Is Betty White the Bacon of 2010?

My morning radio guys were recently discussing the ubiquitous Betty White, the 88-year old actress who seems to be on every TV show these days except the late night test pattern. One of them said, "I think there could be such a thing as too much Betty White. She's like the bacon of 2010."

If you're familiar with the bacon trend, there's a school of thought among food makers that everything -- from candy bars, to ice cream, to cocktails -- is better with bacon. For television producers, Betty White, has become the human equivalent of smoked pig meat. If they want to add sizzle to their TV show, they add some Betty White, convinced the bawdy comedic actress will turn their bland television program into salty entertainment much as bacon turns a plain chicken breast sandwich into a Chicken Supreme.

The only surviving Golden Girl, Betty White may be one of the only television personalities to have worked virtually non-stop in show business for more than 70 years. She was such a fixture on television, you almost stopped noticing her. Yet somehow, in 2010, Betty White mysteriously morphed from the wallpaper on your computer's desk top to the hot new app on your iPhone. It seemed like no one could get enough of Betty White.

What Made Betty White So Popular After All These Years?

Although Betty White has always been known for her saucy wit and Nordic good looks, it was the TV commercial she did with fellow octogenarian Abe Vigoda for Snickers candy bars in the Superbowl this year that revived her seven-decade career and made her Hollywood's new "it" girl.

According to a recent article in Advertising Age, "the TV legend has been in higher demand than she was in her heyday as the star of The Mary Tyler Moore show in the 1970s and The Golden Girls in the 1980s," a phenomenal shift for which the magazine gave most of the credit to the clever Snickers Superbowl commercial, in which Betty White played a fumbling football player whose teammates teased her by saying, "You're playing like Betty White out there!"

Facebook Fan Fuels Bettymania

Even before Betty White's hammed up performance on the Snickers Superbowl commercial, a young Betty White fan named David Mathews launched a Facebook campaign called "Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!" aimed at persuading Saturday Night Live Producer Lorne Michaels to hire Betty White to guest host an episode of SNL. Thanks to Mathews' viral Facebook campaign, Betty White hosted SNL on Mother's Day Eve 2010, garnering the highest ratings for the show in a year and a half.

White Hot Betty Becomes Even Hotter in Cleveland

Even before her SNL appearance, Betty White agreed to appear in the pilot of TV Land's Hot in Cleveland, the cable network's first new scripted comedy show, which debuted in June 2010. Appearing with three well-known comedic actresses half her age, White turned out to be the funniest banana in the bunch in an otherwise lackluster sitcom revolving around three attractive middle-aged women viewed as over the hill in youth-obsessed Los Angeles who find themselves mysteriously desirable to men in Cleveland, Ohio. In both her SNL and Hot in Cleveland appearances, White proves herself to be the consummate comedienne with her split second comic timing and ability to speak volumes with just her facial expressions.

Can There Be Too Much Betty White?

As much as one may like bacon, eating these salty strips for breakfast, lunch and dinner would get old quickly, a fate that could also strike Betty White if her surge continues. As Karla Peterson pointed out in a column for the San Diego Union-Tribune's blog, "Betty is... approaching a tiring ubiquity of Justin Bieber-like proportions."

Before Jimmy Fallon got the nod to host the 2010 Emmy's, some fans lobbied for Betty White to host the TV awards show, and there is now a Facebook campaign similar to that for the SNL guest hosting gig that is lobbying for Betty White to host the Oscar's in 2011. Meanwhile, a Betty White calendar will be released this fall for 2011 showing vintage photos of Betty, Betty with animals and even Betty with hot male hunks, the proceeds of which are going to the Morris Animal Foundation, one of Betty White's favorite animal charities.

How About Betty on the $20 Dollar Bill?

With so many men decorating money, why not launch a Facebook campaign to have Betty White replace Andrew Jackson on the twenty-dollar bill? Obviously the idea is facetious, but it suggests there could be a limit to how much light a star can radiate in a short space of time without combusting. I personally find Betty White's ageless wit and personality to be delightful, and I have enjoyed every performance this year in which I have seen her, especially those personal interviews where she plays the most interesting and down-to-earth character of all, Betty White.

Yet with our national propensity for schadenfreude, our delight in watching the mighty fall, I fear that Betty White could take a tumble. As much as Americans enjoy seeing an underdog win, they may enjoy seeing someone fall off their pedestal even more-Barack Obama and Tiger Woods being two recent examples.

While I don't envision the sharp as a pencil Betty White making a doddering fool of herself ala Helen Thomas, it is possible that some people might just start tiring of Betty White, just as even the most dedicated bacon connoisseur can become immune to its pleasures. For Betty's sake and mine, I hope not.

Sources:
The Armstrong and Getty Show, KSTE Radio, Sacramento, California
http://www.delish.com/food-fun/weird-bacon-products
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0924508
http://adage.com/article?article_id=144290
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/arts/television/10arts-BETTYWHITEHE_BRF.html
http://www.signonsandiego.com/weblogs/tv-tracker/2010/jul/07/tv-news-betty-white-calendar-girl/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100708/ap_on_en_tv/us_people_betty_white_4