Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show: Part 20: In Tribute to Betty White

Betty White as Ellen and Vicki Lawrence as Mama
in The Attic sketch

Beloved Betty White passed away on New Year's Eve at the age of 99. All of the tributes mentioned her Emmy-winning turns as the promiscuous, nasty Happy Homemaker Sue Ann Nivens on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and as the endearingly naive Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls, as well as her performances on Hot in Cleveland and thousands of game shows including the various iterations of Password, hosted by her husband Allen Ludden, Tattletales and Match Game. But she was also memorable as Ellen Harper Jackson, the snooty, faux-aristocratic sister of Eunice on the Family sketches of the Carol Burnett Show. Here's a look at her appearances: 

Season 9: 
Nov. 22, 1975: Betty White
Ellen has been referred to in many previous Family sketches--always as Mama's favorite but the child who never shows up when there is an emergency and Eunice must bear the brunt of whatever arises. Like the time Mama fell and broke her ankle in Eunice's bathroom and the old lady had to stay in their house. Most of the sketch consisted of Eunice trying to get Ellen on the phone so she can share in the caretaking duties. But she was too busy with a bridge tournament. 

We finally meet Ellen when Eunice throws Mama a birthday party. Ellen arrives with an expensive fur coat for Mama and lords her husband's success over Ed and Eunice, particularly when Eunice reveals her gift to be a glittered fly swatter. Resentments boil over as Eunice accuses Ellen of throwing expensive gifts at Mama, but neglecting her and of stealing Eunice's teenage boyfriend, Duke Reeves. Ellen finally stomps out calling Eunice a jackass and disabusing her of any illusions that Duke had any interest in her at all. Betty and Carol perfectly convey the electric tension between the sisters as they battle for Mama's love and attention. 

Betty also appears in the finale, a salute to marching bands--since she hosted the Rose Bowl parades. Tim and Harvey play German car salesmen. Carol and Tim play a couple trying to get a good night's sleep but are interrupted by noisy insects. The dancers do a disco number. 

Season 10:
Dec. 11, 1976: Betty White
Betty returns as Ellen--this time with a beehive hairdo even bigger than last season as she helps Ed and Eunice clean out Mama's attic. Once again the siblings can't seem to be in the same room together without sparks flying. Each finds memorabilia leading to narcissistic reveries about their childhood. Then Mama carelessly lets Ellen have china and a Tiffany lamp that Eunice expresses an interest in. This leads to Eunice exploding with anger and Ellen revealing that Mama cooked Eunice's beloved pet rabbit Fluffy. When Eunice confronts Mama, Vicki's response is priceless: "For pity's sake, Eunice, how the hell do you expect me to remember what we had for supper 30 years ago?" Eunice then vengefully breaks the lamp and sits on the china and once again Ellen stomps out.

Betty also stars in two musical numbers--with Carol as the last of two elderly cheerleaders at a reunion and then in an extravagant Ziegfeld Follies recreation. Here Betty plays a French oo-la-la type in an elaborate feathered get-up by Bob Mackie. Vicki does a Fanny Brice-type number as a clumsy kid playing a swallow at a dance recital. Carol has the big finish as a diva stuck on an out-of-control moon, borrowing the bit from "The Man in the Moon Is a Lady" from Mame.

Season 11: 
March 5, 1978: Betty White, Steve Martin

Tim, Vicki, Betty White, Steve Martin and Carol
in a Close Encounters of the Third Kind
spoof on As the Stomach Turns

As the series dwindled down, there were fewer really high quality episodes, but this one was among the best of the entire run. It went on to win Emmys for direction and writing and featured all of the elements that made the show so funny--the Family, As the Stomach Turns and a movie parody. In addition to Betty, they actually snagged a guest star who was not Steve Lawrence, Ken Berry, or Bernadette Peters. Steve Martin was just achieving his greatest fame as an out-of-control, goofy comic and brought the show a much needed relevancy and fresh zing.

There was also a freshness to As the Stomach Turns as the tired soap opera gains new life with a wild take-off on the then-current film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. After Carol and Betty trade quips about the looseness of Carol's character Marian, Steve enters as Richard Dryface (instead of Dreyfuss). He manically tries to recreate the mashed-potato mountain from the movie. Vicki enters, again as Marian's wayward daughter, but this time her illegitimate child is half-alien. The set exploded as a flying saucer lands in Marian's bedroom and Tim enters as an ET. 

Betty and Carol as Ellen and Eunice

In the Family sketch, Ellen's hairdo continues to grow even higher and her draped gown makes her look like a suburban version of the Bride of Frankenstein. This segment wraps up Ellen's relationship with Eunice and Mama. Eunice is now divorced from Ed (because Harvey Korman left the show) and Mama has moved in with her. The bickering mother and daughter show up uninvited at Ellen's to beg the neglectful sister to let Mama at least move in with her part time since Eunice and Mama are driving each other crazy. When she thinks Mama is out of earshot, Ellen lets her true feelings of anger and resentment about Mama out. This time Eunice and Mama stomp out but not before Ellen tells them both to stay out of her life. Ellen and Eunice do show up again on Mama's Family--ironically with Rue McClanahan as Mama's sister Franny. So that means Betty White played Rue's niece even though she was older than Rue. Plus ironically, they were reunited as women the same age on Golden Girls.

Steve does a funny monologue with dogs and Tim and Carol do a riotous sketch about a crazy pigeon lady harassing an innocent old man in a park. 

Vicki, Carol and Betty in
Beach Blanket Boo Boo.

The hour ends with a movie spoof, but not the usual 1940s melodrama with Carol as Joan Crawford or Bette Davis. This time it's Beach Blanket Boo Boo, a send-up of the 1960s surf-beach flicks starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. Carol is Nanette Vermicelli, out to grab surfer dud Steve as Frankie Travalon. Betty is a riot stepping out of her usual role of the sweet motherly type and into black leather as a biker chick and Tim is Erik von Schlepper, a parody of Harvey Lembeck as Erik von Zipper, the juvenile delinquent out to spoil the fun of Frankie, Annette and the gang. There are goofy song pastiches of Teen Angel and Surfin' USA, plus we get to see the lean, muscular chorus boy in their bathing suits.

All of these episodes showed Betty's versatility and her specificity as an actress. Even in a comedy sketch, her choices were solid and serious. One moment in Betty's performances really stands out for me. It was on the first season of Mama's Family, the spin-off series starring Vicki Lawrence that Carol, Betty and Harvey would guest-star on occasionally. The family is gathered the night before the wedding of Vin (Ken Berry), a son invented for the series, and Dorothy Lyman. Eunice and Ellen are arguing about whether or not Eunice will sing at the wedding (no one wants her to). Eunice hints that Ellen's husband Bruce has been stepping out on his wife. Betty responds coldly with "Explain that." She was so direct and clear with no comic schtick when she said it that the line came from a real place rather than as a set-up for a joke. She was a woman fearing her spouse was unfaithful and she didn't want to hear about it from her hated sibling. The moment displayed Betty creating a real person rather than a punchline.