It's Christmas again and time for a Carol Burnett Show present and recap. Last year my husband Jerry got me the massive Lost Episodes collection and for my birthday last May he bought me the Best of retrospective. (Episodes and fragments from those collections have appeared in previous posts in this series of Reconstructing the Burnett series, parts 1-13). This bleak yuletide season was made a mite brighter by my 2020 present from Jerry, Carol's Lost Christmas, a single DVD with three episodes from the "lost" years of Carol's variety series. Episodes from Season Six to Eleven had been in syndication as Carol Burnett and Friends for decades, but the first five seasons were controlled by another company and have not been available until recently. This Lost Christmas collection has no bonus material or features, but does include two complete holiday episodes and one nearly complete episode. They are not the best of the series, but they do fill some holes in the Carol canon.
The previous 13 blog entries in this series have chronicled my reactions to episodes available on the DVD collections, MeTV, YouTube, Amazon and ShoutFactory! The Amazon and ShoutFactory shows are chopped up into 22 minutes. For this entry, I will cover the shows on Lost Christmas (all were watched during Christmas Day) and start to pick up the other episodes not previously mentioned in other posts. Eventually, I'd like to write about every episode available. There are some fragments still missing because of music copyright issues that I would love to find. Once COVID is under control, I plan to visit the Paley Center for Media where there are several complete Burnett episodes which were only partially viewable on Amazon, etc.
Season One: Dec. 4. 1967: Barbara Eden, Jonathan Winters, Leonard Nimoy
(Carol's Lost Christmas) Barbara Eden was the star of the NBC fantasy sitcom I Dream of Jeannie (1965-70) where she played a sexy genie whose only wish was to serve her master, Tony Nelson, a dull astronaut played by Larry Hagman. The comedy was supposed to erupt when Tony tried to hide Jeannie from his stuffy commander, Hayden Rourke and his snooty wife. (Perhaps someday I will write a blog comparing Jeannie and Samantha from Bewitched.) Eden did have considerable musical talent which she displayed occasionally on Jeannie. In this Christmas episode from the first Burnett season, Eden does have a fun Greek-inspired number, "Bend It," with the chorus (you can see future Tony nominee Lee Roy Reams among the boys). George Chakiris did a similar number also in Season One. Barbara's only other appearance is a short bit with Carol and Lyle where she uses her alleged magical powers to grant Carol three wishes. Carol's first two wishes are that Lyle flatters and then hugs her, but the last wish is reserved for Barbara herself when Lyle passionately kisses her. ("I gave you two out of three, Carol," Barbara quips.)
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| Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman on I Dream of Jeannie |
(Carol's Lost Christmas) Barbara Eden was the star of the NBC fantasy sitcom I Dream of Jeannie (1965-70) where she played a sexy genie whose only wish was to serve her master, Tony Nelson, a dull astronaut played by Larry Hagman. The comedy was supposed to erupt when Tony tried to hide Jeannie from his stuffy commander, Hayden Rourke and his snooty wife. (Perhaps someday I will write a blog comparing Jeannie and Samantha from Bewitched.) Eden did have considerable musical talent which she displayed occasionally on Jeannie. In this Christmas episode from the first Burnett season, Eden does have a fun Greek-inspired number, "Bend It," with the chorus (you can see future Tony nominee Lee Roy Reams among the boys). George Chakiris did a similar number also in Season One. Barbara's only other appearance is a short bit with Carol and Lyle where she uses her alleged magical powers to grant Carol three wishes. Carol's first two wishes are that Lyle flatters and then hugs her, but the last wish is reserved for Barbara herself when Lyle passionately kisses her. ("I gave you two out of three, Carol," Barbara quips.)
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| Jonathan Winters as Maude Frickert |
Frantic funnyman Jonathan Winters get the majority of the guest-star time. He plays Santa delivering a series of so-so 1967 jokes on Nixon, Reagan and George Romney (Mitt's father); a prison warden; and Maude Frickert, his sassy old-lady character. Maude is being interviewed by Harvey and Winters is not above ad-libbing. At one point she says, "I'm 86 years old, be nice to me...or I'll cold cock ya." Unlike his famous crack-ups with Tom Conway, Harvey keeps his composure.
