Sue Ann Nivens

Sue Ann Nivens was a fictional character on the long-running situation comedy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She was played by television perennial Betty White.

The role of Sue Ann Nivens was not specifically written for White, but script #73 of the series ("The Lars Affair", originally aired September 15, 1973) called for an "icky sweet Betty White type". The show's casting director decided to approach the star herself, who with her husband Allen Ludden was already good friends with Mary Tyler Moore and her then husband, the show's producer Grant Tinker. (In a 2011 Archive of American Television interview, Moore explained that producers, aware of Moore and White's friendship, were initially hesitant to audition White for the role, the fear being that if she hadn't been right, that it would create awkwardness between the two.) In playing Sue Ann, the actress played up this image as a contrasting cover for a backbiting, sexually voracious nature. This first appearance was in the sitcom's fourth season.

Sue Ann Nivens was the relentlessly perky star of The Happy Homemaker on Mary Richards' fictional WJM-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her program delivered advice to housewives on cooking and decorating. She chose unusual and sometimes ludicrous themes for some episodes, such as "What's all this fuss about famine?" and "A salute to fruit". Nivens was a perfectionist; she once confessed she would rather flush her Veal Prince Orloff down a toilet than serve it reheated. She was also full of helpful hints for all occasions and always ready to make lemons into lemonade; she once suggested buying colorful, happy goldfish as companions for the infirm and then, when the goldfish died, using them as fertilizer for houseplants.

Although Sue Ann presented an image of a sweet, perfect wife and homemaker on-screen, she was actually sardonic, man-obsessed, and very competitive, with a tumultuous home life off-screen. Always with her trademark dimpled smile, she was cruel and snide toward people she did not like or considered a threat.

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