Helpful Score: 2
It was an interesting look at television's inception, and finally a bio that was mostly sweetness and light, not creepy tragedy lurking at half of the corners. It was just a breezy, fun read-- like having a conversation with Betty herself.
And, when she spoke about feeling defensive when attacked by those feminists at the Television and Broadcast Convention, I was SO on her and Jayne Wyatt's side! "Go, ladies!", I thought. Personally, I thought the feminatzis were being stupid-- the roles of women in the 1940s-50s television were anything BUT detrimental. If anything, the shows back then showed more true equality than TODAY'S standards (in my opinion). Think about it: The households were presented as comical give and takes, Mom and Dad both got equal input into the household. Today, it's either the husband is another child and the woman goes out of her WAY to emasculate him at every turn for comic relief (which isn't that funny) or the men are complete misogynists and the women nothing but bimbos, also not that funny. Woman can be both beautiful and clever without being harpies. Men can be sexy and funny without being pigs or idiots.
And, I finally understood why they went the direction they did with "The Golden Girls" finale-- because I had before always thought it was a bit too rushed of a romance between Dorothy and Leslie Nielson's character (one hourlong episode for them to both meet, court and marry?), but, as it turns out, Bea Arthur made no bones about wishing to move on, and that was the only way they could properly do a spinoff was to write her out. (Of course, for those of us who watched "The Golden Palace", we know that the spinoff was somewhat of a mistake, as did the network...)
But, she spoke with such love of all of the friends she'd made over the years, and seems such a fun and warm person, who truly just had a charmed life and loved what she did. If we all could be so lucky...
And, when she spoke about feeling defensive when attacked by those feminists at the Television and Broadcast Convention, I was SO on her and Jayne Wyatt's side! "Go, ladies!", I thought. Personally, I thought the feminatzis were being stupid-- the roles of women in the 1940s-50s television were anything BUT detrimental. If anything, the shows back then showed more true equality than TODAY'S standards (in my opinion). Think about it: The households were presented as comical give and takes, Mom and Dad both got equal input into the household. Today, it's either the husband is another child and the woman goes out of her WAY to emasculate him at every turn for comic relief (which isn't that funny) or the men are complete misogynists and the women nothing but bimbos, also not that funny. Woman can be both beautiful and clever without being harpies. Men can be sexy and funny without being pigs or idiots.
And, I finally understood why they went the direction they did with "The Golden Girls" finale-- because I had before always thought it was a bit too rushed of a romance between Dorothy and Leslie Nielson's character (one hourlong episode for them to both meet, court and marry?), but, as it turns out, Bea Arthur made no bones about wishing to move on, and that was the only way they could properly do a spinoff was to write her out. (Of course, for those of us who watched "The Golden Palace", we know that the spinoff was somewhat of a mistake, as did the network...)
But, she spoke with such love of all of the friends she'd made over the years, and seems such a fun and warm person, who truly just had a charmed life and loved what she did. If we all could be so lucky...
Helpful Score: 1
Great book! Very readable and interesting to the very end!
