by Billy Ingram
No question, the
most successful variety show of all-time was The
Carol Burnett Show (CBS 1967-1978). But one variety show failure
almost derailed Carol Burnett's amazing career before it really got
going.
Carol Burnett got
her start in off-Broadway theatre, first achieved national attention
with a novelty tune entitled "I Made A Fool Of Myself Over John Foster
Dulles" (Eisenhower's prim Secretary of State - don't ask), then made
her way to television via appearances on The
Ed Sullivan Show.
Burnett's first
regular series role was on a sitcom called 'Stanley' (Sept. 1956 - March
1957) - one of those early TV shows with a high-quality pedigree that
failed to catch on.
In
'Stanley', Buddy Hackett starred as the lackadaisical manager of a hotel
lobby newstand/ticket agency in New York City, and Carol Burnett played
his loopy girlfriend Celia. Writers and producers from Sid Caesar's
'Your Show of Shows' were behind the production - produced and directed
by Max Liebman, with playwrite Neil Simon on the writing staff. This
NBC sitcom (broadcast live) barely lasted one season.
During
the run of 'Stanley', Burnett did a guest shot on the 'Garry Moore Show'
(1950-1958), a popular daytime variety program on CBS. This led to Burnett's
next big break - as a regular player on the prime-time Gary
Moore Show (1958-1964), one of the most easy-going variety shows
of the early-sixties.
The
producer of the show was Joe Hamilton (with Bob Banner) - Hamilton and
Burnett eventually married and had three children (which caused a minor
scandal and almost cost wholesome Burnett her career since Hamilton
was already married with children when they began going out).
With a pliable face
and a circus contortionist's body (TV Guide called her "the girl in
the rubber mask"), Carol Burnett won the hearts of TV viewers playing
the nervous klutz in dozens of hilarious skits on the Moore
show. She was an instant hit with the home audience, one of the emerging
medium's first bright stars.
Each
week, hapless Carol would find herself in the most outrageous predicaments.
No matter how sketchy the script, the comedienne turned each piece into
a farcical romp with her spasmatic interpretations. She quickly became
the de-facto star of the program.
In 1962, Burnett
left the 'Gary Moore Show' to tour and in 1964 turned up as one of three
rotating hosts on 'The Entertainers' (a variety series that featured
Bob Newhart and Caterina Valente as the other two hosts).
The series was a
huge, unanticipated flop, lasting less than a year. Almost nothing has
been written about 'The Entertainers', everyone involved seems to have
blotted the series from their resumes.
Despite this blunder,
CBS gave Carol Burnett a ten-year, million-dollar contract to make one
special a season and do two guest shots on the network. She refused
to do another traditional sitcom, reasoning "They would probably name
me Gertrude or Agnes, and that's all I'd be forever".
Over the next three
years, Burnett hosted some of the finest variety specials ever broadcast
(including her Emmy Award winning special 'Julie and Carol at Lincoln
Center') until CBS finally talked her into hosting a weekly variety
series of her own.
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Carol Burnett's
Carol Burnett's last special in 1967 before starting her long-running variety series was the closest thing she had done to a straight-ahead variety show format since leaving the 'Gary Moore Show'. The result was Carol + 2 - an unsatisfying mix of luke-warm skits and flat performances, very unusual for a Burnett special (which were all highly acclaimed). Guests on the show were Lucille Ball and Zero Mostel. The opening theme music was some of the most bizarre ever written for a comedy special ('Night Gallery', maybe) and the set is decorated with gigantic, grotesque caricatures of the three stars. Burnett must have learned something from this experience - 'The Carol Burnett Show' began production just a few weeks later with much better results.
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