TV icon Betty White -- her many moods pictured here in this trance-inducing For Your Consideration ad -- is the recipient of this year's Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award, and deservedly so. And it's her The Proposal co-star, Sandra Bullock, who'll present the tribute to White's six-decade-long career. (The show airs live on TNT and TBS on Saturday, Jan. 23.) Since Betty holds a special place in our heart, we thought we'd pitch in by offering up some raw footage for the highlight reel to come.
Life with Elizabeth
Betty's first show was a low-budget sitcom that aired in syndication from October 7, 1953 to September 1, 1955. She starred opposite Del Moore, the two playing a suburban couple who kept getting into "incidents." Del would stomp off, and the announcer would say, "Elizabeth, aren't you ashamed?" She's nod, then a smile would creep across her face and she'd shake her head vigorously, predating a similar shtick from SNL's Gilly by over sixty years.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The part that made Betty a TV icon was Sue-Ann Nivens, a Martha Stewart precursor with a voracious sexual appetite and deliciously bitchy side. It won her two Emmys.
Betty Goes Rogue on Match Game
Betty was the queen of game shows, and the first female to win the Daytime Emmy for game show host. Here she is on Match Game, taking over for Gene Rayburn, to show the veteran how emceeing a celebrity free-for-all is really done.
1987 Golden Globes
White beat out a formidable bunch that year in the Best Actress - TV Comedy category, including her Miami housemates Bea and Estelle. Her speech charmed the crowd, even if it left Rue out on the lanai.
Condoms, Rose. CONDOMS!
And here's what the fuss was about: Rose, Dorothy and Blanche at the top of their game, shopping for prophylactics. Rose picks the black magnums, as the whole store soon finds out.
Betty Goes Rogue on The Late, Late Show on Craig Ferguson
In a sketch that ran during the 2008 campaign, Betty played a speech writer for John McCain, a part that required her to call Sarah Palin "one crazy bitch." This was before anyone, let alone a beloved TV icon and sweet-faced granny, went quite that shockingly (but accurately) on record about the Alaska governor.