Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show, Part 39: Carol, Harvey and Vicki on The Tim Conway Show

Tim with the Village
People on his 
short-lived 1980 variety series

Despite winning two Emmys for his work on the Carol Burnett Show and being nominated for McHale's Navy, Tim Conway had a terrible track record when it came to headlining his own TV show. He had two failed sitcoms, Wrongo, a spoof western, and The Tim Conway Show, as well as a variety series in 1970 (The Tim Conway Comedy Hour). The fourth time was not a charm for Conway with his second attempt at a variety series (with the same title as his previous sitcom, The Tim Conway Show). There were many jokes that the show was the Carol Burnett Show without Carol (which is why we are including it in this series of blogs). It had the same producer (Carol's then-husband Joe Hamilton), orchestra and music director (Peter Matz), and the choreographer Don Creighton was the lead dancer on Carol's show. The Tim Conway Show premiered on March 22, 1980 and played until May 17. When it returned in the fall of 1980, the running time was reduced from one hour to 30 mins. and Harvey Korman joined the cast as a sort of co-host since he and Tim had such great chemistry on Carol's show. 

Tim, Joe and Harvey tried to recapture the magic of Carol's show but it was missing. Tim's Mr. Tudball without Carol's Mrs. Wiggins became tiresome. Even though Harvey was there for some of the show, the Old Man bit was also repetitive. There was some funny material such as the recurring audience-participation sketches where real-life members of the studio audience would participate in a scene reading cue cards with Tim (probably the best segment in the series). The Don Creighton Dancers were a troupe of kids performing as if they were adults which was kind of fun. Jack Riley (best known as the neurotic Mr. Carlton on The Bob Newhart Show) was an effective regular for a while, but was removed after May of 1980. Here's a rundown of Tim Conway Show episodes featuring Carol, Harvey and Vicki (available on YouTube).

March 29, 1980: Carol Burnett, KC and the Sunshine Band

Carol briefly returns as Mrs. Wiggins in the intro. KC and company sing something about putting on some boogie shoes.

Oct. 4, 1980: Carol Burnett

Carol only appears briefly in this episode as the Crazy Bird Lady interrupting Tim's introduction and referencing Tim's infamous elephant ad-lib from the Family sketches.

Nov. 29, 1980: Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman

Harvey and Carol are reunited with Tim. The only segment that really works has Burnett and Korman reviving their ham actor characters Funt and Mundane appearing in a cheap summer stock production with hapless stage manager Tim forced to step into the ingenue role of a tempting waitress. Tim does look funny in a black waitress uniform with apron sporting a Hitler moustache and garters.

Harvey and Carol as
Funt and Mundane, the Ham Actors

Carol and Harvey later show up in a mildly amusing commercial spoof. Carol is Rula Lenscap, a "famous person" barely breaking a sweat while Harvey dances his heart out to demonstrate how Albert B-O 5 holds up. This is a parody of ads featuring Rula Lenska, a British actress no one had ever heard of acting as if she were world famous. (I did see her on an episode of Doctor Who and she later appeared on a British show called Rock Follies which was shown on PBS.)

The young Don Creighton Dancers do a cute 1920s number (the best part of the whole show) and Tim and Harvey join regulars Maggie Roswell and Miriam Flynn in a retread of a sketch from Carol's show featuring two losers trying to score at a singles bar.

Dec. 6, 1980: Vicki Lawrence
Vicki plays the big-bosomed Mrs. Tudball with Tim as her put-upon hubby as they shop for shoes. The most remarkable element in this sketch is the outdated homophobia as Tudball mocks the swishy salesman. Vicki also appears as a snobby, glamorous version of herself as Tim introduces her as a down-to-earth kid.

Jan. 17, 1981: Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman

Harvey as Snow White and Tim
as her Prince Charming, 
the Old Man

This is a landmark segment only because Carol makes a surprise appearance as Eunice in a riotous rendition of the ShowTIMe segment. She's a member of the audience taking her role as Joan of Arc waaaay too seriously. Tim reprises the Old Man character as Prince Charming attempting to wake Snow White (Harvey vainly suppresses his giggles in Snow's glass coffin). Eunice's demands in the ShowTIMe sketch and Harvey's bizarre drag appearance as Snow and his Mother Marcus accent once awakened give this episode its few laughs. Carol would later play Eunice of Mama's Family in 1983.

Note: Carol also appeared on Tim's previous Comedy Hour series with Steve Lawrence (Nov. 15, 1970), but it was so lame, I couldn't watch all of it on YouTube. There was some nonsense about Tim, Carol and

Tim with Joan Crawford and Dick Martin
on The Tim Conway Comedy Hour

Steve as lions at the circus in a love triangle. This series did have a rare musical-variety appearance by Joan Crawford who appeared on the Oct. 4, 1970 episode with Dick Martin. There was a somewhat funny extended sketch satirizing cloak-and-dagger train films called The Last Choo-Choo to China with Tim, Joan and Dick as spies trying to get either the Klopman Diamond, the secret plans or the microfilm from each other (the writing is very sloppy). A pre-MASH McLean Stevenson appears as the incongruously hayseed conductor. Sally Struthers (before All in the Family) also appears.