After The Mary Tyler Moore Show ended its run after 7 seasons, CBS spun Lou Grant off into a drama that lasted almost as long. The network then rolled the dice with Betty White, giving her a self-titled sitcom of her own.
The Betty White Show lasted just 1 season, but not for lack of trying. The problem was where it was placed on the schedule. Airing on Mondays, opposite movies on NBC and Monday Night Football on ABC, spelled trouble.
Joyce Whitman (White) is the star of Undercover Woman (a parody of NBC's Police Woman), working with her ex-husband (John Hillerman, ex-Ellery Queen) as her director. The budget for Undercover Woman must've been on a shoestring, since Joyce's stunt double is a male actor who's slightly taller (Charles Cyphers).
The supporting cast also included Alex Henteloff (ex-The Young Rebels), Caren Kaye (ex-Blansky's Beauties), Georgia Engel, another alumnus from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Barney Phillips (ex-Dragnet), who had been getting back into acting in front of the camera, as he tried his hand at voice acting a decade earlier (Shazzan).
Let's take a look at a sample episode.
All this needed was a better night. White, of course, would rebound big time a few years later, with Just Men! (a game show for which she won an Emmy) and The Golden Girls.
Rating: B-.
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