When did Betty White become a sort of pop culture icon? Sure she’s been on television longer than many of has even been alive. For me her most memorable roles were the ones where she appeared as a regular over multiple seasons; such as the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” or “Golden Girls.” I understand she’s appeared on many different shows since the end of Golden Girls, usually in one-offs, but occasionally in recurring roles…
Yes, she’s spent a lifetime on tv BUT something happened. The moment it occurred could be subject to some debate, but somewhere along the way (maybe the last 8-10 years or so) her status changed from well-known actress to a sort of pop culture icon. That is, not simply a face we see on screen a lot, but the stuff of memes (usually along the lines of ‘here I am 90+ years old and still very vital - take that life’, producers are lining up to get her cameo roles on sitcoms, and even tv commercials.
If Abe Vigoda had stayed ultra-active with acting into his latter years he might have been able to capture some of this same mojo, but I'd be hard pressed to think of any other Hollywosd types that have shared this type of status (George Burns made a couple feature films near the end but I don't think even he ever hosted SNL)
I’ll just point out that she has been on television for as long as there has been television, having appeared on an experimental broadcast in Los Angeles in 1939.
I seem to recall her being interviewed shortly after Rue McClanahan died saying that she sent her a card when she was in the hospital that said something like “Dearest Rue, please die. I want to be the only Golden Girl left.” which was a ballsy and dark joke to make.
Then there was hot in cleveland where her character is a pothead thieving drunk who gets mixed up in scams and cons.
She guest-starred on Community (a show the internet loves) as a bad-ass psychotic who almost kills Jeff Winger.
I think her management team just has their finger on the internet’s pulse and are doing a good job of keeping her antics fresh and just a scootch over the edge of what seems appropriate. The concept of a grandmother-type who is a bit raunchy isn’t exactly novel. She’s just managed to really establish that niche as hers.
Golden Girls + kids of the 80s growing into their “nostalgia” phase + the other Golden Girls already died. I remember several years ago when all the Golden Girls had their different fans, and then Betty was suddenly the only one left. And then she became the object of all their nostalgia.
Betty White has had a remarkable career, but her longevity is a big part of her current fame. There was a story going around the facebox a few years ago about Bea Arthur’s record of service with the Marines in WWII. That’s exactly the sort of thing that would contribute to her current fame, had she been the one who survived Betty White. Instead we see pictures of Betty White on TV in the 1940s and hear stories about how she was the original Mary Tyler Moore.
A big distinction between them and George Burns is that Burns was vaudevillian. By the time he was famous for being a funny old fart in 18 Again and playing God, that part of his career was most of a century old. His original fans were dead or as old as he was.
Golden Girls was a hit prime time show as recently as 25 years ago. It was roughly contemporary to Full House. Children and young adults who watched it during its original run are currently in their prime, and older adults who watched it aren’t even retired yet.
I don’t want to rule George Burns out too much. The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show was on TV from '50-'58, so I’m sure that contributed to his fame and movie career in the 70s and 80s. Also he was a working comedian the whole time, if not quite the big name he used to be. In a way he was the Betty White of the 80s and 90s.
I wasn’t around in 1939, but I remember when she and Lorne Greene co-hosted the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in the 60s. And she was a frequent guest on Password, which was hosted by her late husband, Allen Ludden.
I remember a joke Lisa Lampinelli made on Comedy Central’s roast of William Shatner:
“Betty’s so old, the grand prize on her first game show was fire.”
In August 2008, Cloris Leachman roasted Bob Saget at his Comedy Central Roast, and killed–and everyone was very surprised at the idea of an elderly woman being so funny. At that point Betty White was not yet pop culture’s Funny Elderly Woman–she was still doing talk shows and guest appearances on soap operas and dramas, mainly. She wasn’t a beloved icon, particularly (though of course she had fans).
At some point the culture appeared to look at Cloris and at Betty–who’d both become well-known in the 1970s (though both were in the public eye earlier) for their comedy chops on The Mary Tyler Moore Show–and decided Betty was ‘it.’ (That 2010 Super Bowl Snickers commercial, from the “you’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign, may have been important, here).
