The Best of The Carol Burnett Show

2017
4.9
30 reviews
TV-PG
Rating
Eligible
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Season 1 episodes (15)

1 Episode 1
11/28/72
Season-only
The dynamic young singer and Tony Award-winning actress Melba Moore and comedy legend Carl Reiner bring high energy to the program. Moore performs a soulful version of You've Got a Friend and duets with Carol on Have a Little Talk with Myself. The spoof's the thing in this episode. Carol and Harvey reconnect while waiting to participate in "Let's Make a Bargain." Hospital dramas and soap operas were big at the time, and General Hospital combined the best of both. "Terminal Hospital" is overstocked with loonies, from crazed nurse Melba to misunderstood male nurse Harvey to flawed surgeon Dr. Goldenstein (Carl), who can't cut it anymore. Some blown lines add to the mayhem here as well as in a Non-Violent Theatre segment, The Plot to Hurt Hitler, where German spies Harvey and Carl are part of the gang that couldn't plot straight.
2 Episode 2
9/26/72
Season-only
Carol was mighty busy in late 1972. In December, she appeared on the movie screen opposite Walter Matthau in Pete 'n' Tillie and on CBS for the TV adaptation of Once Upon a Mattress, the musical comedy that marked her Broadway debut in 1959. She found the time to learn to speak Australian from Helen Reddy, who also sings I Am Woman, which recently had reentered the charts on its way to No. 1. Andy Griffith returns to his country roots with Turn Your Radio On and to his law enforcement ways as an officious warden responsible for Carol's first overnight conjugal visit to her frustrated jailed husband, Harvey Korman. Andy's clearly picked up a few tricks from his former TV deputy, Barney Fife. Everyone joins in for the rousing finale with a message, The Chain of Life.
3 Episode 3
10/24/72
Season-only
"Hi, I'm a leper." Thus spoke "The Oldest Man" after settling in beside fellow galley slave Harvey Korman. Tim Conway's lovable codger, known for his peculiar shuffling gait and his habit of nodding off in mid-sentence, had a Zelig-like ability to show up anywhere, at any time in history - much like Conway himself, who lampoons high-profile defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey as a rabbit named F. Lee Bunny. Another famous Bailey, Pearl, plays a talkative shrink trying to help Carol with her man problem, which triggers A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Carol revives the Norma Desmond role from Sunset Boulevard as "Nora Desmond," looking for career salvation via a Knock 'Em Dead bug spray commercial. In the salute to 20th Century Fox, she takes on Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music and Carmen Miranda with a small produce section attached to her head.
4 Episode 4
11/7/72
Season-only
Thanks to her high profile on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and a Grammy Award-winning album to her credit, Lily Tomlin was one of the hottest comics in the land when she made her only appearance on the show in 1972. Playing a recent divorcee, she gets Harvey to break into an absurd version of the funky chicken, a popular dance craze at the time. Recent box-office smash The Godfather takes its lumps from frequent guest star Steve Lawrence, a cotton-mouthed mobster who makes Marlon Brando's Don Corleone sound like a master of elocution. Carol's iconic charwoman character delivers one of her finest performances ever backstage in the showgirls' dressing room. The full cast participates in Caged Dames, a parody of the 1950 women's penitentiary flick - Caged. Vicki, playing Carol's ditzy cellmate, steals the scenes. Without completely giving away the joke, when Vicki's struck on the head, she becomes very spiritual.
5 Episode 5
1/5/73
Season-only
Jack Cassidy made his reputation on Broadway, eventually winning a Tony Award in 1964 for his performance in the musical She Loves Me. On stage and on TV, he defined the image of an urbane sophisticate, brimming with self-confidence. There's plenty of classic Cassidy in The Story of a Star, the cast's homage to A Star Is Born. He's perfect as the dissolute fading star Norman Swain opposite rising star Esther "Vicki" Crotchett, played by Carol. Elsewhere, Carol and Harvey go to an orphanage to adopt a young child. They choose Leon (Tim), aged 35, who has issues and a surprise up his sleeve. Up in heaven, angel Harvey gets a new cloud mate - Tim, a Jew's harp player ill-suited for this celestial realm. Harvey may not like him, but he's worth his weight in laughs.
6 Episode 6
1/19/73
Season-only
