Catching Up With ... Carol Burnett

INTERVIEW FROM 2017

Over fifty years ago, a young Texas-born, Hollywood-reared actress stepped into CBS Television City’s Stage 33, chatted up her live audience, performed silly songs and sidesplitting skits, tugged her left ear and made history. The woman was 34-year-old Carol Burnett, a well-liked stage and TV actress who honed her knack for physical comedy as a regular on The Garry Moore Show

and parlayed it into a variety show of her own. Surrounded by a crack ensemble of laugh-getters — pretty newcomer Vicki Lawrence, comedy veteran Harvey Korman and moviestar handsome Lyle Waggoner, plus frequent guest star Tim Conway — Burnett made The Carol Burnett Show

must-watch, feel-good TV that earned the weekly series 25 Emmy Awards in 11 seasons. Over fifty years later, the show lives on in reruns (titled Carol Burnett and Friends) and DVD box sets, a testament to its timeless good humor and good humor’s timeless appeal.

I still watch the show in reruns because comedy now can feel so mean-spirited. Do you hear that often?

Carol Burnett: Well, somebody asked, “How come it’s lasted so long in all these different incarnations, with Youtube and the DVDS that

Time Life is putting out?” and my answer is “Funny is funny.” I dare anybody to look at the dentist sketch with Harvey and Tim and not double over with laughter, and it’s 45 years old! What happened — and it wasn’t on purpose — is we were never topical. So, what was funny then is holding up now, as opposed to being topical to what’s happening in the world today. … Our goal [was] to make people laugh and forget their troubles for an hour.

How quickly did you know this cast was something special?

Well, I have to say, I never thought we were anything particularly special. [Laughs] I thought we were good, but I guess when I realized we were doing something right was when we got picked up for another season. After the 11th season, they wanted us for a 12th, but I felt that we had just done everything and it was time to move on, so, I pulled the plug on it. I guess it’s because I wanted to go out before CBS flicked the lights on and off and said, “Leave.” [Laughs]

You had your work cut out for you with Mrs. Wiggins, having to hold your own against Tim Conway while doing and saying so little.

Well, with Mrs. Wiggins,

I’ve often said the IQ fairy never visited her. So, Tim was always trying to crack me up with a line that he hadn’t had in rehearsal, and I realized that I can’t laugh as Mrs. Wiggins, because she’s so stupid and people who are that dumb don’t have a sense of humor. So, he would throw these lines out, and sometimes you would see me putting my little finger in my mouth where it looks like I’m biting my fingernail? I was really biting my finger to keep from laughing. He was a devil.

Any other favorite characters?

I loved doing Eunice. She just spoke to me. I loved doing Nora Desmond and all the movie takeoffs because I was raised in the ’40s and early ’50s going to movies with my grandmother. I loved doing Stella Toddler because it was like a cartoon with the physical comedy. I got beat up all the time doing this poor old lady, but I loved doing physical comedy, so I enjoyed doing her.

Fans of the show love the times when you cracked each other up.

Was that part of the fun, knowing you were as susceptible to each other’s talent as we were?

We didn’t break up as often as people think; it’s just that they remember it so much! I averaged out how much we broke up, and it comes to 7 percent of the time. … Usually it was Conway that caused it.

Were the Q&A segments as fun to do as they looked?

Well, I didn’t want any plants in the audience. I didn’t want any planned questions. So, I just said, “If I’ve got egg on my face, that’s what the audience is going to see.” After a while, I just loved doing it. Sometimes we would have people in the audience come up and do stuff on the stage …

… the Bea Arthur lookalike.

I got a letter a few months ago from someone who knew her! She died recently at age 100, and they played that clip at her memorial. People said that that had to be a plant, but it wasn’t. I’d never seen her before in my life. We just happened to know the same song!