There can be only one—apparently. Maybe it’s because Betty’s background included persistent rumors (never substantiated so far as I know) that she’d done ‘skin flicks’ in her youth, whereas Cloris was a Serious Actress…and the pop culture is a bit leery of Seriousness.
It’s a shame that There Can Be Only One, though. I mean, Cloris Leachman is a comedy immortal for her turn in Young Frankenstein alone, as far as I’m concerned. She deserves to be as lauded as Betty is. But we can’t tolerate having a second Funny Old Lady, it would seem.
My favorite role of hers was Ellen, Eunice’s sister on the Family segments of The Carol Burnett Show. Such nastiness thinly covered by Southern sweetness was perfection, and made Eunice’s sibling jealousy so much more real.
Someone decided to start a Facebook campaign to get SNL to let her host. It was successful, and she did agree to host-- and she was very, very good. The whole thing was a pop culture phenomenon, and sort of brought pop culture itself full circle: one of the first people on TV, back when no one knew if it was a flash in the pan, to an anonymous person using social media to give a leg-up to now-famous Betty White (who probably could have hosted SNL all on her own if she’d just asked, but this makes a better story).
I think it was the Snickers commercial followed by the Internet campaign that successfully got her the hosting job on SNL that put her into pop culture icon.
Her appearances on shows like Community and Simpsons did not hurt build it up.
Her crazy long career stretching back to the beginning of TV time set her up for it though.
Betty did pose for some nude pictures way, way back in the day. She was quite the babe. After the pictures resurfaced, I think, they just cemented her pop icon status.
It does indeed seem like there can be only one at a time–which is a real shame. But instead of Leachman, I would like to see Rose Marie come back into the spotlight. She deserves it more than probably anybody else. Although I’m not sure if she’s still active; her last main IMDB credit is 2013.
Rose Marie, has been largely out of the business for decades, few know her from anything other than the Dick Van Dyke show. In her appearances, she appears a bit out of it now. I know she was in the Doris Day Show, but unlike DVD, it has been rarely seen in the last 40+ years and it is not a beloved show of the past, The Dick Van Dyke show is often offered up as the greatest sitcom of all time. Betty never really stopped working, same with Cloris. They are both made of awesome and have been at it forever, just not as long as Rose Marie.
Kind of fun the Mary Tyler Moore worked with all 3 of these great comedians.
Now in Rose Marie’s favor, she was a greatsinger and her movie career starts at age 3 or 4 and radio a hair earlier. (links are to YouTube)
IMO, I think it’s a combination of what was said above. I was born in 1980 and watched the Golden Girls while it was on as well as reruns here and there over the years as well as reruns of MTM all my life. I’ve always been very familiar with Betty White. For the past few years reruns of The Golden Girls have been on nearly non-stop on some channel or another.
However, I think what really did it is that she was in Hot In Cleveland. I’ve never seen it, but I know people like it and it made her popular with people about a half a generation younger than me (so, figure about 20-30 years old). Now they go looking for more stuff about her and find the Golden Girls and just look at how much Buzzfeed can do with the Golden Girls…21 times Blanche did this, 37 times Rose said that etc. No one even has to watch the show, the internet just has to like Betty White and she’s popular. I am surprised, however, that Sue Ann Nivens isn’t mentioned more often (but then, Sue Ann isn’t really set up to have nice short quotes, IIRC).
IIRC she used to guest star on Password every so often, like whenever they had a celebrity edition. They both did the talk show circuit every so often. They played off each other perfectly. After he died you could tell she was completely devastated (as to be expected), even when she was on a game show or a talk show. The fact that she was fairly open with her grief,* I think, also plays a part in her icon status.
(* - granted, Ludden died when I was a kid so my memory might be a bit askew but I do remember her being on a talk show and frankly discussing her grief, which was something verboten in that place and time.)
I think Betty’s current career directly parallels George Burns later years. There is a place in American-entertainment for that feisty old performer who is still with it after all these years.
What they had/have:
[ul]
[li]A popular, high-profile role late in life. For Betty it was the Golden Girls. For George it was God.[/li][li]A desire to still work.[/li][li]A sense that they are in on the joke and are still healthy. Some older performers give the impression that they are just mouthing lines given to them by the writers without getting the joke or they simply seem very frail. Not George or Betty.[/li][/ul]
