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The Betty White Effect

Today there was an article on CNN's website touting Joan Rivers as "the next Betty White."

The article was interesting for a number of reasons, but a particular statement jumped out at me.

The author mentioned that he felt it was ridiculous for people to be "discovering" Betty White now, when she's worked consistently for decades. It's a little like looking over at someone once the party's almost done, and saying "Oh, you're still here! I love you!"

Thankfully, Betty White's grade-A appearance on Saturday Night Live has finally made people start looking around at other comediennes, who've been kept by the wayside for far too long.

Rivers has a new documentary coming out about her called "A Piece of Work," which is garnering a lot of acclaim.

There are other SNL campaigns in the works similar to the one that got Betty White a hosting gig. The largest is for Carol Burnett. When I saw the Facebook page, I thought to myself--

Yeah, why HASN'T Carol Burnett been on television all these years?

Why do the networks scramble to get Christian Slater on a hit television show, when there are so many tried-and-true performers just sitting around?

White's biggest claim to fame was "The Golden Girls," a show about four older women living together. People rarely mention it, but one of the reasons the show was such a big hit was because it featured actresses who were known to audiences as being talented and very funny. Isn't it a little strange that it's taken this long for producers to try out another show with that same format?

Finally, they have. It's called "Hot in Cleveland"--starring Betty White.

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