Sue Ann Nivens is a fictional character portrayed by Betty White on

situation comedy A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

The Mary Tyler Moore Show ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (also known simply as ''Mary Tyler Moore'') is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns and starring actress Mary Tyler Moore. The show originally aired on CBS from September 19, 1970 ...

''.

Casting

The role of Sue Ann Nivens was not specifically written for White, but script #73 of the series (" The Lars Affair", aired September 15, 1973) called for an "icky sweet Betty White type". The casting director decided to approach the star herself who, with husband Allen Ludden, was already good friends with Mary Tyler Moore and her then husband, ''MTM'' producer

Grant Tinker Grant Almerin Tinker (January 11, 1926 – November 28, 2016) was an American television executive who was chairman and CEO of NBC from 1981 to 1986. Additionally, he was a co-founder of MTM Enterprises and a television producer. Early life T ...

. Producers were aware of Moore and White's friendship and were hesitant to audition White for the role, afraid of the awkwardness that might ensue if White wasn’t right for the part. White played up Sue Ann Nivens' cheerful, home-and-hearth loving persona — a sharp contrast to the character's backbiting, sexually voracious true nature. Her first appearance in episode one of season four was intended to be a one-time guest role, but series creator James L. Brooks gave White a friendly post-show warning: "Don't make too many plans."

''The Happy Homemaker''

Sue Ann Nivens is the relentlessly perky star of ''The Happy Homemaker'' on fictional station WJM-TV in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. The program delivers cooking and decorating advice to housewives, often on ludicrous theme shows such as "A Salute to Fruit" and "What's All This Fuss About Famine?". She is a perfectionist, remarking in a season four episode titled "The Dinner Party" that she'd rather flush her Veal Prince Orloff down a toilet than serve it reheated. Sue Ann is full of helpful hints for all occasions and always ready to make

lemon The lemon (''Citrus'' × ''limon'') is a species of small evergreen tree in the ''Citrus'' genus of the flowering plant family Rutaceae. A true lemon is a hybrid of the citron and the bitter orange. Its origins are uncertain, but some ...

s into lemonade; for instance, she suggests buying colorful, happy

goldfish The goldfish (''Carassius auratus'') is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of the order Cypriniformes. It is commonly kept as a pet in indoor aquariums, and is one of the most popular aquarium fish. Goldfish released into the w ...

as companions for the infirm and then, when the goldfish die, using them as houseplant

fertilizer A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...

. Although Sue Ann Nivens presents an image of sweetness and perfection onscreen, she is actually sardonic, man-obsessed, and very competitive.

Relationships

Mary and Phyllis

Sue Ann Nivens first appears on ''Mary Tyler Moore'' as a guest at one of

Mary Richards Mary Richards, portrayed by Mary Tyler Moore, is the lead character of the television sitcom ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''. Character biography Mary Richards, born in 1940 in Roseburg, Minnesota, is the only child of Walter and Dottie Richard ...

' famously disastrous parties. At the end of the night, Lars, the oft-mentioned but never-seen husband of Mary's friend/landlady, Phyllis Lindstrom, gives Sue Ann a ride home. Phyllis subsequently realizes Lars and Sue Ann are having an

affair An affair is a relationship typically between two people, one or both of whom are either married or in a long-term Monogamy, monogamous or emotionally-exclusive relationship with someone else. The affair can be solely sexual, solely physical or ...

when he repeatedly comes home with clothes cleaner than when he left. Phyllis threatens to "rip Sue Ann's face off" and Mary is forced to mediate between the two to end the affair. Eventually, Sue Ann and Mary become friendly but Sue Ann remains prickly, frequently insulting Mary's clothes, décor, sex life, etc. and often using variations of "dear, sweet, naïve Mary" to refer to her. Along with Georgette Franklin ( Georgia Engel), girlfriend and eventual wife of Ted Baxter ( Ted Knight), Sue Ann helps fill the void left by the departure of both Phyllis ( Cloris Leachman) and Mary's best friend, Rhoda Morgenstern ( Valerie Harper), for their own spin-off series. Nonetheless, Sue Ann's relationship with Mary can be competitive since Mary, who's younger and more attractive, easily draws male attention.

Other characters

* Sue Ann often spars with newswriter

Murray Slaughter The following is a list of featured characters on ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''. Main characters Mary Richards Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) is a single native Minnesotan who moves to Minneapolis in 1970 at age 30 and becomes associate produce ...

( Gavin MacLeod), making cutting remarks about his baldness in response to Murray's quips about her age and promiscuity. * She is "very close" to WJM children's television host Chuckles the Clown, having baked the first custard pie he ever sat in. * The man she most wants to bed is Lou Grant ( Ed Asner) After repeated rejections, she finally succeeds in the sixth-season episode "Once I Had A Secret Love"; Lou goes to great lengths to prevent the rest of the WJM staff from finding out. * Younger sister Lila ( Pat Priest) evokes intense feelings of sibling rivalry in Sue Ann. She causes Sue Ann a lot of grief, especially in episode three of season seven ("Sue Ann's Sister") when she accepts an offer to host a rival Minneapolis

cooking show A cooking show, cookery show, or cooking program (also spelled cooking programme in British English) is a television genre that presents food preparation, often in a restaurant kitchen or on a Television studio, studio set, or at the host's p ...

. In the series' final season, Sue Ann's ''Happy Homemaker'' show is canceled because of low ratings. Still under contract to WJM, she'll only continue to get paid if she works at the station. After being assigned a series of menial positions (recording station break announcements; appearing as a foil for a contentious pair of kids' show puppets), Lou coerces Mary into hiring Sue Ann as a

production assistant A production assistant, also known as a PA, is a member of the film crew and is a job title used in filmmaking and television for a person responsible for various aspects of a production. The job of a PA can vary greatly depending on the budget ...

on the ''Six O'Clock News''. In ''Mary Tyler Moore'''s final episode, Sue Ann is fired, along with almost everyone in the WJM newsroom. She immediately bounces back, however, finding work as a traveling companion and "sort of a practical nurse" to a wealthy, elderly gentleman.

Impact and legacy

Reflecting on the role, White said, "Of course, I loved Sue Ann. She was so rotten. You can’t get much more rotten than the neighborhood nymphomaniac." The role earned White two

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

s as Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (1975 and 1976), with a further nomination following in the show's final season, 1977. Asked about her favorites among her many awards to date, she cites the honors received for ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''. White gives a great deal of credit for the role's success to the scripts, speaking of being "blessed with the kind of writing on ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and he later series''

The Golden Girls ''The Golden Girls'' is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris that aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning seven seasons. The show's ensemble cast stars Beatrice Arthur, Betty ...

''". On ''The Golden Girls'', debuting eight years later, White was cast as man-hungry Blanche Devereaux, with Rue McClanahan, the befuddled Vivian Harmon on '' Maude,'' cast as naïve Rose Nylund. The two actresses realized how similar their new roles were to their previous ones and, at the suggestion of veteran comedy director Jay Sandrich, approached the producers about switching roles. (White quotes Sandrich as saying, "If Betty plays another man-hungry neighborhood you-know-what, they're going to equate it with Sue Ann and think it's just a continuation of that.") The producers agreed, and the show went on to great success. White stated in January 2017 that she greatly enjoyed playing the character of Rose, as opposed to Blanche.Betty White on her 95th birthday
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