Whether Carol Burnette was "bumping up the lights"; acting out a sketch with Harvey Korman, Tim Conway or Vickie Lawrence; or belting out a Tarzan yell; you just knew that you knew that you knew you were going to laugh hard for the next hour!
Carol Burnett was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1933 to alcoholic parents. She and her younger sister, Chrissy, moved to a Hollywood boarding house with their grandmother to escape a volatile home life.
Blessed with a talent for the imaginary, Burnett graduated from Hollywood High School and then attended UCLA, working her way through bit parts on television. Her aspirations to act were discouraged by her mother, who thought she could write. Carol’s mother died before seeing her debut.
In the 1950s, Burnett was noticed for a comic novelty song and appeared on the Paul Winchell Show in 1955. She also appeared in a short-lived sitcom with Buddy Hackett and as a regular on the game show, Pantomime Quiz. Burnett married Don Saroyan in 1955, but the marriage only lasted seven years and produced no children.
Carol’s first success came in 1959 when she appeared on Broadway in the musical “Once Upon a Mattress.” She also became a regular on The Garry Moore Show that same year and continued until 1962. She won an Emmy in 1962 for her performance on the show for portraying a number of characters, including the cleaning woman that would become her alter-ego. This led to her performing as a headliner with Julie Andrews at Carnegie Hall.
In 1963, Carol wed Joe Hamilton, a TV producer and divorced father of eight. Carol and Joe had three daughters together before divorcing in 1984.
Comedienne Lucille Ball took an interest in Burnett and had her as a guest on The Lucy show several times before offering her a sitcom produced by Desilu. Burnett declined, deciding on a variety show instead. So, in 1967 the Carol Burnett Show debuted and was a huge success.
The Carol Burnett Show included cast members Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, Lyle Waggoner and Vicki Lawrence. It ran for 11 years, garnered 22 Emmy Awards and numerous additional Emmy nominations every year of its run. The sketches were comical and memorable, including spoofs of Went with the Wind and As the Stomach Turns. One, Mama’s Family, was eventually spun off as a series for Lawrence.
The variety show kicked off many Carol Burnett trademarks, including her famous Tarzan yell, performed during many shows, and the closing of the show with an ear tug – a message to her grandmother that she was doing fine. Her grandmother died during the show’s run.
Carol starred in other works while doing the variety show, including Pete ‘n’ Tillie in 1972. She also appeared in Friendly Fire, Life of the Party: The Story of Beatrice, The Four Seasons, Annie, and Noises Off.
Burnett also kept her contact with theatre appearing in I Do, I Do! with Rock Hudson and in Stephen Sondheim’s Follies. She also continued her television work, by guest starring in Mama’s Family and Mad About You. She has most recently appeared in Desperate Housewives.
In 2001, Burnett married Brian Miller, a drummer in the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra who is twenty-five years her junior. In 2002, she lost her daughter Carrie to lung and brain cancer at the age of 38. Burnett and Carrie had collaborated on the playHollywood Arms, based on Burnett’s memoir, One More Time. Mother and Daughter also played mother and daughter in an episode of Touched By An Angel.
In 1998, Burnett served as Grand Marshall of the Rose Parade; was a recipient of the 2003 Kennedy Center Honors; received the Medal of Freedom from President Bush in 2005 and was the subject of an American Masters profile in 2007.
~ Carol Burnetts
Carol Burnette Quotes
This has been one of the best times of my life,
to meet you and spend time
in the town my grandmother told me so much about.
People invite me to dinner not because I cook,
but because I like to clean up.
I get immediate gratification from Windex. Yes, I do windows.
It will be fun. I just think it's so campy.
But I didn't ask to have somebody nose around in my private life.
I didn't even ask to be famous.
All I asked was to be able to earn a living making people laugh.
Comedy is tragedy plus time.
When someone who is known for being comedic does something straight,
it's always "a big breakthrough" or a "radical departure."
Why is it no one ever says that if a straight actor does comedy?
Are they presuming comedy is easier?
Celebrity was a long time in coming; it will go away.
Everything goes away.
I wish my mother had left me something about how she felt growing up.
I wish my grandmother had done the same.
I wanted my girls to know me.
Giving birth is like taking your lower lip
and forcing it over your head.
It's also selfish because it makes you feel good
when you help others.
I've been helped by acts of kindness from strangers.
That's why we're here, after all, to help others.
Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me
My grandmother and I saw an average of eight movies a week,
double features, second run.
Well, I don't know how astute I am,
but I did want to be a journalist when I was growing up.
We don't stop going to school when we graduate.
Adolescence is just one big walking pimple.
When you have a dream,
you've got to grab it and never let go.
Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own.
Because nobody goes through life without a scar.
You have to go through the falling down in order to learn to walk.
It helps to know that you can survive it.
That's an education in itself
I have always grown from my problems and challenges,
from the things that don't work out,
that's when I've really learned.
I think we're here for each other.
I don't have false teeth. Do you think I'd buy teeth like these?
The funniest scene in comedy - Carol playing Scarlett O'Hara
in a DRAPED dress designed by Bob Mackie
We used to hoot out loud
when Carol would play the silent movie star
with her eyes WIDE open
There was a little bit of all of us in the washer woman
who would dream ...
As a kid I was short and only weighed 95 pounds.
And though I was active in a lot of Sports
and got along with most of the guys,
I think I used comedy as a defense mechanism.
You know making someone laugh is a much better way
to solve a problem than by using your fists.
Carol [Burnett] is a wonderful, giving person;
she had a personal interest in everyone around the show,
including the stagehands and the ushers.
