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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).
