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Betty White's best moments from 80 years on TV

Her career ran eighty years, and she still had a hit TV show at 93. Hollywood called Betty White its First Lady. more

The title fits, but it misses the point. What kept her on the air that long was range. Every sitcom handed her a different kind of woman to play, and she never played the same one twice.

Betty White, with blonde hair and red lipstick, wears a blue top and looks straight ahead. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Betty White stayed on the air for eighty years by playing a different kind of woman every time.

On Life with Elizabeth, in the early 1950s, she was the housewife of the title, forever landing in some small disaster. At the end of every story the narrator asked, “Elizabeth, aren't you ashamed?” She would nod. Then she would look straight at the camera, grin like a devil, and shake her head no.

Twenty years later she joined The Mary Tyler Moore Show as the man-hungry Sue Ann, a character once described as “icky sweet.” She was hired for a single guest spot, at the suggestion of her close friend Mary Tyler Moore. The producers liked her so much they kept bringing her back, and she said the part turned her career around.

Then came Rose on The Golden Girls. White gave Rose an innocent streak and a flighty one, and the mix was very funny. Rose became the character people loved her for most. People who grew up on the show still call her their TV grandmother and sign off with its own line, thank you for being a friend.

An older adult female wearing a black, form-fitting dress adorned with blue and silver sequins at what appears to be a public event or premiere. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Her career ran eighty years, and she still had a hit TV show at 93.

Decades later came the part that started everything over again, Ryan Reynolds' grandmother in The Proposal. At 88 she became the oldest person ever to host Saturday Night Live, after fans campaigned for her on Facebook. She joked that she hadn't known what Facebook was, and now that she did, “it sounds like a huge waste of time.” Then she landed a starring role on Hot in Cleveland.

Told she was the most remarkable woman in the business, she wouldn't have it. She was the luckiest, she said, and she never took it for granted. “At my age I should have been thrown out a long time ago.”

Betty White smiles, with blonde hair, pearl earrings and a necklace. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Her answer when someone called her the most remarkable woman in show business.

She came within weeks of her 100th birthday, and she was famous for nearly the whole run. That's the rare part. Most stars get a few years in the light and then fade. Betty White got a lifetime in it, and she spent it making people laugh.