The Carol Burnett Show

I loved the Carol Burnett show when I was a child. It was in half-hour reruns. After spending the last weekend watching TV Land marathon, I just learned why. It was one of the most entertaining experiences in television history. This was a great cast of highly talented people not just the beloved star, Carol Burnett. Her former husband Joe Hamilton produced the show. Her friends like Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner were all uniquely talented and gifted. We can see why this show thrived. Most of the cast were there from beginning to end. After 11 years of superb Emmy winning and golden globe episodes, the show is available on DVD and can be seen on TV Land where it belongs with some of television's classics. It is still a classic. Sometimes Saturday Night Live and MAD TV can embrace the wholesome comedy as a risk in itself.

i can not understand why this show is not in reruns. I'm writing a letter to TV Land, to ask why they have never aired this on their network. What makes this show so good, is the chemistry between the perfect cast. A variety show like Saturday Night Live is greatly dependent on the chemistry among its cast members. When one of them leaves, it upsets the balance among the rest. This show was lucky enough to have most of its cast stay for the duration of the run, and therefore, it is the best.

This was definitely the finest variety show of the 1970's. The thing that made it great besides the cast were the various recurring sketches that were very expertly created. Sketches like Tudball and Wiggins, the Old Folks, As the Stomach Turns, the kid sister and, of course, Eunice, which was the inspiration for the series "Mama's Family", helped to make this variety hour a classic. Besides "Mama and Eunice" any one of these shows could have become a series on its own. The only thing that caused the show to go downhill though was when Harvey Korman left. He was probably the best player among the supporting cast and when he left the show declined from there. Still, Saturday nights for me would always climax with this classic show.

If my siblings and I were good, my mother would allow us to stay up until 11pm to watch 'The Carol Burnett Show' each Saturday night in the 1970s.

To say Carol, along with her co-stars Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, and Vicki Lawrence, were talented and funny would be an understatement. Each Saturday at 10pm, Carol and the aforementioned regulars, along with some 'special guest stars' (such as Steve Lawrence, Betty White, Roddy McDowall, and Julie Andrews, to mention a few) would sing, dance, and perform the absolute funniest skits ever seen on American television.

Who could forget Carol's "Eunice" constantly being belittled and nagged by Vicki's "Momma"? Carol's "Mrs. Wh-Whiggins" was a riot, along with Tim's "Mr. Tudball", and perhaps the funniest segments were those with both Tim and Harvey. The audience never seemed to mind it when Harvey lost control and laughed out of character.

Today's Hollywood elitist performers could learn a lot from this classic TV show: Carol Burnett and her co-stars entertained us for ten years without foul language, tasteless humor, sexual innuendo, or inserting politics. On the contrary, Tim, Harvey, Vicki, and Carol conducted themselves as professionals.

This show is classic American comedy for all ages. I highly recommend this outstanding program.

Was there ever a better sketch comedy hour than this one. For eleven years, Burnett and fabulous company made each week a laugh fest. Only seldom did a sketch fall flat. Thus, success is also due the writers who had a firm grasp of cast and material. And what a cast— the infinitely versatile Carol, the perfect counterpart Korman, the inimitable Vicki Lawrence, and the goofy Tim Conway. Together, their chemistry year after year was darn near perfect. I did feel sorry for handsome Lyle Waggoner who never appeared to have a defined role to play. I'm glad he settled in with the Wonder Woman series. The icing on the cake, however, was when Conway replaced him, and the laughs really gelled.

My favorites among the sketches—anything where a loony Carol descends stairs with a coat hanger for shoulders; the hilarious take-off on dysfunctional families with Eunice and Ed and snap-dragon Mama; and anything where Carol gets to do an eye- bulging impersonation. Guest stars also shone at times—Steve Lawrence was particularly good at tough talking thugs, while Jim Nabors did his slow-witted hick to perfection.

I suspect one reason for the show's longevity was Carol's obvious rapport with ordinary folks, like her audiences. None of the Hollywood celebrity about her, and somehow I expected to find her in my supermarket checkout line. Thanks Carol and Company. You guys shone like a rare evening constellation, but never one above our heads.