The Betty White Show

A brief career stopover for Betty White and Georgia Engel after "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and John Hillerman between "Ellery Queen" and "Magnum PI," this was a cheap-looking sitcom on videotape set backstage at a TV show clearly modeled on "Police Woman." Betty's character was toward the Sue-Ann end of her spectrum; the catty insults were directed at her ex-husband (Hillerman), the director of the show, and at her young, beautiful, ambitious costar (Caren Kaye). I guess you can throw in an homage to "All About Eve" too. Like a lot of late 70s videocoms, it looked cheap and cheesy, with tacky sets and slapdash details like costumes and supporting players. The talented stars, however, plus some good one-liners made it better than it seemed. A bit of effort might have made this a success, but it only lasted half a season.

Although this show only lasted 13 episodes I really liked,it,Betty White is great as Joyce Whitman,the actress with the razor sharp tongue,who puts her ex husband John(John Hillerman)in his place when they work together on police series "Undercover Woman". Former Mary Tyler Moore Show c/o star Georgia Engel,plays a similar dizzy role(similar to Georgette) in this as Mitzi and credit to the cast for giving such strong comedic performance,it was a shame the scripts weren't as strong. I think the fact that the pilot for this show was shown as part of "The Best Of The MTM Shows" proves what a strong pilot the show had. There had been some thought to giving Sue-Ann from the MTMS her own spin off but after Chloris Leachman's Phylllis was toned down for her spin off "Phyllis",to only last 2 seasons,"The Betty White Show" came up and although a short run,is very funny and witty.

Painstakingly watched this on YouTube. (video quality isn't good - after Betty's passing I found myself watching some of her work). I kinda like Betty's character here. John Hillerman's not bad either. However, writing leaves much to be desired inspite it being created by the same people from the MTMS. But the performances of Betty, John & Georgia are good. Pity they are wasted on a poor script.