View Full Version : Suddenly Betty: A Golden Girl’s Forgotten Emmy-Nominated Turn


TMC
01-29-2019, 01:43 AM
https://jacksonupperco.com/2019/01/16/suddenly-betty-a-golden-girls-forgotten-emmy-nominated-turn/

This week, we’re celebrating the 97th birthday of the lady known as Betty White, who was born on January 17, 1922. I initially thought about honoring this sitcom legend by discussing one of her series that we haven’t highlighted yet — like Maybe This Time (1995-1996, ABC) or Ladies Man (1999-2001, CBS) — but I don’t think those would warrant sufficient celebration. (Read: I might not be able to be so kind…)

Instead, I’m featuring a more definitively enjoyable effort with which she was associated: a fun episode of the intermittently okay Suddenly Susan (1996-2000, NBC), winkingly entitled “Golden Girl Friday.” Written by Rick Singer & Andrew Green and directed by Shelley Jensen, it was broadcast as the series’ seventh episode on November 7, 1996. The plot has White playing a sweet but incompetent older woman who sues the magazine after being fired. But there may be more to her than meets the eye…

It’s a decent segment of a sometimes decent series, but White makes it look effortless, and with a character that plays with both facets of her persona — the naive granny and the scheming viper — it’s a pretty good showcase and, in fact, earned her an Emmy nomination. (She lost to Carol Burnett for Mad About You. But don’t worry — White had won in the category the year before for her appearance on The John Larroquette Show.) So, I think this makes for a fitting tribute to a TV icon — a forgotten chapter from her epic book of guest starring roles.