Several weeks ago, I had the great good fortune of going to Carol Burnett: An Evening of Laughter and Reflection. A signature part of The Carol Burnett Show (1967-1978) was when she would have the stage people “bump up the lights” and she would warm up the crowd before each taping. This stage show was 90 minutes of that kind of thing.
The stage show began with clips from past sessions, projected on a big screen above the stage. The first clip showed an audience member asking Carol for the way to the ladies’ room. So Carol earnestly invited her up and directed her to the ladies’ room backstage. (When she returned, Carol led the audience in the chant “We know where you’ve been – ! We know where you’ve been – !”)
Then, from house left (stage right), Carol herself came onstage into a spotlight – of course, to the melodious strains of “Carol’s Theme (I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together).”
(I'm going to call her "Carol" throughout this retelling. Journalistic remove would require "Ms. Burnett," but that seems too stuffy, and she is very much as much of an old friend one can have through the airwaves.)
The first thing Carol did was a tribute to dear, departed friends Tim Conway, whom we lost just last May, and Harvey Korman, gone since 2008. She told us that Tim made it his mission to “destroy” Harvey. As proof, she showed a bit of that classic sketch “The Dentist.” Not much, maybe 30 seconds – the bit of business with the hypodermic needle full of novocaine – but that was enough to have the whole house in hysterics.
Consider -- we all were watching it at the remove of time and distance, but poor Harvey was sitting right next to Tim during all this tomfoolery. “Tim said he thought Harvey wet his pants,” Carol told us.
She also told of another Tim moment where he destroyed everyone else that had to wind up on the cutting room floor. They were doing a “Mama’s Family” sketch in which the family was playing Charades, and when it was Tim’s turn, he said “elephant.” Tim proceeded to spin a shaggy dog story that had all of them breaking up, that it was actually Siamese twin elephants conjoined at the trunk, and the one elephant got a cold and sneezed and blew the other elephant’s brains out.
Vicki, as Mama, gave the capper, which landed the bit on the outtake reel. (Find it here on YouTube: "Carol Burnett Show Outtakes -- Tim Conway's Elephant Story")
***
From there, Carol began to take questions. Ushers were stationed around the hall with microphones and flashlights; when she noticed a light, Carol would invite an audience member to speak up and make their query.
She’s been doing this a long time, so there are some questions that must come up over and over, but she didn’t seem to mind telling those stories again and again.
Replies
Carol Burnett was part of my routine as a kid when I got old enough to distinguish good TV from the rest of it. It's been a long time, but I seem to remember shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show as contemporaries, all on Thursday night. That was some great television, but I guess everyone says that about the first good TV they experienced.
But I do think The Carol Burnett Show was exceptionally good, even with that decidedly biased viewpoint. Before it arrived I was already familiar with Tim Conway from McHale's Navy reruns, and her sketches and skits and songs were always so well wirtten and, of course, hilariously performed (I got the impression there was a lot of ad-libbing, and it seemed Conway's mission was to crack Corman up and take him out of character). Often they were enlightening as well as entertaining, teaching me about etnertainment tropes and long-standing routines and characters and movies I otherwise knew nothing about.
For example, The Carol Burnett Show was -- as I've mentioned on this site before -- the first time I saw Captain Marvel. It was a skit about superheroes, and I knew all of them -- except for that guy in the Pirates of Penzance cape. (I had just learned about Pirates of Penzance in music appreciation class. I bet they don't do music appreciation class any more.) I asked all of the adults I knew, and none of them knew who he was. Who was this model of a modern major-general? It became a quest, and I learned as much as I could about him before he finally appeared in (then) contemporary comics, first as an homage/pastiche in Roy Thomas' Captain Marvel, and then his own book at DC in 1972.
Thank you, Carol Burnett!
"Tim Conway's Elephant Story"
I remember watching that first run, and I remember watching it more recently. I didn't thin it was all that funny when I was a kid, but I'm here to tell you now... I just didn't get it! when I saw it on DVD just a couple of years ago and realized he was ad libbing, it cracked me up. I just watched the clip again, and believe me, there are tears in my eyes right now.
For quite a while, Saturday nights were just as good TV wise as any other night of the week, with the three main networks of the day (ABC, CBS, and NBC) seriously competing against each other for viewers and ratings.
NOW...
IMHO: Between reruns, sporting events, and whatever else they can throw on to kill a couple of hours before the late news...
Captain Comics said:
Actually, those were all on Saturday night*, back when network TV could draw an audience on that day. Part of the draw, of course, was that these were all top-flight shows.
