The Carol Burnett Show is an American variety/sketch comedy television show that originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 279 episodes, and again with nine episodes in fall 1991. It starred Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner. In 1975, frequent guest star Tim Conway became a regular cast member after Waggoner left the series. In 1977, Dick Van Dyke replaced Korman, but it was agreed that he was not a match and he left after 10 episodes.
The series originated in CBS Television City's Studio 33, and won 25 primetime Emmy Awards. In 2013, TV Guide ranked The Carol Burnett Show number 17 on its list of the 60 Greatest Shows of All Time, and in 2007 it was included on the list of Times 100 Best TV Shows of All Time. In 2023, Variety ranked The Carol Burnett Show #23 on its own list of the 100 greatest TV shows of all time.
After the original run ended, material from 1972 to 1977 (seasons 6–10) was repackaged as a half-hour series known as Carol Burnett and Friends, keeping the sketches but removing the rights protected songs, which has aired in various syndicated outlets more-or-less continuously since the original series ended. Material from the first five seasons did not air, outside of their original run, because of rights clearance issues (different producer) until 2019 when MeTV acquired the rights to these earlier seasons and began airing them. The cast has periodically reunited for various one-off specials and short appearances, and several members of the cast went on to star in Mama's Family (1983–1990), a half-hour situation comedy based on "The Family" sketch series from The Carol Burnett Show.
Background By 1967, Carol Burnett had been a popular veteran of television for over a decade, having made her first appearances in 1955 on The Paul Winchell Show and the sitcom Stanley starring the comedian Buddy Hackett. In 1959, she became a regular supporting cast member on the CBS-TV variety series The Garry Moore Show. Departing the series in the spring of 1962, she pursued other projects in film, Broadway productions, and headlining her own television specials. Burnett signed a contract with CBS for 10 years which required her to do two guest appearances and a special a year. Within the first five years of this contract, she had the option to "push the button", a phrase the programming executives used, and be put on the air in 30 one-hour, pay-or-play variety shows.
After discussion with her husband Joe Hamilton, in the last week of the fifth year of the contract, Burnett decided to call the head of CBS Michael Dann and exercise the clause. Dann, explaining that variety is a "man's genre", offered Burnett a sitcom called Here's Agnes. Burnett had no interest in doing a sitcom, and because of the contract, CBS was obliged to give Burnett her own variety show.
The popular and long-running variety show not only established Burnett as a television superstar, but it also made her regular supporting cast household names. It was nominated for 70 Emmys and won 25 times.
Production Cast
In addition to Carol Burnett, the cast consisted of: Vicki Lawrence (seasons 1–11) Harvey Korman (seasons 1–10) Lyle Waggoner (seasons 1–7) Tim Conway (seasons 9–11; frequent guest performer in seasons 1–8) Dick Van Dyke (first half of season 11) Comedic actor Harvey Korman had done many guest shots in TV sitcoms. From 1963 to 1967, he had been a semi-regular on the CBS variety series The Danny Kaye Show. Burnett already had become an admirer of Korman's talent as a sketch comedian on that series. When Kaye's program ended in the spring of 1967, Burnett insisted that he be signed for her series and Korman immediately joined The Carol Burnett Show as a regular.
Actor Lyle Waggoner had recently auditioned for the title role in the ABC series Batman but was passed over in favor of Adam West. Shortly after, Waggoner auditioned for the Burnett show and was immediately hired. He would often play a handsome man for Burnett to fawn over. His participation on the series was somewhat modeled on Durward Kirby of The Garry Moore Show, as Waggoner was also the show's announcer in addition to playing in sketches.
Vicki Lawrence, a young singer from The Young Americans, wrote a letter to Burnett when she was 17, remarking on their physical resemblance. This led to her audition and getting hired to play Burnett's kid sister in numerous "Carol and Sis" sketches.
Costumes Bob Mackie created all of the costumes, including evening gowns, character outfits and dance clothing for guests during the run of the show, including the iconic curtain dress from the "Went with the Wind!" sketch, which is now housed in the Smithsonian Institution. Burnett credited him with coming up with comedic touches for various characters, such as the tight-legged skirt for Mr. Tudball's secretary, Mrs. Wiggins. She told Mackie the skirt was too baggy in the back for her physique, but he told her to stick her bottom out to fill it, resulting in the character's distinctive posture and walk. In a 2003 interview with Terry Gross, she said Mackie would put rice in the “older woman” undergarments, where typically cotton would’ve been used, to make the saggy breasts have weight and movement as the characters walked or danced, such as when Burnett portrayed Norma Desmond or Charo's mother. Burnett estimated that Mackie had created 17,000 outfits for the show, and said his costume work added more humor to some of the skits Burnett felt were weaker than others.
Guests Jim Nabors was the guest star on every season premiere of the show. Burnett considered Nabors to be her annual good luck charm.
Celebrity guests who appeared on a semi-regular basis included Steve Lawrence (29 appearances), Ken Berry (20 appearances), Eydie Gorme, Nanette Fabray (13 appearances), Bernadette Peters and Mel Torme (10 appearances).
