6 questions for tv icon Betty White

Rocky Mountain News

Published May 23, 2007 at midnight

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Network ratings are down 10 percent this season among viewers ages 18 to 49. As TV executives try to decide what they will show this fall, Wall Street Journal reporter Brooks Barnes sought advice from a person whose career embodies the medium's history: 85-year-old Betty White. The actress who landed her first long-term TV job in 1952 now has recurring parts on ABC's Boston Legal and the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. But she's primarily known as the devious sexpot and TV cooking expert Sue Ann Nivens in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and her turn as ditzy Rose Nylund in The Golden Girls.

1 How has the process of putting together a TV series changed during the six decades you've worked?

There are now so many channels trying to put on original programs that there aren't enough gifted writers to go around. Any time something gets so big, the product gets watered down.

The other big change is the audience. When I started in television, it was brand new. It was the miracle over in the corner of your room. Now the audience has seen every story line. People have heard every joke. They can predict the plot almost before a show starts. That's a hard, sophisticated audience to reach.

2 The networks have struggled to launch new comedy hits. What advice would you give them?

So much of the humor on new sitcoms plays to the lowest common denominator. Wit isn't given nearly as much attention as slipping on a banana peel. So much of the writing is so coarse, so obvious that it doesn't provide a shock, never mind a laugh. What makes something funny is alluding to it without laying it out explicitly. You let the audiences fill in the gaps and that's where the laughs come.

3 Networks in recent seasons have tried to reinvigorate the sitcom genre by doing away with the live audience and the laugh tracks. Now they're going in the opposite direction. Which way is smarter?

Having a live audience makes a world of difference to the acting. It keeps your timing sharp. When something doesn't work, the actor can sense the reaction from the audience and quickly move on. On the other hand, if you get a laugh you pause a second and don't walk into it. It's very subtle but I think it comes through the camera.

4 Are there any modern sitcoms that you like?

I love The Office on NBC. I want every season of it on DVD. That's a show that risks getting too artsy. I hope they avoid that trap. But right now I think the writing is very witty.

5 A network executive recently remarked that The Golden Girls has become a cult phenomenon among gay men. Why do you think that is?

For starters, the gays know funny. There has always been a huge cult following for the show in the gay community. When the show was originally airing, the gay bars on Saturday night would all shut off their music at nine o'clock, put on the show, and then start up the music and start dancing again afterward. We always got such a kick out of that.

6 Do you have any other projects in the pipeline?

My optimism runs eternal. You just can't get rid of me, you know.

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