5 Times Betty White Played Herself On Television

Betty White was more than a Hollywood icon, she was a national treasure who made Americans laugh for decades. TV fans across the country were saddened when news that White had died at the age of 99 broke on December 31, 2021, with the actress and comedian leaving behind a small screen legacy that includes iconic roles in shows like “The Golden Girls.” She was a 21-time Emmy nominee with five wins and one special honor to her name. When someone’s career reaches those levels, especially as a comedian, they begin to get offers to play exaggerated versions of themselves.

White took advantage of these offers beginning in 1972 with a role in a CBS crime drama called “O’Hara, U.S Treasury” and went on to make many memorable appearances as herself in a variety of shows, often subverting her public persona for comedy. She once told CNN that comedians need to remember that “you’re in the funny business, you’re not in the ‘me’ business,” but the truth is that few people mixed the funny business and the “me” business quite like Betty White. TVLine is taking a look back at the most memorable times she played herself on TV shows.

Betty White met her third husband, “Password” host Allen Ludden, while guest-starring on the game show, something she continued to do throughout their long, loving relationship (they were married from 1963 until Ludden’s death in 1981). As such, it makes sense that White played herself alongside Ludden on a Season 3 episode of the classic sitcom “The Odd Couple,” in which Felix (Tony Randall) and Oscar (Jack Klugman) are invited on the show by Ludden. 

White’s role is essentially to play the game as usual while reacting to Felix and Oscar’s antics when it’s called for. At first, Felix and Oscar are losing because of Felix’s ridiculously pretentious clues, which White and Ludden react to on commercial breaks. The roommates get into a flow for a little bit, but are eventually overtaken by White and her partner. Felix, an avid “Password” fan, is so upset to lose that he has to be escorted off the set. White’s role might seem simple, but it required subtlety and masterful comedic timing, so she was the perfect woman for the job. 

Betty White was so good at playing herself she even won an Emmy for it, scooping the award for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series for her turn in a hilarious Season 3 episode of “The John Larroquette Show.” This forgotten ’90s sitcom starred Larroquette as John Hemingway, the night manager of a rundown St. Louis bus station. On White’s episode, John is trying to start a career as a writer when he gets an opportunity to interview her for a local newspaper. 

White invites Hemingway to her hotel room (where it’s revealed that her “The Golden Girls” co-star Estelle Getty is working as her assistant) and tells him about a musical version of “The Golden Girls” she wants him to write. White later confesses to Getty that her actual goal is to make John her husband, but, along the way, a makeshift version of the musical is performed. White is the only original Golden Girl to play her character, Rose, in the musical. John plays Dorothy, and his friends play the other two roles, but Getty and Rue McClanahan are on hand to watch the show, playing exaggerated versions of themselves, too. 

“The John Larroquette Show” isn’t available to stream, so it’s hard to find the episode these days, but if you do manage to track it down and watch it, you’ll understand exactly why White won an Emmy for playing herself. This version of Betty White is a bit deranged, essentially kidnapping John with the project. White is effortlessly funny here, and it couldn’t have been easy to play an unhinged version of herself who revives her most beloved character for a bizarre musical.

“The Simpsons” loved Betty White so much that she was invited to play herself on the hit animated series twice, but her first appearance is the best. On a 2000 episode (Season 11’s “Missionary: Impossible”), Homer is a fan of a PBS show that keeps getting interrupted by White and a co-host, who run the network’s telethons. To get the network to its goal and get his show back, Homer pledges $10,000 that he doesn’t have.

Homer doesn’t think they’ll make him follow through, but eventually White and a whole slew of PBS personalities and characters are at his door. The PBS posse actually follow Homer to the bank, and when his attempts to pretend like he has the money fail, White and the gang (which includes the Teletubbies, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch) chase him. Homer seeks sanctuary in a church, where a priest sends him on a missionary trip in order to help him skirt his $10,000 pledge.

White also played herself on a Season 18 episode called “Homerazzi,” in which Homer takes a job as a paparazzi. She’s incredibly kind to him as he’s grumbling about how rude celebrities are. It’s a pretty bland appearance compared to watching her chase Homer around Springfield, but it serves as a reminder of how great White was with people. As she once said during a “CBS News Sunday Morning” interview (via Parade), “Kindness and consideration of somebody besides yourself keeps you feeling young.”

One of Betty White’s most memorable appearances as herself came on a Season 2 episode of “Ugly Betty” called “Bananas for Betty.” In it, fashion magazine big wig Wilhelmina Slater (Vanessa Williams) is rushing to an event in the rain when she snags a cab from an old lady, slamming the door on the woman’s hand. Strangers on the street recognize the woman as Betty White and the story quickly goes viral, with Wilhelmina painted as a callous villain.

All of Williams and White’s scenes together are a brilliant comedic dance. They have a phone exchange in which Wilhelmina convinces Betty to forgive her in a TV interview, because she needs investors in a new company and the viral story has ruined her image. When Wilhelmina and a TV crew show up to film at White’s hospital bed, she pretends to be afraid of Wilhelmina because the feud has created demand for her to be on talk shows and is making her money. “Get her away from me, I think she’s got a knife,” White screams as the camera rolls.

White always had a little bit of a naughty comedic style that was at odds with the fact that she was such a sweet person to be around in real life, with one reporter from The Guardian noting that she made a point of learning his name before sitting down for an interview with him and then proceeded to use it throughout their chat. Some of her lines in “Ugly Betty” are shockingly out of character for her, but her role here was just edgy enough to be effective — “Ugly Betty” was on network TV, after all.

One of Betty White’s last appearances as herself came in a Season 4 episode of NBC’s hit comedy “30 Rock” titled “Stone Mountain.” White’s storyline involves the fictional actor Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), who is nervous all episode because two celebrities have died and there is a well-known rule of threes with death. Jordan is afraid that he, or someone he likes, will be the third victim, so he calls Betty White under the pretense of checking on her health.

When we cut to White, she’s shown reading “From Peanut to President” by Jack’s biological father Milton Greene (played by “M*A*S*H” star Alan Alda), a three-volume biography of Jimmy Carter that was previously mentioned in the Season 3 finale. White immediately intuits that he’s checking if she’s going to die because of the rule of threes. “Nice try, Jordan,” she says. “But, I am going to be at your funeral. I will bury you.” Her point made, she hangs up the phone and Tracy moves on, eventually trying to kill Jimmy Fallon.

“I’m a great fan of the show,” White said of her “30 Rock” cameo when she spoke to TV Guide at the time. “It’s a wonderful show and it was fun just to be part of it for a minute.” She is actually on screen for less than a minute in total, which she joked about during the interview, saying, “It’ll be over before you know it. Don’t blink!” White still managed to be one of the most memorable things about this episode despite her lack of screen time.