Life with Elizabeth

Life with Elizabeth is an American television sitcom starring Betty White as Elizabeth and Del Moore as her husband Alvin; Jack Narz is the on-camera announcer and narrator. The series aired in syndication from October 7, 1953, to September 1, 1955. The show was the first of many sitcoms for Betty White across the decades and was based on sketches involving the Elizabeth character that she had performed on her earlier talk show Hollywood on Television. The low-budget comedy was produced by and filmed at Los Angeles TV station KLAC-TV (now KCOP-TV) where White and Moore were on the staff (the series was originally a live production on KLAC-TV in 1951). White received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her work on this series. Premise Elizabeth and Alvin are an ordinary suburban couple, but inevitably get into predicaments. In the end, Alvin, in variable degrees of frustration, would say, "I shall leave you at this point, Elizabeth" and would walk out of sight. The announcer would say, "Elizabeth, aren't you ashamed?" She would slowly nod, but then, with a slightly devilish grin, would vigorously shake her head to indicate she was not. The series was divided into three eight- to ten-minute comic shorts — referred to as "incidents". Sometimes an entire incident might just consist of the two main characters talking to each other. The minimal theme music was played by a solo harpist who was partially visible on the opening title screen.