Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show, Part 29: Paley Center for Media Visit Two

I returned to the Paley Center for Media and viewed another brace of complete Carol Burnett Show episodes unavailable on DVD or YouTube. This set had segments previously seen on the MeTV series of chopped-up episodes, but with much missing material now finally unearthed.

Season Two:
Jan. 20, 1969: Tim Conway, Perry Como

Tim as the warden on New Year's Eve

Two sketches from this show featuring Tim Conway are part of the abbreviated syndicated package but I have not reviewed them previously because they were not particularly memorable. In the first Tim is a drunk prison warden called out of a New Year's Eve party to quell a riot. Harvey is the head guard vainly attempting to get his blotto boss to address the dire situation. The second features Tim as rich, plain girl Carol's fiancee seeking to impress her ultra-stuffy father Harvey. (Lyle appears as Carol's swishy, ultra-handsome brother for exposition purposes.) The only trouble is Tim has been given an allergy shot which makes him act like a cat. This basic premise was repeated on another show with Tim reacting to an injection meant for the family dog by behaving like a canine in front of his supervisor (Harvey again). 

In the opening Q&A, Carol reveals she is just getting over a cold and has missed rehearsal all week. "If Dean Martin can do it, so can I," she quips. Martin had his own long-running variety series on NBC and he only showed up for the taping one day a week. Harvey is also on the injured list, having broken a finger while skiing. Carol then introduces guest Perry Como who also had his own variety series, but stepped down from the weekly grind when he reached 50. Como had a silky smooth voice but was so relaxed in his presentation, I felt like taking a nap. (SCTV did a hilarious parody of him called Mr. Relaxation.) In his solo spot, Como sings "Sunshine Wine" about the virtues of owning nothing but his gal's love and good weather, and "Here's That Rainy Day." Carol joins him for a duet of Jerome Kern's "They Didn't Believe Me." There is a genuine laugh when Carol sings "Your teeth, your lips, your hair" and Como responds with "Are in a glass behind the chair" instead of "Are in a class beyond compare." This was probably rehearsed.

The finale consists of another salute to astrology. Along with Movie Studio Salutes, this was a recurring bit to present songs and short sketches. The sign this time is Aquarius. Famous names born during under this sign who receive a quick vignette include Charles Lindbergh, Charles Dickens, Abe Lincoln, John Barrymore and Galileo with Como doing a corny Italian accent. Longer scenes involve Carol mooning over her handsome doctor (Lyle of course) and Vicki and Harvey singing "How Could You Believe When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life." The weird finale has Vicki leading the chorus in "Age of Aquarius" from Hair with the chorus dressed in aquamarine, purple and lime green (EWWW!). This leads incongruously into Como crooning "Brotherhood of Man" from a totally different kind of Broadway show, How to Succeed. Everybody joins in for a celebration of unity and color coordination.

Season Three

March 23, 1970: Martha Raye, Mel Torme

Previously seen on MeTV and Reviewed in Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show, Part Ten: Martha and Carol with Their Dogs in the Park; Walt Disney Salute: G, M and X versions of Sleeping Beauty and Penny Poppins.

Mel Torme and Carol in
the Penny Poppins sketch.

Carol must have really loved Disney movies. The salute to movie studios segments usually only took up the finale portion and about 12-15 mins. On this episode, the Disney salute was in three parts and consumed half of the running time. Also, Carol returned to Disney in a later episode with Dick Martin and Steve Lawrence (Covered in Part 22). In the MeTV edited version, we saw the three progressively more mature versions of Sleeping Beauty and the burlesque take-off of Mary Poppins featuring Carol as Mary's sister Penny tending to a nasty, dysfunctional household rife with alcoholism, sexual harassment, and manslaughter. 