And then we didn't do a lot of rehearsal,
so the material stayed fresh.
It was really a lot like doing a live show.
Both Harvey [Korman] and I like to keep in touch
with Carol [Burnett].
We try to see her at least once a month,
because she's got a drive-Up ATM window at her house.
And we like to go and pick up some cash.
Don Knotts was a really big influence,
especially on the Steve Allen Show.
I mean, look at the guy, his entire life is in his face.
I don't watch a lot of TV anymore.
A lot of it isn't the kind of thing you can feel comfortable
with watching with your kids.
And I still feel that way even though,
now, my kids are in their 30s.
I like to work a lot with wood. I make furniture that falls apart.
I also sew.
I love doing my own material.
I've never really taken anything very seriously.
I enjoy life because I enjoy making other people enjoy it.
Harvey Korman Quotes
Funny is when you're serious.
I got canceled in the middle of making the pilot.
you know,
and I don't have that.
I'm a banana.
So I've got a reputation for being the straight man,
and I've worked with the best.
Although in Abbott and Costello, and straight man was first.
That's a very interesting concept.
and considers himself a straight man and
describes himself as one, Cary Grant.
Don't - those writers used to love us.
They would write these little plays,
and we would take care of the comedy.
It really seldom was joke jokes.
FROM THE CAROL BURNETTE SHOW ...
Carol Burnett can do it all. She sings and dances, she does comedy and drama. She endures.
The long running Carol Burnett show had some standard bits. Carol and the guest star would come out first and answer audience questions.
Then there would be the marvelous sketches. Who can forget Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman sitting on the porch in their rocking chairs wondering what went wrong in life. Or Carol and Harvey bickering with and about their daughter played by Carol Lawrence.
They made fun of TV and movies. My favorite sketch was the "Gone With the Wind" spoof where Carol comes downstairs with a drapery rod across her shoulders and drapes hanging from them. Another popular one was "As the Stomach Turns," a parody of a soap opera.
Carol Burnett is perhaps best remembered however, ending the show by tugging on her ear.
Carol Bradford:
When we were first married you wanted my meatloaf five nights a week.
Roger Bradford:
When we were first married there were a lot of things I wanted five nights a week.
as Thelma "Mama" Harper: [Vicki improvises a line that was not scripted]
You ain't right in the head, Eunice. I think somebody blew your pilot light out!
as Eunice Harper: [Carol is caught off guard and quickly turns away trying to compose herself and not fall out of character]
That's a *new* one, Mama!
as Thelma "Mama" Harper: [without missing a beat]
Well, you just wait, there's more!
as Eunice Harper: [clasping her hands over her face to hide her laughter]
Oh, no!
as Thelma "Mama" Harper:
You've got splinters in the windmills of your mind!
Ed: [playing the game sorry and Eunice is losing]
Slliiiiiide!
Eunice: Oh, will you shut up!
Housekeeper: [After the Cunningham's have entered a scary castle]
Go away. For three hundred years, no strange person has been inside this castle.
Mrs. Cunningham: You wanna bet?
Hallaba: You're going to be bitten by a verevolf.
Mrs. Cunningham: A verevolf?
[Screams]
Hallaba: Yes. Bevare the volfman will bite you tonight. Oy, are you gonna get it.
Mrs. Cunningham: Oh, no! Is a verevolf bite painful?
Hallaba: It's about the same as the bite from a wampire.
Reginald: [To Gwendolyn]
Now listen to me, you little fool. As far as everyone is concerned, father's death was purely...
Ms. Marble: [Ms. Marble in the background] Murder!
Reginald: [Nervous] Murder? Murder, you say?
Ms. Marble: [Comes into the living room]
Murder, murder, murder. Bloody, bloody murder.
Gwendolyn: You mean to say our father was murdered?
Ms. Marble: No, I mean to say my girdle is killing me.
Reginald: Ms. Marble, I really must insist you stop snooping around. I simply will not tolerate a busybody.
Ms. Marble: Busybody? Busybody, you say? My body hasn't been busy in over 40 years.
Audience Member: How old are you now?
Vicki Lawrence: I dunno!
Harvey Korman: I’m 77, and I can still go to the bathroom by myself!
Tim Conway: The amazing thing is, he’s doing it right now!
Mama's Family was a spin off starring Carol Burnett as Eunice and Vickie Lawrence as Mama
Naomi: And just what is wrong with the way I dress?
Mama: Well, good Lord! If that blouse was any lower, it would be a skirt!
Mama: I'd be uncomfortable, too, if I were dressed in that get-up.
Naomi: Just what is wrong with my attire? I've always found this outfit very suitable for religious occasions.
Mama: That's 'cause you got to pray to God it stays up!
Naomi: Wait a minute now, I've told you repeatedly that this check stand is ten items or less.
Mama: Well, I know that, but look--I got bread, milk, fruit, meat and vegetables. That's five items.
Naomi: I know, but you got six kinds of vegetables here, and each one counts as an item.
Mama: Well I've also got a loaf of bread--you gonna count every slice?
Naomi: The point is, this is the express lane.
Mama: Well quit expressing yourself and start checking!
I really tried very hard to find scripts or snips of some of those wonderful skits ... I wish I could have found one of Mrs. Hwiggens ... or just one of Tim Conway cracking Harvey Korman up ... or the other way around.
Update: I did find two YouTube Videos ... They are in the comment section. I especially like the one with Tim Conway as the dentist. I'm still looking for Mrs. Hwiggins!
If you ever have a chance to watch an old video or catch a late night rerun or even a commemorative, stop what you're doing and take the time. You'll be so glad you had the time together ...
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