Blogger: I shared the Earth with Betty White

Dear all,
this is of course hard to write. The beautiful, funny and talented Betty White passed away just yesterday, ensuring that indeed 2021 be recorded as another horribly shitty year... but as I read the articles on her life, as I read people's reaction, as painful as it was to hear this loss, I couldn't help but be grateful that I lived at the same time on this planet as her. She was a true legend.

"I was one of the first women producers in Hollywood."

From her performances on sitcoms, movies, to her live interviews, you can tell a good person when for 99 years everyone on this planet wanted to meet her and be like her! I am sure we all share beautiful memories with her, since the presence of social media and continuous re-runs of her old shows, quotes and articles online her fan base among all ages just grew and grew and grew.

"It's been phenomenal, but everybody keeps congratulating me 

on my resurgence and my big comeback. I haven't been away, guys. 

I've been working steadily for the last 63 years."

Instead of going in to a sad rant, and trust me, I am sad, I want to highlight a beautiful memory that I connect to her. With my family we just loved family sitcoms, I have written hundreds of times by now on this blog about how American television has impacted my life, and one of the shows that we loved as a family was The Golden Girls (1985–1992). My mom laughed at Sophia (Estelle Getty)'s jokes so loud, over the years we collected the seasons on DVD too, it is so nice to see them on the shelf at my mom's. Every single time I would see an episode again or if I see a meme online, a funny quote from the show, I just remembered being in my living room with my siblings and mom, my grandma laughing in the corner, and you know ... I don't know anymore if there are sitcoms like this out there that brings families together. But anything that Betty did had the force to glue a whole family together in front of the TV and help build memories together, and in that, she was the most unique celebrity out there in Hollywood.

"My mother and dad were big animal lovers, too. I just don't know how I would have lived without animals around me. I'm fascinated by them - both domestic pets and the wild community. They just are the most interesting things in the world to me, and it's made such a difference in my lifetime."

Right now, I am rewatching a lot of her shows from my research for my dissertation, and I can tell you that it is simply wonderful how you can see the evolution of television through her amazing career. It is simply breathtaking. I do recommend that you all watch everything she did, as television writing has improved much, but if you want to see where it all came from, to see those actors whose faces have paved the way for great television, then you gotta go back to the classics!

So with pain that we say goodbye, still, I am grateful for all future generations that get to learn about this wonderful actress and I cannot help but look forward to the next time me and my mom sit down and rewatch an old episode of The Golden Girls, or some reruns of Hot in Cleveland and giggle together.

Goodbye Betty, and thank you for all you did!