Carol's first taste of the show biz big time came in 1959, when she starred as Princess Winnifred in an Off-Broadway production of Once upon a Mattress (the show moved to Broadway the following year). Here, fellow Mattress veteran Jack Gilford joins her as a guest star and, in a wonderfully touching sketch, showcases his musical comedy abilities as a very nervous father to Carol's bride. Carol also sings the theme song to the just-released film Pete 'n' Tillie, in which she had her first big-screen starring role. Watch too for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In star Ruth Buzzi's remarkable transformation from one of her typically frumpy characters into a red-hot Tina Turner-style rock 'n' roller.
7 Episode 7
1/26/73
Season-only
Carol's firstThe Carol Burnett Show had such a wide viewership that it provided an excellent platform for a star to plug a new project. Kaye Ballard offers Go in the Best of Health, a preview from her upcoming Broadway musical Molly about the popular radio character Molly Goldberg, the quintessential Jewish mother figure. Ballard participates in another nostalgic tribute in the finale, assuming the red-hot mama role of "Sophie Talker" at the Palace Theatre in New York, the nation's top vaudeville hall. Tim Conway's up to his unusual mischief. A wardrobe malfunction on the set of "The Dater's Game" forces him to fill in as Bachelorette No. 3. Harvey is the gold-chained bachelor. In another tense situation, bank robber Harvey rushes to buy gas from doofus station attendant Tim, who gets trapped under the hood checking the battery. Talk about a grease monkey. taste of the show biz big time came in 1959, when she starred as Princess Winnifred in an Off-Broadway production of Once upon a Mattress (the show moved to Broadway the following year). Here, fellow Mattress veteran Jack Gilford joins her as a guest star and, in a wonderfully touching sketch, showcases his musical comedy abilities as a very nervous father to Carol's bride. Carol also sings the theme song to the just-released film Pete 'n' Tillie, in which she had her first big-screen starring role. Watch too for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In star Ruth Buzzi's remarkable transformation from one of her typically frumpy characters into a red-hot Tina Turner-style rock 'n' roller.
8 Episode 8
2/9/73
Season-only
When this show aired, Petula Clark was off the U.S. pop charts, yet remained a major concert draw. She sounds great performing I Can't Remember (How It Was Before), and her medley of Turn Around/God Bless the Child with Carol has real poignancy, given the birth of Clark's son, Patrick, in 1972. John Byner's impressions and warped sense of humor provide a welcome contrast. He concocts a scenario about celebrities in other lines of work, from John Wayne as a brain surgeon to Tonto as an interior designer. Byner and Harvey Korman are amazing together. John is the mastermind behind the team's kidnapping of a bratty Girl Scout (Carol) who foils their plan. Hollywood honcho Harvey must fire Donald Duck (Byner) after 25 years of service. The feathers fly when Donald receives his commemorative watch.
9 Episode 9
3/23/73
Season-only
Season 6 ends with this Family Show, which features a couple of interesting cast surprises during the Q&A. Vicki Lawrence had recently recorded the pop hit The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, and is startled when Carol calls her out on stage to present her with her first gold record. Then Lyle Waggoner catches Carol completely off-guard, setting the stage with a candlelit table and champagne flutes in order to bestow a kiss upon a fan who's requested one. Carol also uses the Q&A to clear up a rumor: She was not "discovered" while working as a cleaning lady at CBS, thus the Charwoman character is not a tribute to that tale. This episode's ending is notable for showcasing some then state-of-the-art video effects that allow Carol to appear as six characters in the same scene.
10 Episode 10
9/21/73
Season-only
Most folks know Charo as the "cuchi-cuchi" lady who likes to shake her assets. Charo's also an accomplished classical guitarist (she studied with the virtuoso Andrรฉs Segovia) and a pretty darn good actress. Her interview with magazine writer Tim leads to tabloid-worthy fisticuffs courtesy of her sagging mother (Carol). Charo, Carol and Vicki dressed in jockey silks share in a little song and dance to the tune of Luck Be a Lady. Tim visits his first unisex hair salon with Carol as his chatterbox stylist. What could go wrong? The show's unexpected highlight comes from the Campbellock Dancers, an influential LA group led by Don Campbell, creator of the "locking" dance move. Choreographed by Toni Basil, the sextet busts loose to Dennis Coffey's Scorpio. That's Fred "Rerun" Berry, future star of What's Happening!! in the red-patterned shirt, helping to make hip-hop history on prime-time TV.
11 Vol. 1, Episode 11
11/10/73
Season-only