There is also a surprise visit when Leonard Nimoy emerges in full Mr. Spock ears and costume as the Invisible Man after he drinks a formula so his wife (Carol) can see what he really looks like. You could tell Carol was really surprised. I wonder who was supposed to come out originally. Nimoy would make a second cameo on the show with the cast of his second big series Mission: Impossible. The episode ends with Carol as the Charwoman reliving her childhood on a deserted city playground.
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| Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock makes a surprise cameo. |
(Carol's Lost Christmas) Pieces of this segment had been available on YouTube and Amazon including a silly sketch with Garry and Durward as British barristers cross-examining Carol as Peter Piper's widow in a tongue-twisting sketch and Carol hosting a houseful of sloppy, cigar-chomping poker players in a Carol and Sis bit. To make the latter work as a part of a holiday show, they stick a big Christmas tree in the house. Roger (Harvey) is a terrible spouse as he has a bunch of his oafish, ill-mannered, slovenly pals over to play cards even though Carol has a terrible cold. Sneezing and coughing, she is forced to make sandwiches and fetch beer for these apes. Why doesn't she just overturn the poker table and kick them out?
Garry and Durward perform an equally ridiculous segment as kiddie TV hosts pushing useless Christmas toys connected to TV shows such as the Dating Game motel set. In the final segment, a boys' choir warbles "Sleigh Ride" in front of a back drop of toys and games, all from sponsor Milton Bradley. One of the boys has a black eye. When Carol asks how he got it, the kid explains another member of the chorus tried to trap him in a folding bed and they got into a fist fight. This was the late '60s when "good-natured brawling" was considered something all "normal" boys got into. It was a rite of passage and perfectly okay. Carol has the two shakes hands and perpetuates a culture of violence.
The third segment in Carol's Lost Christmas is Dec. 14, 1970. Previously seen on YouTube and reviewed in Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show, Part 4.
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Season Two
Dec. 9, 1968: Imogene Coca, Vic Damone
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| Imogene Coca with Carol in male drag |
(Amazon) Transgender and gay issues are touched on in a bizarre sketch wherein Imogene and Carol are a pair of girlfriends attempting to take advantage of an airline's bargain prices to Hawaii, but only for married couples. Since this is decades before same-sex marriage, Carol poses as a man. This Shakespearean deception leads to all kinds of giggly gags with Carol sporting a moustache and trousers entering the ladies' room and flirting with Lyle as a ticket agent. Lyle is visibly uncomfortable as Carol in male attired gives him a seductive "Hello." If it were real life, handsome, hunky Lyle would have been used to come-ons from male admirers and taken it in his stride. The segment also features genuinely funny skits imagining what commercials might be like for institutions like hospitals and funeral homes. Vic Damone, actually a pretty good singer, is cut out entirely. But I think that's him at the conclusion of the airport sketch in drag getting his wig pulled off.
Dec. 30, 1968: Mickey Rooney, Nancy Wilson
(Amazon) Speaking of I Dream of Jeannie, Emmaline Henry, the actress who played the nosy Mrs. Bellows, the wife of astronaut Tony Nelson's psychiatrist superior at NASA, pops up in this episode as Pat Nixon. The sketch is set in the White House as Pat pays a visit to her predecessor Lady Bird Johnson
(Carol). There are a lot of topical 1968 gags about LBJ, Humphrey, and Nixon. When Lady Bird asks Pat if she needs to pack, Pat replies, "We've been packed for eight years," referring to Nixon's unsuccessful 1960 Presidential bid. The scene is introduced by Harvey explaining it's customary for the outgoing President to welcome his successor to the White House before he moves in (Ironic, huh?). This cut-up segment is available on Amazon, but now they've added commercials that you can't click away from or speed up. The rest of the abridged episode includes a brief scene with Carol and Nancy Wilson as actresses auditioning for TV series and having to read insensitive dialogue about race with references to slavery, Uncle Tom, and suntans. The highlight, as usual is a movie parody. This one is of Boys Town which starred Mickey Rooney called Kid Town. Harvey is the priest in charge, Mickey is perpetual orphan Whitey who has been in Kid Town for 38 years, and Carol plays Butch, an orphan at the titular establishment who is a really a girl. Double entendre humor proliferates when Butch reveals her true gender and Whitey decides they should get married. The two announce their engagement to a stunned Harvey, who proclaims, "I knew something like this would happen." (He still thinks Carol is a boy, get it?)
