A Vida com 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.

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 first saw Betty White on the Hoffman(n) my parents purchased in the early 50's on the Al Jarvis TV show (it had a different name). Her show, Life with Elizabeth was shown in the late afternoon. Two things I remember about LWE was there was a dog they owned who's name was Stormy ant the Thanksgiving show when the "first" turkey slipped off the platter and Elizabeth took it back into the kitchen and brought the "second" turkey to serve everyone. Everyone said it was really lucky that Elizabeth cooked two turkeys. I thought that was really funny because the previous Thanksgiving my grandmother dropped the turkey on the floor and my uncle's Doberman grabbed it and was out the door before anyone could stop him. Great memories of a simpler age. Probably not great television but not bad for then. A strong 7.5 for the era.

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.

When I noticed this show on Betty White's IMDb filmography, I had to see it. Even though I've never been a huge Betty White fan, I've always had to admire her range. I was surprised to find Life With Elizabeth available from Netflix, so I watched three episodes on a DVD. While those three were plenty – at least for one setting, I did get some enjoyment out of the show. Everyone seemed to be eager to follow the I Love Lucy formula for success in the 1950s: A kooky, mildly attractive housewife, her buddy next door and an ever-suffering husband to shake his head knowingly when the wife's schemes inevitably backfired. It worked for Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez and for George Burns and Gracie Allen. Joan Davis and Jim Backus also had some success with the formula in I Married Joan. Here, too, it proved effective. Like Burns and Allen, the narrator (Jack Narz) stepped through the "fourth wall" and discussed the "plot" with the characters. While this may seem very disconcerting to modern audiences, it was not at all unusual for the 1950s. White, who turned 30 the show's first season, was a lovable enough young wife, who sometimes used her devilish sense of humor to jab husband Del Moore. Moore and White made a believable and likable young couple, grappling with ordinary everyday situations like whether to plant a tree on the patio, going to a drive-in movie, buying a new vacuum, entertaining an old college friend, etc. I see that she also starred in another, similar sitcom, Date With the Angels, a few years later. I'll have to see if I can find it, too. For anyone interested in the history of the American sitcom or for any big Betty White fans, Life With Elizabeth is a must-see. Just don't expect I Love Lucy.