Betty White's Second Sitcom Was Canceled Thanks To A Meddling Sponsor

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Art and capitalism collide on television all of the time, but when the car company sponsoring iconic comedian Betty White's second-ever sitcom had some notes, the series did not survive the crash.

"Date With the Angels," which premiered on ABC on May 10, 1957, was supposed to be a domestic comedy with fantasy elements. The follow-up to White's breakthrough syndicated sitcom, "Life with Elizabeth," the new series was loosely inspired by the 1940s play, "Dream Girl," which featured a daydreaming protagonist. However, Plymouth, the Chrysler car line that was footing the bill for the show, didn't approve.

"Making the sweeping generalization that "fantasy never works with an audience' they gradually leaned on us to phase out the imagination segments in favor of at-home situations," White said, according to WFMU's old blog TV Graphic. "Without our dream sequences, our show flattened out and became just one more run-of-the-mill domestic comedy."

White, whose television career spanned nearly 70 years, considered the dream-free version of the series a unique low. "I think I can honestly say that was the only time I have ever wanted to get out of a show," White said. Getting out wouldn't be so easy, however.

"Date With the Angels" ran for two seasons on ABC, with the 33rd and final episode airing on Jan 29, 1958. Despite how the daydreaming aspects of the show could be seen as a feminist critique of '50s society (or perhaps because of this,) reviews for the series were not especially great, nor were ratings. Nixing the dream sequences after a couple episodes and turning it into a much more generic show certainly didn't help, though.

However, Plymouth and ABC still had Betty White under contract. To live up to her obligations, White switched from the recorded sitcom to a live variety show format. She had some experience in this field, as 1958's "The Betty White Show" was the second series to bear that name after her daytime talk show, which ran from 1952 to 1954. (A third "Betty White Show" would air on CBS in the late '70s.)

At least one review said "The Betty White Show" was much better than "Date With the Angels," though other critics still found it "dull." "Objectively, I have to admit 'Date With the Angels' was a valuable learning experience," White wrote in her book "Here We Go Again: My Life In Television."