The Betty White Show (1977)

On that show Betty White seemed to be playing a LESBIAN ( her true self)

Have you read the episode descriptions on Wikipedia?

“John and Betty arent really divorced, part 1”

“John’s mother visits and they have to pretend to be married in front of her.”

Ugh

She should've just starred in a Police Woman comedy.

R2 What's the "ugh" part

Never saw it, but with the right writers and time slot I could have seen Betty with her name on it lasting many years. At least she got two classic sitcoms albeit with an ensemble cast of talented people. Have to hand it to Betty. A failing sitcom didn’t deter her and she kept working on different facets of the tv industry until she landed GG.

The entire series is on YouTube.

Betty was good, Georgie was good...but it wasn't a good show - seemed hurriedly put together.

Betty was reacting rather than being really funny herself.

It got cancelled mid-season.

IIRC, Betty White suggested in one interview that co-star John Hillerman was difficult and bad-mouthed the show to the press behind her back.

Betty was a woman over 55 years old at the time the show premiered.

I don't think the network knew what to do with a woman her age, or had real confidence she could carry the show

Caren Kaye celebrated the new year in her Instagram. Not one mention of Betty. Bitch!

They used to rerun it on the weekends on Comedy Central in the 90's. It was ok, no gem. It also co starred Georgia Engel, and Charles Cyphers right before he filmed Halloween.

I would love to see her take on Fawlty Towers. John Cleese mentioned it in his tribute to Betty. I thought Amanda's with Bea was the only US attempt, but apparently Betty did one as well.

Thanks, R6. That was.... dreadful. Makes the serviceable Hot in Cleveland look like a masterpiece. Thank goodness for MTM Show and Golden Girls.

No, it sucked.

OP- In your photo we have a Lesbian and a Homosexual.

The show was called The Betty White Show but she played a character named Joan. I always thought that was weird.

I also remember when the rapper Eve had her own show on UPN called Eve but then inexplicably her character's name on the show was Shelly.

Good eye R13. I had never heard of that happening before! 🙄

r9, that was Snavely, with Harvey Korman in the Cleese role and Betty as his wife. It's on Youtube. It's not good.

The problem was that with Betty in the lead, she turned into a sour, MTM type whereas Caren Kaye took on the Sue Ann persona and was more fun. Sort of like 227 with Jackee.

Something she did to promote her show.

The funniest part of the Betty White Show were the clips of the show within the show (Undercover Policewoman?) riding in a helicopter chasing bad guys and shooting a gun.

It was nice to see her hire a Georgia Engel as her sidekick.

I remember this one. The cast were great, but the writing was dodgy. If it had been allowed to run a bit longer it might have settled into something good.

Okay, I know this is nuts, but…

The writing in the clip at R6 wasn’t that terrible, and the actors were adept, for the most part.

MTM was multi-camera as well, but seemed much less clunky.

I wonder if MTM being filmed and TBWS being videotaped had something to do with its seeming amateurish?

Those same lines and deliveries seem like they would have worked in MTM’s world.

I remember reading that Angie Dickinson and Betty White had become friends over their shared interest in animal welfare, but that their friendship cooled because Angie felt that Betty's police woman character was making fun of Angie's most famous role. I faintly remember the series, and thought it was passably funny.

R21 not nuts at all - at lot of 70s and 80s sitcoms were on tape but this looked especially cheap - like a public access show.

Also, they brought the whole MTM team of writers David Lloyd etc on so why wasn’t it much better?

Maybe it came too soon after MTM went off the air.

Betty and Georgia as cops was bad.

Betty was her best on MTM as Sue Ann Nivens. Hilarious and showed off her skills as a great actress and comedienne.

Betty as Rose on Golden Girls was painful if you ask me. I love Betty, but I just never cared for her being so dumb. Consequently, I could never get into GG.

R25, if I had my choice, I'd rather watch Bea on Maude than Dorothy on GG; Betty as Sue Ann than as Rose on GG.

Rue had tons of fun as Blanche but I thought she was a hoot as Vivian.

I don't dislike the GGs but I never made time for it.

Betty White was a treasure and great at comedy but she wasn't good at playing "straight" and being the center of a show. She was much better in support where she could just relax and play those larger than life characters that you couldn't really center a show on....Rose and Sue Ann were hilarious but you wouldn't want to watch them as the main character of a show every week for 22 episodes a year.

The Betty White Show was such a bore. Betty had little to do and nothing about the show was funny except the idea of a 55 year old housewife type playing a cop.

[quote]Betty as Rose on Golden Girls was painful if you ask me. I love Betty, but I just never cared for her being so dumb. Consequently, I could never get into GG.

I felt the same way.

She talks about the show here.

I'd love to see the Johnny skit where he played Jerry Brown and Betty Linda Ronstadt (on rollerskates) Betty talked about it in her book.

Betty also talked about this skit, and how the last round of water really threw her for a loop. Johnny briefly panicked and thought Betty had been knocked out cold.

I was definitely watching TV every evening in 1977 and not watching football, so there must have been something else on at the same time, 'cause I've never heard of this show before.

The Betty White Show was up against football on ABC and a movie night on NBC.

R15 Betty is the best part of that pilot, because she was the most like the original British character. She basically played the role as combination of Sue Ann and her Mama's Family character Ellen.

R29, thanks for sharing; I had no idea she missed that show that much.

Shows to go ya...you never know what's ahead in life.

Personally, I agree about not liking watching Betty play dumb like Rose -- she was great, but I'll always prefer Sue Ann.

But she's there on the Tonight Show lamenting the loss and by 1986 she's got the Lead Actress Emmy win for GG's.

What a dame.

It sucked.

Should we hold out hope for a reboot?

It was not good.

First, it looked chintzy — MTM Productions didn't do videotape well (besides WKRP, which was taped because it cost less to use contemporary rock music on videotaped vs. filmed shows).

Second, the characters were not well developed. Betty needed a stronger sidekick than Georgia Engel. And you didn't care about anybody at the TV studio. They were all sort of bland and blended together.

Third, the premise wasn't well executed. Hollywood isn't as relatable as local news in Minneapolis, and the writers didn't really bring anything to the table to make it entertaining. You were basically left with Betty and John Hillerman trading insults for a half-hour, and it was unpleasant.

CBS should have figured out how to get an audience for The Tony Randall Show instead, which it canceled in spring '77—that was a great premise, sharp writing, wonderful characters, could have run for years.

R8 It's "Healer" Caren Kaye!

Many years ago, I once saw Georgia Engel on the N train Queensboro Plaza platform, I thought I was seeing things! Especially as she appeared to be as dizzy as the characters she played.

Georgia mistakenly took the N train into Queens, some fans recognized her and guided back to the N platform which would take her back to Manhattan. It was hilarious. This incident was pre-cell phones, so, no photos.

Correction!

CBS should have figured out how to get an audience for The Tony Randall Show instead, which it canceled in spring '78—that was a great premise, sharp writing, wonderful characters, could have run for years.

The MTM company expanded too fast and had too many shows on the air in '77-'78: Rhoda, Bob Newhart, Tony Randall, Betty White and a total non-starter called We've Got Each Other.

Their producing talent was spread too thin, and all five shows were dead or terminally ill by December 1977. Save Rhoda, which ended up dying at midseason the following year.