Lots of news on the Carol Burnett Show front: The Paley Center (formerly the Museum of Broadcasting) appears to have finally opened its doors after almost two years of COVID shutdown. They have several complete episodes from the "lost" years (Seasons 1-5) which are not on DVD or have been hacked up on the syndicated reruns seen on MeTV, Amazon, Shout Factory! and other outlets. I will have to pay them a visit soon and find the missing pieces. Speaking of those syndicated half-hours, several have mashed together segments from different episodes. They recently showed one with separate sketches featuring Sammy Davis Jr. and Cher who never appeared together on the show and another with Alan King and an extended sketch which was originally on the family show for Season 10 with no guests. Also Channel 21, a local PBS station, is running hour-long episodes, although none are the missing complete shows from season 1-5. But they do have some really interesting segments from seasons 6-11. I checked the programming schedule of other PBS stations and it seems they do have the complete Ethel Merman episode from season 2. Here's a rundown of recently seen episodes from my DVD collection I hadn't gotten around to, reruns on Channel 21, and mash-ups on MeTV.
Season Three:
Nov. 23, 1969: Lucille Ball, George Carlin
Nov. 23, 1969: Lucille Ball, George Carlin
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| Carol and Lucy as the Rock Sisters |
Half a century later, Carlin plays a disc jockey staging a concert at the same theater where Carol, Lucy and Harvey were terminated. He's one act short in his bill of 100 attractions. His dim-witted assistant Tondelayo (Vicki) hires the now ancient siblings to complete the show. There are plenty of geriatric gags as the grey-haired entertainers hobble their way to their latest gig. The "girls" are almost booed off the stage for their old-fashioned rendition of "Happiness Cocktail," a piece of special material parodying the songs of the 1910s and '20s. But the chorus boys, dressed as hippie rockers lend a hand and the old broads are a hit.
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| Carol, Harvey and Lucy in the highjacking sketch |
Carol, Harvey, Lucy and Lyle do a parody of Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice with all four in one bed. The sexual innuendoes are dropped here in favor of jokes about unwelcome guests. In this tame version, Ted and Alice are joining their friends in bed because their house has burned down rather than for sex play. Lyle is played as a dimwit instead of the sexy hunk he is. In reality Lucy and Carol would have been fighting to be next to Lyle. The punchline comes when Alice's overweight parents drop by and pile into the mattress with the others.
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| Harvey, Carol, Lyle and Lucy as Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice |
My favorite segment of this episode has Carol and the chorus performing an elaborate production number of a song written by an audience member. This could never happen in today's lawsuit-minded world where nobody accepts unsolicited material for fear of being sued if if something similar turns up on their show. (I assume the woman got paid after she submitted her tune to Carol during a Q&A session a few weeks earlier.) Vicki and Lyle don groovy hippie threads and sing "Try a Little Kindness" while strumming guitars (It's not clear if they are really playing or not.)
Season Seven:
Feb 1, 1974: Tim Conway, Steve Lawrence
(Channel 21) This episode features two frequent guests--Steve Lawrence and Tim Conway before he joined the cast as a regular. Most of the sketches are fairly routine--Tim as the world's oldest tailor, Steve crooning a pop tune, Steve and Carol at a singles bar, Tim and Carol as a couple working different shifts. But there are two outstanding sequences that were regular features of the show: Carol as a housewife besieged in her kitchen by characters from TV commercials and the mini-musical finale employing the works of one composer and/or lyricist. The commercial sketch was pretty funny with Harvey bursting through the window as Alan Sues as Peter Pan, hawking peanut butter and Lyle bursting through a wall as Big Wally, the mascot of a wall-cleaner. I think Denny Miller (a movie Tarzan and a muscular guest on Gilligan's Island) played it in the ads. The mini-musical, this was the first one, was composed of songs by George Gershwin and casts Steve and Carol as passengers on an art deco ocean liner falling in love and Harvey and Vicki as their respective servants doing likewise. It's a charming confection featuring songs from Porgy and Bess as well as "Blah, Blah, Blah," "I've Got a Crush on You," "Someone to Watch Over Me," "Somebody Loves Me," and many others. There is also music from Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris. Later mini-musicals would honor Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne, Comden and Green, Frank Loesser, Lerner and Loewe, Harnick and Bock, etc.
