Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show: Part 26: Original Broadcast Masters Collection

I knew if I waited long enough, the missing, original hour-length versions of Carol's variety series not available on streaming, PBS reruns, or DVDs would eventually emerge. At long last they have--or at least some of them have. While scrolling through Amazon Prime, I came across a new platform called FreeVee (formerly the streaming arm of imdb.com) which contains the "Original Broadcast Masters Collection" of the series. There are several full-length episodes not already on various DVD collections. But you have to endure several minutes of commercials to get through each segment. This new collection contains many complete shows only previously available on the hacked-up, 22-minute syndicated reruns. Here is the first installment of these episodes with the missing material. I will note which pieces have been seen in the MeTV/Shout Factory vignettes and if I've reviewed them in previous blogs.

Season One
Nov. 13, 1967: Richard Chamberlain, Kay Medford, Gloria Loring
Previously seen on MeTV (reviewed in Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show, Part 8): Gone with the Breeze sketch, Carol and Sis sketch with Kay Medford as Roger's domineering sister.

Richard Chamberlain in a long-lost
musical number from Carol's show in 1967;
he's got that far-away look in his eyes.

Richard Chamberlain, America's heartthrob from his starring role on the Dr. Kildare series, gives Carol a big kiss during the audience intro, ostensibly to make Lyle jealous. Almost sixty years later, we know Chamberlain was a closeted gay and when he says to Carol, "It won't work," we know he's wasn't just referring to failing to turn Lyle envious. Also in the intro, Carol mentions that Kay Medford is currently filming Funny Girl as Barbra Streisand's mother. 

There's a brief sketch with Harvey at an airport interviewing passengers, which was used as running gag in later shows. Here he only speaks to one subject: Carol as mother of the year with septuplets. Jokes about confusing babies and her husband's sexual prowess proliferate, then it abruptly ends with Carol loaded down with seven dolls wrapped in blankets. Musical numbers excised from the MeTV version include Carol singing "Everybody's Gotta Be Someplace" with the chorus is orange and brown, semi-tropical wear, evidently on vacation in the Carribbean; Richard Chamberlain and the kids in flower-power slacks and sweaters warbling about loving some girl on a lazy day (he does some nice ballet moves); Gloria Loring singing "A Taste of Honey" and "I've Gotta Be Me" in front of a bunch of mirrors; Carol and Vicki in the finale boogeying in red-sequined maxi dresses, the chorus boys in blue Nehru jackets and black wigs and moustaches, and the girls in black sequins.

April 29, 1968: Tim Conway, Shani Wallis

Previously seen on MeTV (reviewed in Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show, Part 17): Carol and Sis Rearranged Furniture sketch; Tim and Carol in Hope Diamond sketch.

Shani Wallis
in Oliver!

We only saw Shani Wallis (then appearing in the film version of Oliver!) and Carol dressed in Victorian bustiers in the goodnights in the MeTV version, so now finally get to see the musical finale they were dressed for. While introducing Shani, Carol explains she worked with her when the latter played Lady Larkin in the TV version of Once Upon a Mattress. That would have been the 1964 edition. Bernadette Peters played the role opposite Carol in the 1972 update. Shani's solo number is a medley of the 1960s pop hit "Cherish" leading into the oldie "It Had to Be You." Then Tim appears as the first Native American President in a politically incorrect sketch with Harvey interviewing him. In the very first line, Tim cracks Harvey up. "Starting already, huh, white man," Tim quips. They continue with Tim ad-libbing and breaking Harvey up.

Carol gives a soulful rendering of "In the Meantime" and does a comedy bit with Lyle and a Radio City Rockette. The Old Folks complain about their sex lives (or lack thereof). 

The finale has Shani and Carol in a Civil War setting stripping off their hoop skirts to reveal those bustiers and singing "It Was Good Enough for Grandma" from Bloomer Girl and "What Strikes My Fancy" (I don't know which show it's from). As a bonus, Carol ends the evening by bringing out Harvey who receives an award from a middle-aged, zoftig fan (to contrast Lyle getting an award from a gorgeous young Rockette). How sexist and ageist.