In the complete version (available in black and white at the Paley Center), the additional Disney material includes an extended medley of Disney songs featuring Carol, Martha and Mel inserted in still scenes from the animated films. These include "Whistle While You Work," "When You Wish Upon a Star," and "Bippety-Boppedy-Boo." Harvey and Martha star as a peacock and peahen in a tribute to Disney's many Oscar-winning nature documentaries. Martha is sitting on their egg as Harvey struts around. Martha squawks she didn't believe it was possible, casting aspersions on Harvery's virility. "I thought you were the Sterile Cuckoo" and "You look like Liberace's underwear." (Again with the homophobic gags.) When Martha finally hatches the egg, both are shocked to see the product is a parrot. "I couldn't help it," Martha explains, "he was such a smooth talker." The chorus, dressed as hippos, ostriches, and alligators, dances a number from Fantasia and the finale has Harvey and Carol as Mickey and Minnie Mouse declaring thier eternal, mousey love. 

The hour is rounded out with Mel and Martha's solo songs. Mel gets all hip and "now" with "You Made Me So Very Happy" and "Spinning Wheel." Martha croons "He Gives Me Love" in a huge room with a fireplace. There are also ironic commercials for Doral and Kent cigarettes. In the latter, an attractive couple enjoys a beautiful spring day and puts the perfect end to it by lighting up cancer-causing coffin nails. In the former, people are smoking Dorals on an airplane and the pack sings "Taste me, taste me" to entice others to suck tobacco into their lungs. There's also a commercial for Carnation Instant Breakfast which we used to drink all the time and probably had little nutritional value.

Season Six:

Oct. 18, 1972: Cass Elliott, Joel Grey

Previously seen on MeTV and Reviewed in Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show, Part 5: Joel, Harvey and Lyle as Dogs in Pet Shop; Carol and Vicki in Mistaken Identity Sketch; Cass and Carol in Foreign Film Sketches with Parodies of Bicycle Thief, And God Created Woman, The Seven Samurai.

Cass Elliott in the "Movie Star"
number.

Another previously butchered episode with many hidden gems now unearthed thanks to the Paley Center. Joel Grey was currently starring in Cabaret which would later win him an Oscar and he displays his considerable musical-comedy chops in an elaborate, though somewhat inappropriate production number set to Paul Simon's Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard. The lyrics to the song, which was on the radio all the time when I was a kid, suggest it's about two young guys on the lam from the law in Corona, Queens. But Bob Mackie has outfitted Joel and the chorus as if they're celebrating Carnival in Rio.

Cass Elliott had broken away from the Mamas and the Papas and was establishing herself as a solo artist. She appeared on Carol's show six times as well as numerous other variety series of the period. (Tragically, she died just a few years later at age 32.) Here, she plays a cinema usherette (like Carol was) and sings "Oh, To Be a Movie Star" from The Apple Tree, then in a fantasy sequence, got up like Mae West, she delivers a gorgeous "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries." Later Cass joins Carol on a medley of round songs like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean," and "Sweet Low, Sweet Chariot." 

The centerpiece of the show was a series of sketches and numbers on foreign films. The sequence was tied together with Carol and Cass as moviegoers enjoying a foreign film festival, introduced with a specialty song and the two eating foods associated with the nationality of the movie they were watching. The MeTV version included short parodies of The Bicycle Thief, And God Created Woman, and the Seven Samurai. Now we get to see the missing pieces of this sequence. After the above-mentioned trio, there's a satire of the Greek Never on a Sunday spoofing the practice of dubbing. As Carol, Lyle and Harvey play out the scene as a prostitute and two randy sailors, a much milder English translation has them talking about sharing chocolate sundaes and visiting the schoolhouse where Carol teaches.

The finale is a complicated spoof of international heist films of the era like Topkapi and Rififi, entitled appropriately enough Heist. Each member of the cast plays a different nationality in a transglobal chase for an enormous diamond. The chorus, dressed in trenchcoats, hats and dark glasses follows the trail of the gem with Lyle as a Russian thief, Cass as a German spy, Joel as an Italian playboy, Vicki as a Japanese geisha, and Harvey as a British type in a linen suit like Sydney Greenstreet or Robert Morley. Carol pops up in each location in a different persona just missing the gem until finally she grabs it in Morocco, slips it down her cleavage and it falls and shatters on the ground. This must have been a nightmare to film and edit with so much stock footage of different cities, various sets and costume changes. But the overall effect is funny satire of spy pictures.

There are a few more complete episodes at the Paley and on Amazon to review in future blogs.