Betty White Practically Invented Live TV

Only four more weeks until Betty White hosts Saturday Night Live on May 8th. Tina Fey made her triumphant return last night and while she was really great (the Sarah Palin Network rocked), we can't help but think that without Betty White there may not be a Tina Fey. We're pretty sure Tina would agree.

Betty got her start doing live TV on a show called Hollywood on Television. But it wasn't on for just an hour or even two. Betty did 33 hours per week — five and a half hours a day, six days a week. All improv! A few years into her run she added an evening show on top of that called Life with Elizabeth.

So in later years, doing only one weekly 30-minute scripted sitcom was a piece of cake for the happy homemaker turned Golden Girl.

While you wait for Betty's SNL gig take a look at her talking about those early days of live TV in an interview we edited for the Archive of American Television.