April 29, 1968: Sid Caesar, Barbara McNair

Previously seen on MeTV: (reviewed in Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show, Part 8): I Spy parody with Barbara McNair; Silent Film Has-Beens with Sid Caesar; Drunken Sound Effects Sketch with Carol, Harvey, Lyle.

Carol with Sid Caesar

Newly discovered material in this segment includes Barbara McNair's solo (I've Grown Accustomed to His Face and The Second Time Around); Barbara and Carol in a gospel number with the chorus smacking those tambourines; Carol as the charwoman cleaning up at the UN and singing "If I Ruled the World" and a mini-musical set in a gypsy camp. The latter is a fairly elaborate sketch with gorgeous Bob Mackie costumes, production numbers with choreography, and schtick. Sid Ceasar plays two roles--the 150-year-old king of the gypsies and a young violinist who claims the throne after the old king passes. Carol is the king's daughter Magda and Harvey is the evil usurper. Sid and Harvey fight for the kingship. Carol has a funny song about fortune-telling. Sid is very funny as the old gypsy, making his daughter find different methods of fortune-telling that do not predict his imminent demise. 

Season Two:

Oct. 7, 1968: Nanette Fabray, Trini Lopez

Previously seen on Me TV: (reviewed in Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show, Part 10): Carol and Nanette as little girls; As the Stomach Turns, Lyle as gorgeous new doctor.

Trini Lopez plays guitar and lip-synches to "Mountain Dew" while the chorus does a square dance. Then he and Carol have a duet. Nanette Fabray plays an opera diva giving trills to "The Sunny Side of the Street." Carol is a desperate single gal (notice I didn't say spinster) entertaining equally desperate burglar Harvey as if he's a prospective date who just happened to drop by for romance. Then she immediately flirts with policeman Lyle when Harvey is caught. The finale is another sort of musical, another example of political incorrectness concerning Native Americans. Trini narrates as Carol plays an Indian princess hiding from a pre-arranged marriage amid Nanette's dance hall troupe at a fort deserted by General Custer. Harvey is an Indian chief named Stormy Weather. There's a fun novelty number extolling the virtues of being a dance-hall girl ("She's everybody's woman and nobody's wife") and Lyle appears shirtless as a medicine man.

Oct. 21, 1968: Edie Adams, Tim Conway, Isabel Sanford

Previously seen on MeTV: (reviewed in Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show, Part 17): Tim as a bank robber and a virginal school teacher.

Edie Adams was a versatile entertainer who won a Tony Award for Lil Abner, acted in films like The Apartment, Under the Yum Yum Tree and It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and is probably best known for her stints on her husband Ernie Kovacs' innovative TV comedy shows. She sings "Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair" and pairs with Carol as two bickering, bitchy versions of themselves fighting over the wedding of their children. The idea came about when each had a baby and they joked what if their offspring got married when they grew up. 

Edie Adams, Harvey, Isabel Sanford, Tim, 
and Carol in the political sketch.

Edie and Tim also appear in a unusually political sketch. Harvey plays a nominee for President searching for a running mate and Edie is his vacuous wife (perhaps in reference to a similar role she played in the film version of Gore Vidal's The Best Man). Tim plays the crude, racist governor of a Southern state up for the job (perhaps based on George Wallace) and Carol is his tacky, ex-waitress wife who sips from a flask hidden in her purse. This character is a precursor to Eunice. Isabel Sanford, who appeared periodically on the series, plays Amanda, Harvey and Edie's maid. She lets her displeasure with racist Tim's presence be emphatically known by spraying insecticide. 1968 was an election year and Wallace was running as a third party candidate, handing the election to Tricky Dick Nixon. Wallace was unabashedly bigoted and made headlines by standing in the doorway of schools to prevent black students from entering. There are jokes about the KKK and the Civil War, if you can believe that. Carol lets it slip that Tim is a member of the KKK. Tim quickly explains that's a Southern car repair service like AAA. "Yeah, if your car breaks down, a man in a white sheet shows up to fix it," Carol quips in her Eunice Southern accent.

The finale has Carol, Edie and Vicki dolled up as aging tarts performing "Those Were the Days" which was a big hit on the radio back then.

There are more complete episodes from FreeVee on Amazon which will be dissected in upcoming blogs.