Betty White and the Beginning of My Love For Sitcoms

Betty White was one of the greatest TV actors of all time, if not the greatest. Pretty much most people can agree on that. I have seen woefully little of her TV career, but what I have seen left a sizable impact on me and shaped the writer, comedian (if I can call myself that), and storyteller; and it all started with The Golden Girls.

For anyone who doesn't know, The Golden Girls was a sitcom about four previously married women sharing a house in Miami, played by Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, Rue MaClanahan, and Betty White. It ran from 1985 to 1992, and remains one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time, and received a pop culture resurgence in 2015 following its release on Hulu.

But my interest in it pre-dates it's resurgence. So how, then, did an 11-year-old get so interested in The Golden Girls? My parents had season 1, and I believe one day I found it. I watched it here and there and really liked it, but it wasn't quite the staple it is today. Ironically, it was when Bea Arthur died in April of 2009 that I picked it up and never put it down again. In her honor I decided to watch through season 1, and I just didn't stop. I was also going through a pretty dramatic health crisis that year. For my birthday, I was given season 7. In September, when I had to have a colonoscopy, I was given season 3 to watch during prep day. I remember watching it through the night as I started my prep, and I had to wake up every two hours. Finally I woke up at 6am and didn't go back to sleep, and I was still watching The Golden Girls. Then for Christmas I got season 2, and I have vivid memories of watching this season while staying up all night in the emergency room with a partial bowel obstruction. While I was in the hospital, I finally got given the rest of the seasons, and I watched them all through. When I got out of the hospital, I started to recover, and after I had seen each episode at least once. I decided I was going to marathon it all the way through, and that I would then do that every year.

It's now 2022, I'm 24, and I am on my 13th annual marathon of The Golden Girls, and this year I get to add The Golden Palace since they released it onto Hulu. But sadly, Betty White has passed away, 17 days short of her 100th birthday. I always knew that The Golden Girls, while not the first sitcom I ever watched, it was certainly the one that began my love for sitcoms, and the one I draw the most inspiration from for my show. What I didn't know, until Betty's passing, was that she was the first woman to produce her own sitcom, and one of the first people to do it at all.

In a way, it is thanks to Betty White that I am on track to making my own sitcom. As if I needed another reason to love and respect her so much.

Happy Birthday, Betty White. I know I will hold you in my heart forever.

Credit to the owners of all the photos. They are not mine.