JANUARY 13 • 2022 | 45

BETTY WHITE’S ‘SPECIAL’ JEWISH 
FRIENDS, FUN IN MOTOWN, A 
SMOTHERING MOTHER

Before Betty White died, I decid-
ed to write a column item about 
the Betty White tribute film, which 
was (and is) scheduled to play in 
select theaters Jan. 17, what would 
have been White’s 100th birthday. 
(Titled Betty White, a Celebration, 
it will play at the Maple Theater in 
Bloomfield Hills. It is a one-day only 
screening; nationwide). 
I didn’t want to write up “just” a 
list of Jewish stars White worked 
with, like Ed Asner on The Mary 
Tyler Moore Show, and Estelle Getty 
and Bea Arthur on The Golden Girls. 
So, I checked out two memoirs that 
White wrote. Her 1995 memoir was 
very detailed. The 2011 memoir was 
much lighter —a collection of sweet 
memories. 
Pretty soon I realized that White 
worked with tons of Jewish folks, 
but it was hard to tell who she really, 
really liked. She literally had nothing 
bad to say about anyone. Eventually, 
I found three Jewish colleagues you 
could “just” tell she was especially 
fond of. 
As most of you know, game shows 
were very important to White. While 
she never stopped acting, guest 
shots on game shows were her big-
gest “thing” from about 1960 until 
she joined The Mary Tyler Moore 
Show in 1973. A guest shot on 
Password changed her life. She met 
the show’s host, Allen Ludden, then 
a widower with three young chil-
dren. They married in 1963. Ludden 
hosted Password until his death in 
1981, age 63.
Password was one of many game 
shows created by the Goodson-
Todman company. Its “hands-on” 
producer/top executive was Mark 
Goodson (1915-1992). White’s 1995 
book has a full-page photo of 
Goodson, with the caption: “One-of- 
a-kind, a good friend.” She recount-
ed how kind Goodson was to Allen 

Ludden when Ludden’s first wife 
fell terminally ill. White added that 
Goodson had a rocky romantic life, 
and he often turned to her for coun-
sel or just for a kind ear. 
Bob Stewart (1920-2012), White 
wrote, “invented” three mega-hit 
Goodson-Todman game shows 
(Password, The Price is Right and 
To Tell the Truth) before he went off 
to create his own game show pro-
duction company in 1964. (Stewart 
went on to “invent” the $100,000 
Pyramid). White wrote that she and 
Stewart became close friends and, 
as of 1995, they dined together fre-
quently. Stewart, I found out, was 
born Isadore Steinberg. He changed 
his name because he thought he 
had lost a job due to antisemitism. 
In her 2011 memoir, White says 
that Carl Reiner (1922-2020) and 
Allen Ludden served in the same 
Army entertainment unit during 
WWII. She first met Reiner when he 
and some other guys who served 
with Ludden were guests in her 
home. 
In 2010, Reiner appeared as 
White’s date in several episodes 
of Hot in Cleveland. White totally 

loved Ludden and loved to hear 
good things about him. She just 
kvelled when Reiner told her, during 
a break in filming, that he “wouldn’t 
have had a career without Captain 
Ludden.” Reiner explained that 
during their Army days, Ludden told 
Reiner he liked his comic material. 
Ludden then managed to get it seen 
by a big-time showbiz producer. 

MOTOWN SERIES
I was asleep at the wheel last month 
when American Auto, an NBC sitcom 
about a (supposedly) Detroit-based 
auto company, “sneak previewed” 
its first two episodes. I just caught 
up with those episodes, which are 
free to view on Peacock and online. 
New episodes air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. 
Basic plot: a car company, called 
Payne, is struggling and its new CEO 
(Ana Gasteyer) has no auto industry 
experience. The flaky Payne top 
execs don’t help her much. They 
include Wesley (Jon Barinholtz, 42), 
the airhead grandson of the com-
pany’s founder. (My 13-word review: 
some jokes and scenes were funny, 
but not quite enough. More work 
needed).
The series was created by, and is 
written by Justin Spitzer, 44. He’s 
best known for creating and writing 
the NBC Superstore series, which 
ran for six seasons. His wife, Jenna 
Bans, 47, is best known for creating 
and writing the NBC series Good 
Girls, which aired for four seasons. 
Premiering on the 20th is Single 
Drunk Female, a comedy/drama 
series (Freeform channel/app, 10 
p.m.). Sophia Black-D’Elia, 29, stars 
as Samantha Fink, an irreverent 
alcoholic who gets into trouble. She 
avoids jail by moving in with her 
smothering mother (played by ’80s 
“brat pack”star Ally Sheedy, 59). 
Both actresses have non-Jewish 
fathers and Jewish mothers. Black-
D’Elia calls herself Jewish, and 
Sheedy has always been secular. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

ANGELA GEORGE, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Betty White

