Carol Burnett turned 90 years old on Wednesday and if it were left up to me, she’d live at least 90 more. People say she’s a national treasure. I say, she’s more than that. She’s been a part of the fabric of our lives for over six decades. Whereas Once Upon a Mattress (her smash Broadway show) and The Garry Moore Show (where she became a television star and household name) were before my time, I got to see her seminal The Carol Burnett Show and it was groundbreaking. During its 11-year run from 1967-1978, The Carol Burnett Show was nominated for an astounding 70 primetime Emmy Awards and took home 25. It also capped off one of the most legendary nights of television in the history of broadcasting, the Saturday night CBS lineup. It’s also a beloved part of my childhood.
Every Saturday evening, my whole family would sit in front of our RCA color television floor model and watch M*A*S*H, All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show and Ms. Burnett. We kids were sent off to bed after Mary Tyler Moore. If my sisters fell asleep during Bob Newhart and I stayed awake, I would quietly slip out of our room and into my mother’s where we’d curl up on the bed and watch Carol Burnett together. It became “our special thing.”
There are so many things I vividly remember about that program today; Jim Nabors as Carol’s “good luck charm” guesting every season premiere, her Tarzan yell, the Q&A session with the audience at the beginning of every show, the Bob Mackie-designed dresses and costumes, the “Eunice” sketches, the Went with the Wind sketch with Carol wearing a dress with a curtain rod holding up the shoulders, Tim Conway as the senile old man, Tim Conway in the dentist sketch where he kept accidentally jabbing himself with Novocaine, Harvey Korman dissolving into laughter at Conway’s antics and trying to keep it together enough to finish the sketch.
Incidentally, I remember people questioning at the time whether Conway really did break Korman up like that or if it was a put-on. About fifteen years ago, I had the honor of being on the bill of a fundraiser for the San Francisco State University sports program with Conway and Korman. We did two shows together over two days. I got to spend a weekend with them. Trust me when I say that everything Tim Conway did killed Harvey Korman. I literally saw Conway make Korman laugh so hard that the water he was drinking passed through his nose.
I also found out that weekend that the Vicki Lawrence legend is true. She really did send Carol a photo of herself when she was in high school along with a letter saying that people always told her that she looked like she could be Carol’s little sister. She was appearing in a high school play and Carol surprised this 18-year-old girl she’d never met by coming to see it. She thought that Vicki was talented and that there was a “family resemblance” and she hired her for her show. The rest, as they say, is history.
As I said, The Carol Burnett Show was special time for me and my mom. She always promised me that someday, she’d take me to Hollywood, and we’d sit in her audience. Unfortunately, the show went off the air in the spring of 1978 and my mother died about 9 months after that. Since I’ve been in show business, it’s been sort of a quest of mine to meet Carol Burnett to tell her about my mother and how much her show meant to us. I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve met, interviewed, or worked with a number of people I grew up with, from Smokey Robinson, Lou Rawls, Ray Charles and James Brown to Adam West and Henry Winkler. I’m currently working on a project with Rob Reiner. There are a handful of my idols who died before I had the opportunity to make their acquaintances, like Jack Benny, George Burns, Bob Hope and Lucille Ball. I’ve resolved to get to Ms. Burnett, and I’ve tried a few times without success. I’ll meet her someday and tell her all about those Saturday nights we laughed watching her antics while my sisters were asleep. How much joy she brought to us and the rest of the world.
Until then, Happy Birthday, Carol.