MovieChat Forums > Life with Elizabeth Discussion > Show on Australian TV

Show on Australian TV

posted 17 years ago by billweeden
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I can just remember this series when shown on Australian tv when it started here in 1956 (yes even then we were getting old US programs). Funny though I didn't remember that Betty White was Elizabeth... but what can you expect as I was only 9 years old at the time).. Also, for some reason, I thought Jim Backus was in the show... Maybe I am thinking of another sitcom.... can anyone remember an episode about wall-papering a room and the skit ending with Betty and another having a race as to whose roll of wallpaper would roll up quickest? Funny how things stick in your mind yet get a bit fuddled as the years progress.. I do however remember the one scene Betty White had in that great political drama movie "Advise and Consent".

[–] antpaste 17 years ago

I remember the episode well. As a matter of fact it is on the DVD I just purchased, "LIfe With Elizabeth, Part 2," which contains some of the funniest episodes of this great series.

I don't remember Betty White doing a series with Jim Backus. In "Life With Elizabeth" her husband Alvin was played by Del Moore. What I liked about Moore's portrayal was that he was not one of those goofy, stupid husbands (like Stu Irwin) who showed up in all those 50's sitcoms. Alvin was intelligent, gentlemanly, and could match Elizabeth verbal joke for verbal joke.

Incidentally, it was Del Moore who played the befuddled Dr. Warfield in the original Jerry Lewis version of "The Nutty Professor" (1963.)

[–] mjkbk 17 years ago

Also, for some reason, I thought Jim Backus was in the show... Maybe I am thinking of another sitcom....

Maybe you're thinking of I Married Joan, the Joan Davis vehicle from the early 50s?

I remember both Elizabeth and Joan from their mid-50s repeats. Feelin' old here.

[–] antpaste 17 years ago

Yes, Jim Backus was on the old "I Married Joan" series. It was a funny show, but relied too much on slapstick schtick. It was good slapstick, but I still prefer the more subtle humor of "Life With Elizabeth."

And by the way, sir or madam, you are not the only one feeling old. I am 61 and getting older by the second!

[–] sweiland75 15 years ago

I just saw a short clip of one episode where Betty and her husband were talking about gardening and I couldn't help but think that, nowadays, if he talked to his wife that way, she would have belted him with the shovel!

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[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Thor-Delta 10 years ago

Indeed...this was shown on ABV-2 in Melbourne, and ABN-2 in Sydney.

For example, one episode, shown in Melbourne on 10 February 1957, competed in the time-slot against British series "Robin Hood" on HSV-7 and locally-produced variety series "The Jack Perry Show" on GTV-9.

In Sydney, the episode shown on 10 February 1957 aired oddly enough at 7:55PM. At 8:00 on TCN-9 was a locally-produced adaptation of game show "What's My Line", and on ATN-7 was an imported feature film ("Into the Blue").

These are just two examples of what the series competed against in the time-slot during early 1957.

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