In the earliest seasons of the show, regular cast member Lyle Waggoner was primarily the in-house hunk, there for Carol to go gaga over. Eventually, as Carol has put it, "That idea went the way of the dodo," because in addition to being extremely good looking, Waggoner also turned out to be a talented comic actor, able to hold his own with Carol, Harvey, Vicki and Tim. By Season 7 he was considered a regular sketch player, and in this episode's As the Stomach Turns he shows off all his charms as a tank top-wearing "Olympic weightlifter and freelance bellhop." And note how much fun Carol and Petula Clark have playing against type as rock 'n' roll bad girls in the "Salute to the '50s and '60s" closing number.
12 Episode 12
9/28/73
Season-only
Less than a year before this episode aired, Carol delivered a withering parody of Gloria Swanson's Norma Desmond role in Sunset Boulevard. It was so over the top that you could almost feel the heat of the legendary star's blood boiling, but Swanson instead sent Carol a letter praising her extreme makeover. Carol invited her to appear on the show, and she arrived ready for work with cases of health food. She meant business. The spry septuagenarian wanted to be properly nourished for her new-fangled tango routine, in which the male dancers do a lot of lifting. In one of Burnett's cleverest Charwoman sketches, she and Swanson return to the pre-talkies movie era. Cavorting on-screen as Charlie Chaplin in Silents Is Golden, Swanson beckons Carol to join the story - the adventures of two stars captured in a double fantasy.
13 Episode 13
10/12/73
Season-only
This episode contains a number of treats for avid fans. Orchestra leader Peter Matz makes a rare on-camera appearance waving hello from the control room, and Harvey Korman is showcased reprising his musical number from the feature film Huckleberry Finn, in which he had just appeared. In a tribute to serial films, Harvey also gets to put his comedic and dramatic skills to equal use, undergoing a believable werewolf transformation that doesn't require a bit of special makeup. And Carol gets the unusual chance to work her trademark Tarzan yell into a sketch that actually features Tarzan (she's Jane, while Lyle Waggoner - of course - plays the jungle hunk).
14 Episode 14
10/19/73
Season-only
Ken Berry is probably best remembered by TV fans as the accident-prone Captain Parmenter from F Troop, but his song-and-dance versatility made him one of Carol's favorite guest stars (here she introduces him as "one of my very favorite people"). He, along with Vicki Lawrence, also went on to star in the Mama's Family spin-off series that ran in the 1980s. One of Berry's best sketches here is capped by an unusual cameo appearance by Tim Conway, who takes a few crucial tumbles as the world's oldest surgeon. Carol then actually stops the show to thank Tim for the quick bit of work, though he seems somewhat startled when she jokingly tells the audience, "We're not paying him."
15 Episode 15
12/7/73
Season-only
This is one of two episodes of Carol's show filmed outside of the U.S. (a 1970 show was filmed in England). Carol and the regulars headed Down Under and took over the stage of the Sydney Opera House - now an international landmark, but a brand new venue at the time. This show was shot live in front of a sold-out crowd, and it stands as proof of the powerful, universal appeal of Carol's presence and her comedy. Even outside the confines of the Hollywood sound stage - in a live theater setting on a foreign continent - Carol has the crowd roaring with laughter (as does Tim Conway as the world's oldest orchestral conductor). The show also finds a beautiful blend of grace and grins when the Charwoman, aided by the Australian Ballet, finds herself the prima ballerina opposite the magnificent ballet dancer Edward Villella in Swan Lake.

About this show

While thereโ€™s no truth to the rumor that โ€œCBSโ€ ever stood forย Theย Carolย Burnettย Show, for over a decade this star-studded extravaganza of sketch comedy, song and dance defined entertainment for TV viewers.ย Taped before a live audience at Hollywoodโ€™s CBS Television City Studio 33, The Carol Burnett Show featured clever, dazzling production numbers in an intimate environment, thanks to strategic camera placement that brought the actors and audience closer together.ย Burnett operated in aย relaxed theater setting that allowed her to take questions, cut loose with her famous Tarzan yell and join second bananas Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner to have a laugh or sing a song.

Ratings and reviews

4.9
30 reviews
A Google user
July 14, 2017
Carol Burnett is the BEST!!!!.
Michelle Carter
February 19, 2018
Pure comic genius ๐Ÿ˜
sue jackson
December 5, 2017
one of the best comedy variety shows ever
6 people found this review helpful