Feb. 23, 1974: Eydie Gorme, Tim Conway
(MeTV) This chopped-up version includes a particularly brilliant sketch with Vicki as a fortune teller and Carol as her innocent customer. The gimmick is each of Vicki's outlandish and increasingly elaborate predictions comes true with more and more cast members as policeman, drug dealers, revolutionaries pouring into her tent and complicating Carol's life until she winds up shot. "You didn't really believe all that, did you?" asks Vicki as Carol lies on the ground.
Season Eight:
Dec. 13, 1974: Ken Berry, Carl Reiner
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| Vicki as Gertrude, Harvey as Claudius, Ken Berry as Hamlet, Carol as Ophelia, and Carl Reiner as the Ghost in Hold Me, Hamlet! |
In Carol's take-off, all the songs are original (probably by Ken and Mitzi Welch) and the ultra-serious drama becomes a rowdy sex farce as the Ghost (Carl Reiner) chases the scantily-clad chorus girls and Claudius
(Harvey) gives his nephew-stepson (Ken Berry as Hamlet) sex advice in a parody of Cole Porter's "Let's Do It" called "Nobody Does It Like a Dane." Harvey also introduces the show as Alastair Cookie, of Masterpiece Theater. Carol as Ophelia croons a mock blues number, "The Boy in Black." Vicki as Gertrude has a comedy number duet with Hamlet as Gertrude, "Don't You Love Your Mother Anymore"? The tragedy is resolved when Carl as the randy Ghost with an incongruous Cockney accent reveals he's perfectly happy as a specter persuing the girls, so Hamlet's motive for revenge against Claudius evaporates. The formerly melancholy Dane necks with Ophelia and all ends well in a mockery of Broadway musicals which must have everything coming up roses.
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| The Hamlet musical from Gilligan's Island. |
(Harvey) gives his nephew-stepson (Ken Berry as Hamlet) sex advice in a parody of Cole Porter's "Let's Do It" called "Nobody Does It Like a Dane." Harvey also introduces the show as Alastair Cookie, of Masterpiece Theater. Carol as Ophelia croons a mock blues number, "The Boy in Black." Vicki as Gertrude has a comedy number duet with Hamlet as Gertrude, "Don't You Love Your Mother Anymore"? The tragedy is resolved when Carl as the randy Ghost with an incongruous Cockney accent reveals he's perfectly happy as a specter persuing the girls, so Hamlet's motive for revenge against Claudius evaporates. The formerly melancholy Dane necks with Ophelia and all ends well in a mockery of Broadway musicals which must have everything coming up roses.
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| Carol and Harvey as Nora Desmond and Max in Disaster 75. |
Ken also has a musical number, dancing to Razzle Dazzle from Chicago with the company attired in early 1900s outfits. In a series of musical sketches, popular song titles are used as punchlines. In a particularly disturbing one, Carl sings "How to Handle a Woman" after assaulting his wife Carol. Vicki is very funny as a woman warbling "I've Gotta Be Me" as she removes her wig, make-up and dentures.
Season Ten
Dec. 4, 1976: Alan King
(MeTV) This is really weird. A 22-moment segment of Carol Burnett and Friends combined sketches from this Alan King episode with the extended parody Rich Lady/Broke Lady from the Christmas family show two weeks later (See below). King was a stand-up comic with his roots in the Borscht Belt. Here he participates in a series of Warner Brothers movie take-offs including The Fountainhead, They Died with Their Boots On, and Ceiling Zero. According to imdb.com, there were also a parodies of Casablanca and Night and Day, but maybe those were musical. There was also a sketch with Alan as a neurotic psychiatrist and Carol as his patient where they eventually exchange places. That piece appears in a different 22-min. edited episode.
Dec. 25, 1976: Family Show
(The Best of the Carol Burnett Show) As noted the highpoint of this family Christmas show is the compressed Rich Lady, Broke Lady, a parody of the Rich Man, Poor Man mini-series and the whole concept of multi-part limited series based on potboiler best sellers. Carol, Vicki, Harvey and Tim go through 30 years of plotlines and fashions in 15 hilarious minutes. The editing is marvelous as the leads seem to age and change costumes miraculously in a matter of seconds. For the finale, there's an interesting twist on the traditional holiday number with Carol, Vicki and the chorus as servants enviously ticking off the expensive gifts of their ultra-rich employers Harvey and one of the chorus girls. "Money Makes the World Go Around" and "The Money Song" from Cabaret are juxtaposed with traditional carols. Then a children's chorus dressed in cheap clothing enters and they sing O Christmas Tree and everyone wishes the viewing audience a Merry Christmas.
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