Life with Elizabeth

Not the funniest show I've ever seen, but pleasant enough. The scripts are often silly, so-so at best but the star of the show is what makes it shine--Betty White, a real "sweetheart" presented here as a young, newlywed, rather impish version of Gracie Allen. The announcer introduces each episode, even speaks directly to Betty, and at the end prompts the cast to say "Good night." (Attention game show fans: the announcer, who appears on camera a lot, is none other than legendary game show host Jack Narz of "Concentration" and "Now You See It" fame, at the dawn of his career.) At least one video dealer is selling this for a dollar apiece and marketing it as "The Betty White Show," with a synopsis on the back of her short-lived 1977 sitcom that has nothing to do with this 1953-55 first-run syndicated effort.

Thankfully, episodes of this program are available on YouTube so I watched several of them. They exceeded expectations. Betty White and Del Moore had great chemistry; their banter was natural, almost seemed improvised at times. They navigated their scenes together with fine physical comedic skill and cleverly executed exchanges. White, as Elizabeth, was playfully funny, whether miming responses to the narrator (and on screen announcer, Jack Narz) or teasing Moore, who portrays her happily exasperated and expressive husband, Alvin. Writing wasn't bad, actually quite amusing at times, penned in part by veteran screenwriter George Tibbles (best known for his work on My Three Sons). This is clearly a lower budget program, which is to its advantage; there is more reliance on White and Moore to anchor the show. A lone harpist provides the theme music and cute soundtrack moments. Keep in mind that the show was broadcast in the early to mid-50's and has to be appreciated in the context of its time. But it holds up pretty well thanks in no small part to its stars.

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.

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.

Elizabeth appeared to be an ordinary, everyday housewife of her time(the early 50s), and so she was . . . er, aside from the fact that an off-camera announcer regularly led forays to check into the goings-on around her house, of course. And then, come to think of it, she wasn't exactly the docile, unassuming "little woman" that husband Alvin always hoped (against all reason) she'd turn out to be, either.

In a word, she was an imp. She delighted in puncturing Alvin's pomposity, always lovingly, but invariably disastrously.

Introduced each week by harp music, which gave a deceptively tranquil lead-in to what was to follow, "Life With Elizabeth" wasn't a 'situation comedy' -- indeed, that concept had barely been formed at the time; instead, it was a comedy of situations, usually two to each show, individual and unrelated, each of them introduced by the off-camera announcer who then just let events unfold. Once chaos had yet again been firmly established as the order of the day, his voice would be again heard, this time presumably as her conscience: "Elizabeth!" (pause) "Aren't you ashamed?"

She usually gave it a moment's thought before shaking her head impishly.

As with the harp music, the show itself was deceptive in its simplicity, the writing, production and, not least of all, the performances of Betty White and Del Moore who were letter-perfect. Produced by a local Los Angeles TV station (at which White and Moore had been staffers), "Life With Elizabeth" seems to have lived its entire life in syndication.

And Elizabeth kept life from ever becoming dull!