My opinion is I loved her on SNL but think it’s really gotten out of hand. She’s turning up everywhere and is becoming overexposed and ceases to amuse so much as seem gimmicky. (That said, I wish her years more life and happiness and success, but let’s tone it down a bit on the TV and movie appearances.)
Waaaayyyy overdone at this point. Thanks for the laughs, Betty.
Note to casting directors: let’s move on.
It’s just a consequence of her longevity and willingness to act against type (not new with her). Directors will continue to cast Betty White because she’s available and recognizable, and of course they’ll continue to exploit her in “unexpected” roles and situations, even though it’s now hackneyed and unsurprising for her to be potty-mouthed/oversexed/“hipper” than youthful costars, or whatever mismatch of appearance and behavior they want.
BW is aware enough of the vagaries of stardom (and I presume of her own mortality) to ride the wave for all it’s worth.
You can only be cast against type for so long, before it BECOMES your new type.
She’s a comic genius and the last surviving Golden Girl. If she wants to be on television every night of the week, we should be thankful for the opportunity to watch her.
(Replying to Tim R. Mortiss) Exactly so. BW’s type is now “Proper-looking-old-lady-who-doesn’t-behave-like-a-proper-old-lady.”
Now? She’s been doing it since at least 1998 (in Hard Rain) and her un-Betty White antics stole the movie of Lake Placid (in 1999).
I was most annoyed when Kristen Bell was on Jay Leno a couple weeks ago (I was only watching because Bill Maher was his first guest), and was promoting You Again and all they wanted to talk about was how Betty White was in the movie.
It did of course lead to the great discussion about how Kristen’s Betty-like aunt blurted out “what has two thumbs and likes to masturbate? THIS gal” at the party where she introduced her fiancee to her extended family.
But still, enough is enough. It seems the new big marketing tool is to put Betty White into your show/movie/commercial, just to say that she’s there.
Long before that, in the MTM show as Sue Anne Nivens, the “Happy Homemaker” character was anything but her snow-white image when not taping her show. But the riffs on “old lady” didn’t happen until she got, well, old, and had been reestablished as the sweet but ditzy old lady she portrayed as Golden Girls’ Rose Nylund. GG ended in 1992 and she got to play against that type for a while.
I guess those roles in the late 90’s were what established her latest (and last) type.
Sure you got Rose and Sue Ann, but in my opinion, Betty’s best character was her several appearances as Ellen, Eunice’s snotty, social climbing sister on “The Family” skits of The Carol Burnett Show.
That was genius.
A bit gimmicky, but I’ve always been a fan of Betty White. She almost always makes me laugh and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. My SO and I have a copy of William Shatner’s roast mainly because of her.
Lisa Lampanelli: Betty’s so old that the grand prize on her first game show was fire. 
It hasn’t really raised that much of a blip on my radar. I never thought she was so far gone that her being popular now is that much of a surprise. She did some funny stuff in the past decade or so.
Lake Placid: “If I had a dick, this is where I would tell you to suck it.”
Classic!
But as soon as there’s a Betty White’s House of Love reality show on VH1, I’m done with it.
I’m with Jack Batty. I didn’t realize she’d gone away in any meaningful sense. She’s drifted in & out of celebrity before; she’s an institution now.
Rather watch her than Angelina Jolie or Meryl Streep. I’m just glad she’s working and active.
I like her in that Snickers commercial (“That’s not what your girlfriend said!”); but from what I’ve seen in the previews for You Again, her part seemed very predictable. I don’t plan on seeing that movie, at least until it’s free on TV.
Roddy
I’ll give her credit for being game. When she played the crazy grandma in The Proposal, I remember reading an interview where she wanted to do a religious ritual in the woods nude.
Unless you watch a lot of TV and movies, where’s the overload? I’ve seen her on SNL and the Snickers commercial and that’s it.
Other: I’ve never particularly liked her, but I don’t find it annoying either.
This here.