Impact On Betty White
Sue Ann Nivens exhibited a new dimension to White's talent. Often typecast as a sometimes cloying, gentle, innocent or seemingly demure woman who would occasionally say shockingly risque things the meaning of which she was unaware, White was able to distinguish herself as an actress from her body of work. Reflecting on the role, White has said, "Of course, I loved Sue Ann. She was so rotten. You can’t get much more rotten than the neighborhood nymphomaniac." The role earned White two Emmy Awards as Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (1975 and 1976), with a further nomination following in the show's final season, 1977. Asked about her favorites among her many awards to date, she cites these won for The Mary Tyler Moore Show. White gives a great deal of credit for the role's success to the scripts, speaking of being "blessed with the kind of writing on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls," claiming as well, "If it isn't on the page, we can't do anything about it."
On The Golden Girls, debuting eight years later, White was originally cast as man-hungry Blanche; and Rue McClanahan, the befuddled Vivian on Maude, was cast as naive Rose. The two actresses realized how similar their new roles were to their previous ones and, at the suggestion of veteran comedy director Jay Sandrich, approached the producers about switching roles. (White quotes Sandrich as saying, "If Betty plays another man-hungry neighborhood, they're going to equate it with Sue Ann and think it's just a continuation of that.") The producers agreed, and the show went on to great success.
Allowing White and McClanahan to swap roles was what made Bea Arthur decide to take part in The Golden Girls. McClanahan recalled in an interview, "Bea told me, 'Rue, I don't want to do a show where Maude and Vivian meet Sue Ann Nivens', to which I said, 'No, Bea. I'm going to play Nivens and Betty White is going to play Vivian.'" Bea Arthur was then said to reply, "Interesting!"
Read more about this topic: Sue Ann Nivens
Famous quotes containing the words impact on, impact, betty and/or white:
“Too many existing classrooms for young children have this overriding goal: To get the children ready for first grade. This goal is unworthy. It is hurtful. This goal has had the most distorting impact on five-year-olds. It causes kindergartens to be merely the handmaidens of first grade.... Kindergarten teachers cannot look at their own children and plan for their present needs as five-year-olds.”
—James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)
“Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.”
—David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)
“He could jazz up the map-reading class by having a full-size color photograph of Betty Grable in a bathing suit, with a co- ordinate grid system laid over it. The instructor could point to different parts of her and say, “Give me the co-ordinates.”... The Major could see every unit in the Army using his idea.... Hot dog!”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow—red, yellow, brown, black and white—and we’re all precious in God’s sight.”
—Jesse Jackson (b. 1941)