Betty White’s Off Their Rockers is back on NBC tonight at 8p for an hour and the senior citizen, hidden camera pranking show is just as funny as it was last season.
Last week I was on a conference call with Miss Betty White and she talked about the show and about her long spectacular career. On how Betty White’s Off Their Rockers is different from shows like Candid Camera:
You know, because I think that we wanted to do something that was a little bit more modern and a little bit more fun, and I think that the most fun part of this show is really their reaction to having been pranked, and I feel like you know, that’s a – it’s a more modern take on it to do it in the way that we’ve done it.
On what her Iron Rule for the show was:
Well, it’s silly and nonsensical, but good-spirited. We’re never mean-spirited, and that’s…that’s the iron rule.
On where she gets her humor from:
Well, I don’t know. I was an only child and my mother and dad were great and good buddies, and my dad would bring jokes home. He was a salesman, and he would bring jokes home, and he’d say, now, sweetheart, you can take that one to school, but I wouldn’t take that one to school. And so, we just – I don’t know. I always see more than one meaning to a word, so the double entendre kind of came naturally. But a double entendre is one thing, and then dirty humor is something else. I don’t like dirty jokes, but I do enjoy a double entendre.
On how television has changed throughout her career:
Well, I don’t think the television has changed nearly as much as the audience has changed. When I started out, television was just starting out, and everything was that miracle on the box in the corner of the room where people were actually moving around, and over the years, as television got to be such a major part of our lives, the audience has heard every joke. They know every storyline. They know where you’re going almost before the first line is out. That’s a hard audience to surprise and a hard audience to entertain, and it gets more difficult all the time. That’s why the real movers and shakers in the television business are the writers. They have a bigger challenge every day.
Does the woman who turns 91 next week plan on retiring anytime soon?:
Well, my problem is I love what I’m doing and I love this business and I enjoy the work and I love the people that I work with. I’ve been so lucky for all those 60 years, and I just – everybody says, well, when are you going to retire? Why don’t you quit? How can you quit something that you enjoy so much? I’m blessed with good health and blessed with good energy, so I’m just – as long as they ask me, I’m thrilled to say yes.
Well, my problem is I love what I’m doing and I love this business and I enjoy the work and I love the people that I work with. I’ve been so lucky for all those 60 years, and I just – everybody says, well, when are you going to retire? Why don’t you quit? How can you quit something that you enjoy so much? I’m blessed with good health and blessed with good energy, so I’m just – as long as they ask me, I’m thrilled to say yes.
