The Best Of Betty White, 1922-2021

With the sad news that Betty White has passed away at the age of 99, we're looking back at the beloved actress' most memorable TV roles spanning the decades, from The Mary Tyler Moore Show to The Golden Girls and many, many more.

10. Tournament of Roses Parade/Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

After an almost 20-year-run as the host of the former and a decade-long stint as the host of the latter, White was naturally considered as much a parade staple as marching bands and floats.

9. Life with Elizabeth

More noteworthy than White's playful take on the titular missus who breaks the fourth wall to communicate with her sitcom's announcer was the fact that the leading lady was also one of the show's producers — at the time, a rarity for women in Hollywood.

8. Saturday Night Live

Did anyone who supported the Facebook campaign to make White host — or anyone, period — not LOL when the then-88-year-old cracked in her opening monologue that, now that she knew what the website was, "it sounds like a huge waste of time"?

7. The Carol Burnett Show/Mama's Family

Poor Eunice never stood a chance. The way White played her social-climbing sibling rival, Ellen Harper Jackson — with equal parts class and sass — she was always destined to be Mama's favorite.

6. The Bold and the Beautiful

White proved she could go dark with the best of 'em by tackling — and nailing — the recurring role of Ann Douglas, a frosty Mommie Dearest who spent years turning a blind eye to her husband's abuse of their daughter.

5. The Practice/Boston Legal

Not even the poop-smeared handshake with which White's Catherine Piper was reintroduced to old neighbor (and future boss) Alan Shore could've prepared us for what was to follow, a hilarious reign of terror that ranged from withering insults to murder-by-skillet.

4. Hot in Cleveland

Turning on its ear the notion that seniors are mature, White played merry "widow" Elka Ostrovsky as a smack-talking party girl who knew that "benders fix everything... except quitting alcohol."

3. The Mary Tyler Moore Show

White's breakout role found her being cast against type as Sue Ann Nivens, a man-eating Martha Stewart and the antithesis of her WJM co-worker/frenemy, "dear, sweet, naïve Mary" Richards.

2. Pretty much any game show from the 1950s on

Not only did White's quick wit make her a virtual regular on everything from Password to Pyramid, but the "First Lady of Game Shows" also became the first woman to win the Outstanding Game Show Host Daytime Emmy for her series, Just Men.

1. The Golden Girls

White's most memorable and beloved TV role came in her 60s, when she played bird-brained sweetheart Rose Nylund alongside Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty on NBC's hit sitcom. It ran for seven seasons and 180 episodes, and White earned seven Emmy nominations with a win in 1986. Thanks to syndication and streaming, these ladies will live on forever.