Leading Ladies: Carol Burnett

Episode Summary

Carol Burnett is an iconic American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and mentor. She is best known for her long-running variety show, The Carol Burnett Show, which was groundbreaking as the first variety show hosted by a woman. Burnett grew up in Hollywood with dreams of becoming a playwright but discovered a love for acting and comedy while taking classes at UCLA. She moved to New York City with the help of a mysterious benefactor and started getting small acting roles in the 1950s. Her big break came when she was added to the cast of The Gary Moore Show and started gaining a following for her slapstick comedy style. In 1967, Burnett launched her variety show on CBS which became a massive hit and ran for 11 years. The show was known for its comedy sketches, musical numbers, and Burnett's interactions with the studio audience. Burnett also pursued a film career, starring in movies like Annie. She continues to perform on Broadway and has won many accolades including Emmys, a Tony nomination, and the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2013. Burnett is admired for her comedic talents as well as her warmth, graciousness, and mentorship to other performers.

Episode Show Notes

Carol Burnett (1933-present) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and all around national treasure. She’s best known for her iconic eponymous television variety show–the first of its kind to be hosted by a woman.

Episode Transcript

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Get Mini Bar Delivery on the go, available on iOS or Android. SPEAKER_03: Warning, the following message contains an app recommendation you won't be able to resist. SPEAKER_04: Girl, how do you keep getting all these things for free? Coffee, makeup and now lunch? SPEAKER_06: You haven't heard of the Drop app? Drop is a free app that rewards you for shopping at places like Ulta, Adidas and Sam's Club. I've already earned $100 this month. SPEAKER_02: Download the Drop app and get $5. Use invite code GETDROP222. SPEAKER_08: Hello there, this is Sarah Nimitz and today I'm excited to introduce this fabulous episode of Encyclopedia Womanica featuring Carol Burnett. Intelligent, classy, down to earth, make you spit out your drink funny and mentor are all words that come to mind when I think of Carol. I had the honor of playing her as a child in her Broadway show, Hollywood Arms. That's right, not only has she starred on Broadway, she is a playwright. For weeks on end, she and I worked together in Chicago and New York. And to this day, I'm not sure if I'm more impressed by her immense body of work or by her warmth and graciousness. Carol taught me endless lessons and never failed to elevate a situation by simply being present. Yes, she is a mega star and a powerful business woman, but above that, she's just a really great human who rose to her fame through hard work and her own special spark. Now here's host Jenny Kaplan to tell you all about Carol Burnett. How did you start your Carol Burnett show? SPEAKER_09: How did I start my Carol Burnett show? SPEAKER_08: Well, I just asked to be on the air and CBS was so nice. They said, okay. SPEAKER_09: Are you gonna be on next season? Uh, yes, unless, yes, unless you know something I don't. SPEAKER_07: Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Womanica. Today's leading lady is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and all around national treasure. She's best known for her iconic eponymous television variety show. It was the first of its kind to be hosted by a woman. She has achieved great success on stage and in film in both dramatic and comedic roles. We're talking about the one and only Carol Burnett. Carol was born on April 26th, 1933 in San Antonio, Texas to Ina and Joseph Burnett. At the time, Ina worked in publicity for film studios while Joseph managed a local movie theater. Both struggled with serious alcohol addiction. When Carol was very young, she lived with her maternal grandmother, May, who was a much more stable presence. By the late 1930s, the Burnett's marriage had fallen apart and the two divorced. Now free from constraints, Ina took the opportunity to move to Hollywood. May and little Carol soon followed, living in a single room in a boarding house close to Ina's residence. While at the boarding house in Hollywood, Carol found that she could easily entertain the other boarders with little jokes and comedic routines. When she was nine, she taught herself the Tarzan yell, which was an early favorite among her neighbors and later a favorite among her friends. Carol was a great fan of the movie theater and was one of the most famous people among her millions of fans. Carol also spent much of her childhood surrounded by music as her grandmother was a trained pianist and her mother played the ukulele. As a reprieve from life at the boarding house, Carol and her grandmother took constant trips to the movie theater. Carol credits the many hours spent at the theater for instilling in her a great love of film and an interest in the industry. She was born in the city of Hollywood and was a senior at the University of Washington from Hollywood High School in 1951. She received an envelope from an anonymous sender containing exactly enough money to pay for a year of college at UCLA. She started that year thinking she would study journalism, but soon switched to theater arts and English. Carol wanted to become a playwright, but found that