A look back at Betty White’s record-breaking “Saturday Night Live” appearance
January 1, 2022 Andrew Buss Features, In Memoriam, News, Saturday Night Live
For anyone who says online petitions don’t work, kindly point them to this. In early 2010, an online Facebook group and various petitions were circulating to have Betty White – who passed away at the age of 99 yesterday – host Saturday Night Live. Now normally, those kind of petitions happens all the time and never makes a dent. This time, however, it worked.
On May 10th, 2010, Betty White hosted the Mother’s Day episode of the landmark sketch series. At the time, she was 88 years-old, thus becoming the oldest person to ever host the show, an honor she still holds and we hope will continue to hold. Due to her age, some concessions had to be made. One of them was the cue cards the show relies on had to be printed on a larger, special font just for her. But when it came time for her to hit the stage for the monologue, you’d never be able to tell. Her excellent comedic timing was on full display throughout the entire episode, regardless of her age or the fact that she was literally performing a sketch show that is exhausting on people half her age past midnight.
Betty White was as charming as ever in an episode that still stands out as far as quality goes. We got to see some great classics in that episode such as Scared Straight, Kristen Wiig’s Doreen, MacGruber, Delicious Dish, the Golden Girls Digital Short, and a new edition of the classic census sketch that was first introduced with Christopher Walken in 2000. Plus, we even got to see some prominent female alumni come back to share the spotlight including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer, and Rachel Dratch. The appearance did so well that, while she never hosted again, she did appear in a sketch at the 40th anniversary show.
Check out some highlights below. And Rest In Peace, Betty White. You will definitely be missed!
