Life with Elizabeth

This was basically a sitcom, told in brief vignettes rather than a full regular sitcom style. There was some similarity to the Jack Benny Program, with an announcer and Betty White talking to the audience at the end of the show. The story was about Elizabeth (White), her husband Alvin, and a few friends and coworkers. The stories were simple, mostly domestic tales, but the tone was rather silly, with much of the comedy centered on certain characters' stupidity. If you see it now, you're unlikely to be bowled over by comedic genius, but it's nice to see a young Betty White.

This show felt like it was just a step ahead of the times when it was filmed. A bit slow at times but Betty and Dels wit brings it up. With then breaking the fourth wall, something not seen in those days and her not acting like the nimrod some housewives did on tv back then, I feel like she was pushing boundaries. Not to mention she helped create and produce it like a true Maverick she was. And a respectful note to the person who said without her current icon status no one would know about Golden Girls; in 1985, that was the favorite show in our town in our childhood. And you must've missed Mary Tyler Moore show as well. She had a career most only dream of with non-stop fun and creative roles!

This is a classic sitcom. The characters are limited in number, and the plot is always simple, but the acting and writing are very good. Most of the episodes revolve around Elizabeth's sense of humor. Her husband is the straight man usually. It is worth watching, unlike many shows today. Some of the characters are never seen including:

* the nosy next door neighbor who watches Elizabeth and Alvin from over the fence.

* Elizabeth's obese mother.

Main characters: Elizabeth: Housewife who is almost always in a good mood. Alvin: Husband who puts up with his wife's constant practical jokes.

Some of the best skits:

Elizabeth buys a lobster, but doesn't have the heart to kill it. Together they release it back into the wild.

Elizabeth schemes to get a new vacuum. She convinces Alvin that the door to door salesman is afraid they are going to kill him, so he buys a vacuum.

Elizabeth agrees to babysit a neighborhood boy, sight unseen. When he arrives he is a college student with a serious crush on Elizabeth.

An old schoolmate drops by making Alvin jealous.

Alvin is out practicing his golf swing in his front yard. He accidentally hits it through a neighbor's car windshield.

Elizabeth makes the local gopher into her pet.

Elizabeth gives Alvin a women's magazine test only to find he fails it. She is worried she is married to a dunce. Turns out Alvin has a trick up his sleeve.

I've been watching Betty White's first sitcom "Life With Elizabeth" and have been enjoying it. It differs from other sitcoms in that each half-hour episode is broken up into three distinct stories. The stories are referred to as "incidents" by Jack Narz, who was the show's announcer. Betty says in her autobiography that this show began as a live production shown locally in the Los Angeles area. It went to film as the series went into national syndication in 1953. The show has the look and sound of having been filmed in front of a studio audience, but, according to Betty, it was filmed like a motion picture in a studio, the finished film then being shown to an audience in a theater to record the laughs and applause. This system seems to have worked fine, as I see no missed timing by the principal players as to the laughs. And I love seeing Betty's little dog in a cameo in the lower screen during the closing credits.

I was only a little kid, but this was one of my favorite shows. One device was used to end each episode. The last "vignette" or sketch in each show always degenerated into a big squabble in which all the characters were talking at the same time--nothing could be understood. At that point, Jack Narz, the announcer, would come on as a voice over, exclaiming something like, "Hey! Listen to me!" The squabbling would stop and the characters would look straight into the camera, breaking the "fourth wall." Narz would then say, "Say goodnight to the people." The cast would then say, "Goodnight everybody!" and resume their bickering until the scene dissolved. It was a trademark of the series.

My memories are not exact; after all it HAS been over 50 years.