Goodbye Betty White

[Nickdfresh]

Betty White Recalled as a Trailblazer With a Love for Life

Betty White Recalled as a Trailblazer With a Love for Life
“The world looks a little different now,” said the actor Ryan Reynolds, who was one of many to pay tribute to the actress who died on Friday.


Ryan Reynolds and Betty White on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” in 2010.Credit...Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
By Vimal Patel
Dec. 31, 2021, 7:48 p.m. ET
Television stars, comedians, a president and seemingly the entire internet paid tribute on Friday to Betty White, the actress whose trailblazing career spanned seven decades and who died on Friday at her home in Los Angeles.

President Biden said that Ms. White had “brought a smile to the lips of generations of Americans.”

“She’s a cultural icon who will be sorely missed,” he wrote on Twitter. “Jill and I are thinking of her family and all those who loved her this New Year’s Eve.”

The actor Ryan Reynolds, who co-starred with Ms. White in “The Proposal,” a 2009 romantic comedy, wrote on Instagram that “the world looks a little different now.”

He said Ms. White had excelled at defying expectations.

“She managed to grow very old and somehow, not old enough,” Mr. Reynolds wrote. “We’ll miss you, Betty. Now you know the secret.”

...

The rest at The NY Times

[FORD]

Kinda sucks that they were hyping up her 100th birthday.... which would have been in January. People magazine already printed the issue with her on the cover....



Oops.....

[FORD]

Fonzie was a fan....

[Terry]

I can't say as I ever held Betty White in the high esteem seemingly countless others did, just talking strictly from an entertainment level in personal terms.

Yeah, she had some cute lines and delivered them well on The Golden Girls...but I never considered her the star of the show.

Post-Golden Girls, and particularly the last twenty years of her life, it seemed like White was dragged out for countless cameos on various shows, and the sum total of those cameos was to have White talk dirty and everybody laughed at the old lady saying dirty things...but for me that novelty wore off quick and, frankly, I was way over Betty White seemingly long before many were in terms of whatever novelty value was derived from her "old lady says filthy things" cameos.

For the entertainers who worked with her it would be understandable that they would express sadness over her passing.

For those who never knew her from anything other than her tv work, it's a bit of a puzzle to me why they are taking to social media saying they are "devastated" at her "tragic" death.

She lived a pretty good life, and a long one. Doesn't sound too tragic to me. And how personally devastated can someone really be over a 99-year-old sitcom actress they never met? I mean, how many hardcore Betty White fans are really out there? My response to her death was a shoulder shrug and my immediate thought was that she lived a life better than most coupled with my longtime feeling that the sentiment so many have expressed over Betty White ("she's a national treasure", etc.) was way out of whack with what she did, career-wise.

I mean, I didn't feel the least bit sad that she passed away. I'm not coming from a "fuck Betty White, hope she rots in hell" place, but...I just didn't give a particular shit.

Am I just being a cunt about it? Is my lack of pronounced empathy for someone I never met whose life was of no particular value or interest to me a sign that I'm a sociopath?

[Terry]

Fonzie was a fan....

Yeah, well, fuck Henry Winkler...hope he rots in hell!

Oh, I guess I AM a sociopath.

[Nitro Express]

Betty White was a code word for cocaine. Is Betty White going to be at the party tonight?

[Nitro Express]

Yeah, well, fuck Henry Winkler...hope he rots in hell!

Oh, I guess I AM a sociopath.

Ha! Ha! They got one of the biggest nerds in real life to play the cool hoodlum on Happy Days. Too bad the shark didn’t eat the fuck on that episode everyone still makes fun of.

[Nitro Express]

I can't say as I ever held Betty White in the high esteem seemingly countless others did, just talking strictly from an entertainment level in personal terms.

Yeah, she had some cute lines and delivered them well on The Golden Girls...but I never considered her the star of the show.

Post-Golden Girls, and particularly the last twenty years of her life, it seemed like White was dragged out for countless cameos on various shows, and the sum total of those cameos was to have White talk dirty and everybody laughed at the old lady saying dirty things...but for me that novelty wore off quick and, frankly, I was way over Betty White seemingly long before many were in terms of whatever novelty value was derived from her "old lady says filthy things" cameos.

For the entertainers who worked with her it would be understandable that they would express sadness over her passing.

For those who never knew her from anything other than her tv work, it's a bit of a puzzle to me why they are taking to social media saying they are "devastated" at her "tragic" death.

She lived a pretty good life, and a long one. Doesn't sound too tragic to me. And how personally devastated can someone really be over a 99-year-old sitcom actress they never met? I mean, how many hardcore Betty White fans are really out there? My response to her death was a shoulder shrug and my immediate thought was that she lived a life better than most coupled with my longtime feeling that the sentiment so many have expressed over Betty White ("she's a national treasure", etc.) was way out of whack with what she did, career-wise.

I mean, I didn't feel the least bit sad that she passed away. I'm not coming from a "fuck Betty White, hope she rots in hell" place, but...I just didn't give a particular shit.

Am I just being a cunt about it? Is my lack of pronounced empathy for someone I never met whose life was of no particular value or interest to me a sign that I'm a sociopath?

Ah everyone like her because she was a nice old lady on television.

[twonabomber]

Post-Golden Girls, and particularly the last twenty years of her life, it seemed like White was dragged out for countless cameos on various shows, and the sum total of those cameos was to have White talk dirty and everybody laughed at the old lady saying dirty things...but for me that novelty wore off quick and, frankly, I was way over Betty White seemingly long before many were in terms of whatever novelty value was derived from her "old lady says filthy things" cameos.

Yup. Lippy old woman act went on too long.

SNL is replaying her episode tonight.

[Nitro Express]

SNL. Another entity that has gone on far too long.

[Terry]

SNL. Another entity that has gone on far too long.

I find that I can't even watch it anymore, because in terms of the tonality of the comedic sensibilities, SNL - certainly over the last 8 years - seems to be targeting a fairy specific demographic of Northeastern, urban, woke progressives re: appeal. And the show basically takes the piss out of anybody who doesn't fall into that demographic with a smug attitude.

Clearly, the show doesn't want me to watch it, because I fall into none of those categories. I'm happy to oblige them. I have no desire to attend a party I'm not wanted at.

[twonabomber]

SNL is bad, and the geniuses at NBC gave Lorne Michaels reign over all their late night shows. And those shows stink, too.

[Terry]

I've certainly never warmed up to Jimmy Fallon, who was mentored by Michaels. Have no idea who follows Fallon after the Tonight Show: haven't watched any of those shows with any regularity in over twenty years in terms of staying up to 11:30PM to view them. That also includes Letterman, the late night host I enjoyed the most: by the time the 1990s were over, I had basically stopped watching on a nightly basis.

Was never all THAT fond of Conan O'Brien, either: another late night host who came up under Michaels. I was certainly more appreciative of what O'Brien did than I have ever been of Fallon, but - much like Fallon - O'Brien had a limited ceiling for me in terms of how much I liked what he was doing.