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