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| Carol and Mickey Rooney in Kid Town |
(Carol). There are a lot of topical 1968 gags about LBJ, Humphrey, and Nixon. When Lady Bird asks Pat if she needs to pack, Pat replies, "We've been packed for eight years," referring to Nixon's unsuccessful 1960 Presidential bid. The scene is introduced by Harvey explaining it's customary for the outgoing President to welcome his successor to the White House before he moves in (Ironic, huh?). This cut-up segment is available on Amazon, but now they've added commercials that you can't click away from or speed up. The rest of the abridged episode includes a brief scene with Carol and Nancy Wilson as actresses auditioning for TV series and having to read insensitive dialogue about race with references to slavery, Uncle Tom, and suntans. The highlight, as usual is a movie parody. This one is of Boys Town which starred Mickey Rooney called Kid Town. Harvey is the priest in charge, Mickey is perpetual orphan Whitey who has been in Kid Town for 38 years, and Carol plays Butch, an orphan at the titular establishment who is a really a girl. Double entendre humor proliferates when Butch reveals her true gender and Whitey decides they should get married. The two announce their engagement to a stunned Harvey, who proclaims, "I knew something like this would happen." (He still thinks Carol is a boy, get it?)
March 3, 1969: Tim Conway, Ethel Merman
(Amazon) This is one of the most frustrating chopped-up episodes because it leaves out the duet between Carol and Merman which must have been splendid. We do get a sketch playing on Merm's reputation of never missing a performance. Carol is her understudy determined to go on for the final performance of Fanny Get Your Gun even if she has to cause the star bodily harm. The bulk of the segment is taken up with Tim's classic dentist sketch where he cracks up Harvey as his patient.
March 17, 1969: Martha Raye, Mike Douglas
(Amazon) Sexual politics and gender inequity again figure heavily in comedy sketches. Carol and Martha
Raye pull out their usual schtick of opposites (shy Carol and boisterous Martha) as friends visiting the Tom Cat Club, a gender-reversed version of the Playboy Clubs of the era. Hugh Hefner, publisher of the infamous Playboy magazine, started a chain of establishments with scantily clad female bunnies romping for male entertainment. Prefiguring the Chippendale Clubs decades later, the Tom Cat Club displays hunky waiters in cat outfits. Harvey is the prissy and stereotypically gay maitre d' and Lyle is a muscular server. Martha is all in for fun, but Carol needs a couple of drinks to loosen up, but once she does she can barely contain her lust for Lyle. Turnabout is fair play as men like Lyle are objectified just as women were on shows like Laugh-In and in Hefner's magazines. Carol was something of a trailblazer, acknowledging that women were just as libidinous as men and equally appreciative of a sexy figure. Does this mean we should be okay with sexual exploitation as long as it's non discriminatory? The episode is filled out with the Old Folks and a Carol and Sis vignette featuring a horse. Mike Douglas doesn't appear until the goodbyes which also include a little girl and the horse.
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| Carol and Martha Raye visit the Tom Cat Club |
Raye pull out their usual schtick of opposites (shy Carol and boisterous Martha) as friends visiting the Tom Cat Club, a gender-reversed version of the Playboy Clubs of the era. Hugh Hefner, publisher of the infamous Playboy magazine, started a chain of establishments with scantily clad female bunnies romping for male entertainment. Prefiguring the Chippendale Clubs decades later, the Tom Cat Club displays hunky waiters in cat outfits. Harvey is the prissy and stereotypically gay maitre d' and Lyle is a muscular server. Martha is all in for fun, but Carol needs a couple of drinks to loosen up, but once she does she can barely contain her lust for Lyle. Turnabout is fair play as men like Lyle are objectified just as women were on shows like Laugh-In and in Hefner's magazines. Carol was something of a trailblazer, acknowledging that women were just as libidinous as men and equally appreciative of a sexy figure. Does this mean we should be okay with sexual exploitation as long as it's non discriminatory? The episode is filled out with the Old Folks and a Carol and Sis vignette featuring a horse. Mike Douglas doesn't appear until the goodbyes which also include a little girl and the horse.
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