American Masters nails another one

[thatcrazycajun]

Barely a week after their amazing profile of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, the PBS series American Masters comes up with another gem: an equally stunning episode on the woman in my userpic up there. Stations along the PBS network are airing it at varying times the next few days; check your listings. We hear from her costars, her friends and bosses and coworkers, from others in The Biz who learned from and admired her, and even from the lady herself, about her life, her career and what went on behind the scenes.

Of all television's great comediennes, no one save her good friend Lucille Ball, God rest her, ranks higher—in my humble opinion, at least—than Carol Creighton Burnett (and when the two of them got together on your screen, nobody's funnybone was safe!). Her eponymous CBS variety show lasted for 11 seasons (a feat sadly all too rare in today's TV) and brought us music and laughs by the bucketful to get us through the turbulent times—the Kennedy and King assassinations, campus riots, the Vietnam War, the energy crisis and Watergate—and anchored the Eye Network's Saturday-night schedule for over a decade...while making her an icon for a generation.

To millions of us who grew up with TV literally from the cradle, she was more than just a favorite star, she was family: our beloved, wacky Aunt Carol who came by once a week to help us forget the world's problems and laugh ourselves silly for an hour. Her perfect chemistry with her ensemble—Lyle Waggoner (later to play Steve Trevor in the Wonder Woman shows), Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence and Harvey Korman (also a fixture in several Mel Brooks films)—made the show truly lightning in a bottle. Even losing two husbands to divorce, plus a husband and a grown daughter to cancer, didn't keep her down for long. And when she got to do dramatic roles in films such as Pete 'n' Tillie (opposite the late Walter Matthau, no less!) and Friendly Fire, she proved she was so much more than just another rubber-faced redhead. But what makes her so beloved, more than her talent or her willingness to do damn near anything for a laugh, is her basic kindness, decency and humility; she has never taken herself too seriously, even as her fame and public affection for her grew ("People watch me between their toes in bed"), and has never been anything but gracious with everyone, no matter how obnoxious.

What's your favorite Carol Burnett memory? Mine's the one TV Guide ranked among the funniest in TV history, from her show's spoof of Gone with the Wind when Carol comes down the stairs in a hilariously exaggerated version of Scarlett O'Hara's famous "curtain" dress—complete with curtain rod through the shoulders!†—and says, "I saw it in a window and I couldn't resist it!" as poor Harve, playing "Rat" Butler, struggles manfully not to lose it altogether. And those famous show-opening question-and-answer sessions, when Carol would come out from behind her many characters, open up to her audience and tell them whatever they wanted to know, no matter how outrageous the question:

Little boy: What do you think of women's liberation?
Carol: Well, what do you think of it?
Boy: I think it's stupid.
Carol: That's because you're a boy. Sit down! (Laughter)

In a clip from her appearance in Stephen Sondheim's Follies, the Masters episode shows her singing "I'm Still Here." To which I can only add, "and thank God for all of us!"

†That was, as the AE episode reveals, the inspiration of legendary costume designer Bob Mackie, who worked on both Carol's and Cher's shows for CBS...and created all those spectacular outfits Cher almost had on.

Comments

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

I watched that...and I'll be acquiring it on dvd as soon as they release it.:)

And I *really* want the seasons on dvd...especially since I've only seen the half-hour show, not the full versions.

I can't even remember when I first saw her...I do remember watching The Carol Burnett show when I got home from middle school...it was either before or after Jeopardy. The shows go together remarkably well. :)

I saw her parodies of some of the classic movies before I ever laid eyes on the movies themselves. And it only improved those movies for me.

Have you read her autobiography? It's absolutely wonderful. If I hadn't loved her for my whole wide life, that book would have done the trick.:)

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Carol is an absolute goddess, and her show is one of the truly great television comedies. I loved Eunice; I'm remembering the Monopoly game, where she ran out onto the porch screaming in the rain, announcing to the world that she had just lost with both Boardwalk and Park Place. Oh, and her Gong Show appearance: "Feeeeelin's, nuthin' more than feeeelin's...."

My favorite moment of the show, though, was one that didn't air, and one where Carol was more or less in the background: that was be the "Tim Conway and the Elephant Story" outtake. (For that matter, watching Tim reduce Harvey to a quivering mass of giggling Jell-O on a weekly basis? Priceless.)

[maugorn.livejournal.com]

You already covered my favorite moment.

I also fondly remember when they made good on the call to "reduce violence in television" by airing the play (skit) "The plot to hurt Hitler". Seeing Conway and Korman dressed in SS Uniforms and being commanded by Wagoner: "Ready, aim, TICKLE!" had my family in stitches. And as usual, Carol chewed up the scenery earlier in the skit as a Cabaret singer.

Watching Conway crack up Korman was always good Sunday dinner fare. Sometimes my Mom would spit food or get a drink up her nose in sympathy.

A non-show moment came in the 70's when Carol starred in a re-staging of _Once Upon A Mattress_. She was BORN to play Princess Winnifred.