‘Saturday Night Live’ paid a special tribute to legendary star Betty White, who passed away on December 31, just weeks before she was due to celebrate her 100th birthday on January 17th.
Remembering the star, who won an Emmy award for best guest actress in a comedy series for her work on the show, the NBC sketch show announced that they will re-air a 2010 episode she hosted with musical guest Jay-Z.
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NBC SNL’s Twitter account announced by tweeting, ” Rest in Peace, Betty White. Watch Betty’s episode of SNL tonight on NBC.”
That marked White’s first and only time hosting SNL, and the Golden Girls actress became the oldest person to host the late-night comedy show at 88 when she hosted it in 2010. Alhough she did return for an appearance in the show’s 40th anniversary special in the year 2015.
The episode originally aired on May 8, 2010.
According to executive producer Lorne Michaels, he’d asked White three times for hosting, but every time, she turned him down. She finally said yes following a Facebook campaign that went viral, asking her to host the show.
“After three rejections, I stopped asking,” Michaels said reportedly. “But it seemed amusing to me as the Facebook thing started.”
During her opening monologue, White said, “When I first heard about the campaign to get me to host Saturday Night Live, I didn’t know what Facebook was.”
The legendary actress enjoyed one of the longest careers in showbiz history, nearly 80 years, starting way back in 1939. White started her entertainment career in radio in the late 1930s and by 1939 had made her TV debut singing on an experimental channel in Los Angeles. After serving in the American Women`s Voluntary Service, which helped the U.S. effort during World War Two, she was a regular on ‘Hollywood on Television,’ a daily five-hour live variety show, in 1949.