Other notable guests included Olivia De Havilland, Lucille Ball, Charo, Joanne Woodward, Rita Hayworth, Dinah Shore, Rock Hudson, Cher, Martha Raye, Maggie Smith, Don Rickles, George Carlin, Gloria Swanson, Ella Fitzgerald, Joan Rivers, Rita Moreno, Tony Randall, Betty White, Phyllis Diller, Eddie Albert, Carol Channing, Betty Grable, Sid Caesar, Jonathan Winters, Jean Stapleton, Robert Goulet, William Conrad and Liza Minnelli.
Also, several notable character actors were used in the comedy sketches in featured roles, especially in the earlier seasons. Such actors include William Schallert, Isabel Sanford, Vivian Bonnell, Elaine Joyce, Brad Trumbull, and Reta Shaw. Lesser-known actors who appeared include Bob Duggan, Dick Patterson, and Inga Neilsen.
Opening A favorite feature consisted of an unrehearsed question-and-answer segment with the audience in CBS Studio 33 lasting about three to four minutes at the start of most shows. Burnett stated that she borrowed the concept from Garry Moore, who did the same on his variety show, but never taped it."The Florence Henderson Show" RLTV, 2009 Burnett asked for the lights to be turned up ("Let's bump up the lights") and then randomly picked audience members who raised their hands. Burnett often ad-libbed funny answers, but occasionally ended up as the straight woman. For example:
Young woman: "Have you ever taken acting lessons?" Carol: "Yes, I have." Young woman: "Do you think it did any good?"
Rehearsals and ad-libs The show was rehearsed each day until its two Friday tapings. Differently colored cue cards (black, blue, green, and red) were used for each major performer ("Carol Burnett: Bump-Up the Lights"). The second taping was fairly routine until Tim Conway came aboard as a guest star. As a recurring guest star from the show's launch and later a regular cast member, Conway inserted unrehearsed bits into sketches that became known to the staff as "Conway's Capers". Conway would play the first taping straight, but (if the sketch had played well in the first taping, and could be used) would ad-lib bizarre scenarios during the second. Some notable clips included Conway as a Nazi interrogator berating an American captive (Lyle Waggoner). Using a Hitler puppet and a pencil as a "club", Conway sang "I've Been Working on the Railroad" as Waggoner tried in vain to ignore him. Some, like the Hitler puppet, made it into the final broadcast; others, like a notably convoluted story about Siamese elephants joined at the trunk (ad-libbed during a 1977 "Mama's Family" sketch), were edited, the uncensored version only appearing years later on CBS specials. Conway's favorite victim was Harvey Korman, who often broke character reacting to Conway's zaniness, such as when Conway played a dentist misusing Novocaine or the recurring role of "The Oldest Man" – an elderly, shuffling, senile man who slowly rolled down stairs and fell prey to various mechanical mishaps (including an electric wheelchair and an automated dry-cleaning rack).
Ending The show also became known for its closing theme song, written by Burnett's husband, Joe Hamilton, with these lyrics: I'm so glad we had this time together Just to have a laugh or sing a song Seems we just get started and before you know it Comes the time we have to say, "So long."
At the close of each episode, Burnett tugged her ear. This silent message was meant for her grandmother, who raised her, and meant she was thinking of her at that moment. After her grandmother's death, Burnett continued the tradition.
Broadcast
When The Carol Burnett Show made its network debut on CBS-TV on September 11, 1967, it was scheduled on Mondays at 10:00 pm (EST) opposite NBC's I Spy and ABC's The Big Valley. At the end of its first season and through the spring of 1971, it consistently ranked among the top-30 programs. (For the 1969–70 season, it posted its highest rating ever, ranking at number 13.) For season five, CBS moved the show to Wednesdays at 8:00 pm (EST), where its chief competition was NBC's Adam-12 and the ABC sitcoms Bewitched and The Courtship of Eddie's Father. Despite the schedule change, the show continued to do well until the fall of 1972, when the ratings slipped. In December 1972, CBS again moved The Carol Burnett Show to Saturdays at 10:00 pm (EST) where, for the next four years, it not only received solid ratings, but was also part of a powerhouse Saturday-night lineup of primetime shows that included All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Bob Newhart Show.
In the 1973–74 season, the "Family" sketches (with Burnett as Eunice, Korman as her husband Ed, and Lawrence as Eunice's mother) were introduced and the "Carol and Sis" segments were phased out. At the end of that season (the series' seventh), after having been with The Carol Burnett Show from the beginning, Lyle Waggoner left the series to pursue other acting opportunities. The following season, Waggoner's spot as a supporting regular remained vacant. Don Crichton, the lead male dancer on the show, began to inherit some of Waggoner's duties. Then in season nine, because of his many popular guest appearances on the series, Tim Conway was signed as a full-time regular, joining Korman and Lawrence.
In November 1976, the series' tenth year, The Carol Burnett Show presented what would become one of its best-known and most well-regarded sketches: "Went with the Wind!" a parody of the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, which had its television debut on NBC the week before. After the 1976–77 season ended, Harvey Korman decided to leave the series. After a decade of working with Burnett and winning several Emmy Awards, Korman had been offered a contract by ABC to headline his own series. Also, the ratings had begun to decline with the series ending its 10th season in 44th place as opposed to the previous year's Nielsen rating at No. 29. Nevertheless, CBS renewed Burnett's show for an 11th season.