* My handy-dandy copy of The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present (Ninth Edition) tells me The Carol Burnett Show was on Monday nights from 1967-1971, Wednesdays for a single season in 1971-72, and Saturdays for the remainder of its run, 1972-77. The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77) and The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78) aired only on Saturdays, although the time slot for each varied over the years.
Lee Houston, Junior said:
Well, as Carol noted above, times are different now. Saturday is now the lowest-rated night of the week, so the networks don't put anything there they have confidence in or want to succeed. It's a self-fulfilling situation, but The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show and The Carol Burnett Show didn't have to compete in a 500-channel universe and with the likes of Amazon Prime and other streaming services.
Redirecting from "What Are You Watching Right Now?":
Jeff of Earth-J said:
ClarkKent_DC said:
The answer to that question? CBS passed, Carol tells Vulture, in "Carol Burnett Has a Story for Everything"':
Carol Burnett said:
TV Tattle has a roundup of links to articles about the special:
NBC's Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love is an old-school special for an old-school talent
Wednesday's two-hour special commemorating Carol Burnett's 90th birthday is "a throwback to the kind of old-school specials that rarely air on television anymore," says Nina Metz. "But it’s fitting. Carol Burnett is old-school herself. She’s also one of the executive producers here and her influence on the show’s pacing is evident. In the 11 years that she made The Carol Burnett Show from 1967 to 1978, Burnett kept things moving...Burnett isn’t on stage this time out, she’s in the audience, but the same philosophy has carried over. Even with careful editing, these kinds of things can sag. She didn’t want that to happen...Her showbiz instincts have always been razor sharp and they remain so even at age 90."
ALSO:
The formulaic and old-fashioned feel is appropriate: "Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter & Love commemorates Burnett’s life and career with a series of talking head interviews with Carol, pre-recorded clips from celebrities, archival footage, and live(ish) performances," says Clare Martin. "The special was filmed at the Avalon Hollywood, and the general aesthetic—gilded stage, stars sitting at little tables, bland graphics—gives it an early noughties Golden Globes type of vibe, but less drunken. The formulaic and old-fashioned feel is appropriate, though, harkening back to a time when everyone flicked on their television and were united by whatever program happened to be showing that night. And in many cases, it was The Carol Burnett Show, which ran for over a decade (1967 to 1978)."
The Carol Burnett Show made Burnett family to more than one generation of television viewers, all the more as it was a show families watched together: "That Burnett means something to her fans on a personal level has something to do with her talent, of course, but it also has much to do with our perception of her as a good-hearted human — a feeling regularly expressed in the Q&A session that began each episode of The Carol Burnett Show," says Robert Lloyd. "The facts of her life are widely known. She’s written four memoirs; co-wrote a semi-autobiographical play, Hollywood Arms, with her late daughter, actor Carrie Hamilton; sat for many, many interviews, including a recent spate of 90th-birthday talk show visits; and been the subject of an American Masters documentary, an episode of Finding Your Roots and a Little Golden Book. It’s common knowledge that tugging her ear lobe began as a message to her grandmother. We know Carol on a first-name basis. Eleven seasons of The Carol Burnett Show, from 1967 to 1978, made Burnett family to more than one generation of television viewers, all the more as it was a show families watched together. It might be bawdy, but it was never blue; and though it could be cutting, even a little upsetting, as in the 'Family' sketches in which the star played the much-abused Eunice, the show’s default mode was a genial, generous silliness. It had no interest in the news; its favorite targets — or subjects, rather, as the satire was affectionate — were the iconic Hollywood films Burnett grew up on. When television is finally laid to rest, we will still remember her sweeping down a staircase, in a dress made from drapes — and their rod — in a takeoff on Gone With the Wind.”
Check out Carol Burnett's TV Guide covers
Her 90th birthday special this week was great.
IMDB tells me that Carol appeared in 133 episodes of the Garry Moore Show between 1961 and 1964. I used to watch it with my parents and remember her in it.
Before starting her own show in 1970 her career had already taken off with movies (theatrical and TV), Broadway shows and numerous TV series appearances. She was even the star of one episode of the original Twilight Zone (season 3, episode 36).
I saw and appreciated her dramatic work in the movie Friendly Fire (1979) and her recent four-episode arc in Better Call Saul.
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter & Love
What a heartfelt and sincere tribute! What a joy it was seeing all those celebrities, young and old alike, paying tribute to the woman who inspired them all. I can't think of anyone living who deserves it more. I had tears (of joy) in my eyes the whole way through. So many clips (some familiar, some new to me)!
Carol Burnett was on "Late Night with Stephen Colbert" on Tuesday night.
Hope you caught it!
(If not, it's on YouTube.)
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next