   I mean, it's why "The Golden Girls" is so popular with younger people these days.   It's relatable.   And so was Betty White. 

Indeed, Betty White traveled across the decades of my own life.   Watching TV with my grandmother while both parents worked, we watched together one game show after another.   A favorite was "Password" and Betty was a regular on that one, even marrying the host Allen Ludden.  I can even remember tuning into one episode where Betty and Allen announced their marriage on the air.  I remember my grandmother liked her a lot.

"Such a nice lady."

Also back when I was a kid, Betty was the official "parade" host.   If I am not mistaken, she was for years with Lorne Greene of "Bonanza" the hosts of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Rose Parade on NBC.  Research tells me she and Lorne did that for a decade.   

When I got to college, I became interested in learning to write comedy and a natural tutor for me was "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."  Of course, who showed up there for four seasons as the caustic Sue Ann Nivens?

I was a young adult who stayed home most Saturday nights to watch Betty as Rose Nyland on "The Golden Girls."  More importantly, those are the years my dad was laid up with prostate and then bone cancer.   The TV was his friend.  And "The Golden Girls" was one of his favorite shows.

Moving on, when Betty joined the cast of "Hot in Cleveland," I was already there because of the co-star Valerie Bertinelli.   But her presence there and the subsequent reunion episode with all the gal co-stars from MTM seemed to tie it all together for me.   Indeed, everyone, both male and female, are now gone from that hallmark of a show.

Betty White seemed to pop up in everything, even at a later age.   From SNL to movies with Sandra Bullock to commercials where she was tackled by a football team, Betty was there.

Our friend, writer Marc Cherry, worked with Betty on "The Golden Girls" and told us he never envisioned that she would retire.   Indeed, the only thing that made her leave the TV or movie screens was COVID-19.   Otherwise, she might have kept going and going and going.

Fathom Events had scheduled a movie theater program to run on her 100th birthday this upcoming January 17.  They are still having it and I am still planning on going.   And it will make me think of my own youth and my own family and my own enjoyment.  

Betty White, thank you for being OUR friend.

Dinner last night:  Tangerine beef from Chin Chin.