Random Thoughts - Betty White's 90th Birthday

Last night on NBC we got treated to Betty White's 90th Birthday Special. As I watch I feel compelled to write a few thoughts down. Some people are big in entertainment, and others transcend that and simply are entertainment. It's amazing to think I knew Betty White as well as my parents, and today's kids know her as well as I did. How many celebrities that you loved as a kid do today's kids know and love? She has done countless talk shows and game shows. Of course she did The Carol Burnett Show. I really got to know her on a 1987 special "This is Your Life", which I still have on tape somewhere. One of my favorite Betty White moments was a guest spot in an episode of Who's The Boss? This was the classic episode where Angela and Tony end up in the same bed. Betty White was the snobby reporter who catches them. She was fantastic in that episode, going head to head with Katherine Helmond, another legend in her own right. I want to be honest, I knew who Betty White was when I was very young but truth is I never like her that much. Her characters were always either mean or sex craved....or both. She was a spoiled rich girl in Mama's Family, and this is especially true of her Mary Tyler Moore character Sue Ann Nivens, who should have been on my "characters we love to hate" list. I finally really fell in love with her on a little show called The Golden Girls. Her portrayal of the naive, child like Rose Nylan was nothing short of brilliant. She was funny and convincing. It's hard for actors to convincingly portray naive (look at Matt Le Blanc on Friends) but she did. But when you compare her role on Golden Girls to her role on Mary Tyler Moore, you realize how amazing she is. How many performers can play both sides of that spectrum so well? I loved everything she did on that show, from her endless St Olaf stories to her more serious episodes. Of course I have followed her career after that show ended, which included series and movies many of which were forgettable. I saw her in Proposal, and she was the only thing in it I liked. Of course she did SNL last spring, and was amazing. Betty White is a legend who never stops, and I hope that never changes.
I have to throw a complaint in as long as we are on the subject. NBC's special last night was a great tribute, but it was way to obvious the show was on NBC. There was way to many plugs for that network, and her early career was almost ignored. What a shame.
Happy 90th Birthday to Betty White, a true icon!