The Carol Burnett Show

Ask any of the older generation who Carol Burnett is and you should see a smile on their face. The series was originally aired in the late 60’s and early 70’s but you can catch syndicated reruns on some channels or buy one of the various DVDS compilations.

The Carol Burnett show created many spin-offs the most famous of which was Mama’s Family with Vicki Lawrence as the star. It was nominated for several Emmy awards for every season it ran eventually winning 23. The show had a variety event format with songs, dance and comedy sketches.

Ms Burnett is a fantastic comedian with a gift for sending up other famous actresses and making parodies of films. The daughter of two alcoholics, she was raised by her grandmother and developed a knack of entertaining from an early age. She appeared on stage as well as film in addition to the Carol Burnett show.

Before having her own show, she was a regular on “Who Loves Lucy” and Lucille Ball continued to be a friend and mentor until Ball’s death in 1989. Entertainment gossip is that Ball offered Burnett the chance of doing her own show but Carol wanted to do a variety act. At the time television producers didn’t believe that women could do variety shows but Carol insisted on a clause in her contract which allowed her to choose the format of one show. The show went down a hit with the audience and the rest is TV history.

One of her most famous scenes was a parody of Gone with the Wind called Went with the Wind. In one episode, Burnett recreated the scene where Scarlett makes a dress out of her mother’s curtains much to Mammy’s disgust, only she used the curtain rod as well. She also used Sunset Boulevard and a long running kitchen commercial as the basis for some of her sketches.

Only Burnett and Vikki Lawrence remained with the show for the entire series. Other famous faces came and went including Dick van Dwyke, Lyle Waggoner (Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman), Tim Conway and Harvey Korman.

Ms Burnett is a great actor but had a real knack for keeping it real. She would regularly start her show with questions from the audience. The lights would go on and random members of her audience would be invited to ask a question. She always answered even if they were a little personal!

Her trademark finish to the show was to tug her ear to let her adored grandmother know that she was feeling fine and doing well. The cast rehearsed every day for up to four hours and it was taped on Fridays. Although recorded, the actors only got two chances so shows sometimes went on air with messed up lines. This only increased the popularity of both the show and Ms Burnett.

Carol still appears on TV but in guest roles rather than her own series. One of her recent appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit earned her an Emmy nomination.