in order to get into the playwriting program, she had to take an acting class. Carol decided that her acting class would change her life. She later said, "...they laughed, and it felt great. All of a sudden, after so much coldness and emptiness in my life, I knew the sensation of all that warmth wrapping around me. I had always been a quiet, shy, sad sort of girl, and then everything changed for me. You spend the rest of your life hoping you'll hear a laugh that great again." Carol continued performing in university productions for her comedic acting chops. During her junior year at UCLA, Carol and some other student actors were invited to perform at a professor's holiday party. The performance was apparently so good that afterwards, a man and woman attending the party approached Carol to congratulate her on her performance. They asked what her plans were going forward, to which Carol replied that she wanted to move to New York City to work in musical comedy but couldn't afford it. On the spot, the couple offered to give Carol and her boyfriend $1,000 each, interest-free, to make the move. The only conditions were as follows. The loans had to be repaid within five years. Nobody could ever know who provided the loans. And if Carol became successful, she would agree to help future aspiring artists to achieve their goals. Carol agreed to the terms and was soon on her way to New York. At first, she had a tough time landing roles. But after a performance in the rehearsal club's 1955 review, which was attended by agents and stars like Marlene Dietrich, Carol started getting jobs. At first, she was mostly getting small parts on the Windchill Mahoney Show, where her brand of comedy was well-received but not necessarily highly memorable. A year later, Carol landed her first sitcom role on the short-lived show, Stanley, playing opposite Buddy Hackett. In 1956, Carol got more national exposure when she appeared with Gary Moore on the CBS morning show. Three years later, in 1959, Moore decided to add Carol to the cast of the wildly popular Gary Moore Show, where her brash, almost slapstick-esque comedy started to gain a following. That same year, Carol starred in the Broadway musical "'Once Upon a Mattress,'" for which she received brilliant reviews and a Tony nomination. SPEAKER_09: Who's the lucky man? Oh! ["Once Upon a Mattress"] Hey, Naughty, Naughty, is it you? Hey, Naughty, Naughty, Naughty, no. Hey, Naughty, Naughty, is it you? Hey, Naughty, Naughty, Naughty, no. Hey, Naughty, Naughty, is it you or you or you or you or you? SPEAKER_07: After winning an Emmy in 1961 for her work on the Gary Moore Show, Carol started looking to put together a show of her own. In 1967, she launched another variety show on CBS called The Carol Burnett Show. It was an immediate, massive hit. Though American audiences had started to grow weary of TV variety shows during the 1960s, The Carol Burnett Show was the exception to the rule. It ran from 1967 to 1978 and garnered 23 Emmy awards. The Carol Burnett Show featured everything from musical numbers and comedy sketches to guest stars and a regular opening segment during which Carol would do a hilarious Q&A session with the audience. The show was jam-packed with talented comedic actors, including Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Wagoner, and Tim Conway. One of the show's most famous original sketches, The Family, was spun off into its own television show, the beloved sitcom Mama's Family, starring Vicki Lawrence. The Carol Burnett Show's popularity endured. A 2001 retrospective about the show drew in a whopping 30 million viewers. Carol was a household name. Carol also pursued a career on the silver screen and was in a number of movies in the 1960s and 70s, like Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?, The Four Seasons, and, of course, the movie musical classic Annie, in which Carol gave a tour de force performance as the drunken orphanage proprietress, Miss Hannigan. SPEAKER_01: I'm here to inquire about an orphan. Look at my bag. SPEAKER_05: Wait, Grace, I can explain the whole thing. You see, what happened was that a child SPEAKER_09: actually bribed Mr. Bundles to smuggle her out of here in a laundry basket. I know I should've called Mr. Donatelli, SPEAKER_07: but the plane's really... In more recent years, Carol has returned to the small screen, working on numerous TV shows, including Magnum, P.I., Desperate Housewives, Mad About You, and Glee. She continues to perform on Broadway from time to time, including a starring role in the 1995 to 1996 production of Moon Over Buffalo, for which she was nominated for a second Tony Award. In 2013, Carol received the Kennedy Center's highly esteemed Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. All month, we're talking about leading ladies. For more on why we're doing what we're doing, check out our Encyclopedia Womanica newsletter, Womanica Weekly. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram at encyclopediawomanica, and you can find me on Twitter at Jennie M. Kaplan. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. As always, we'll be taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you on Monday. SPEAKER_10: Now is the time to flex your footprint. With T-Mobile for Business and the nation's largest 5G network, inspiration can strike from virtually anywhere. So whether you're in the office, on the road, or on your PT not quite O, you'll be ready for the next big thing. 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