What Carol Burnett Taught Me
Everything I Needed to Know About Being Both a Performer and a Decent Human, I Learned from the Carol Burnett Show
“It’s the Dawn Davis Show, starring Dawn Davis!” rang out every week, to the chagrin of my family. I took questions from the audience, sang songs (using my brother’s music stand as a microphone stand) and performed dances and skits. I played all the parts, of course. And at the end of my show, I tugged on my earlobe to signal my grandmother while singing the ending song, and I encouraged my “guest stars” to sign my red autograph book. If the format looks familiar, it is: I stole it from the best — Carol Burnett.
During the Summer of COVID 2020, nearly 40 years later, I decided to relive my youth and I watched every episode of the Carol Burnett Show available on Amazon Prime — all 11 seasons. The original show ran from 1967–1978 and won a total of 25 Primetime Emmy Awards, and was in syndication for a very long time afterwards. It was an illuminating experience to watch the episodes in order, as most of what I remembered about the show came from the 30-minute segments in syndication, typically shown out of order. The Carol Burnett Show remains in the bedrock of my performing DNA and I would like to share what I learned after revisiting Carol, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and the eclectic roster of guest stars.
Burnett cared for her audience. Burnett’s warmth and respect for the audience were apparent from the first episode to the last — when she asked if the techs could “bump up the lights” the audience could ask her anything, and quite often the requests were for a hug or a kiss. Her infectious laugh invited guest stars to feel at ease and audience members often brought her wacky — and sometimes questionable — homemade gifts, which she accepted with grace. Famous actors came to watch her show, including Rock Hudson and Lawrence Olivier, and they sat in the studio audience, rubbing elbows with regular folks. Burnett would personally thank them for coming, give herself a few seconds to be star-struck, and then commence with the show.
Burnett modeled generosity. She allowed the other cast members to shine, giving time to Vicki Lawrence to sing her hit song, “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,” she presented a generous baby gift onstage to announcer and new father Lyle Waggoner, and she encouraged the creation of a Harvey Korman fan club. She also let guest star Tim Conway get away with murder every week. Although the skits were filmed in front of a live audience, the cast recorded each skit twice on the same day so the best version could be used. It is said that before the second taping, Conway would enlist prop, costume, and set-makers to make changes. Unbeknownst to his usual victim, Harvey Korman, Conway often surprised him with ad-libbed dialogue and an unexpected, but choreographed, physical humor stunt. Watching him being dragged aloft by a pulley system for garments in a dry cleaner shop or using a rolling chair to prop up his over-medicated limbs in a dentist’s office usually undid Korman, along with the audience.
Burnett wasn’t afraid of making mistakes. Burnett and her major players were expert physical comedians who inhabited their characters and were fully committed to the skit. But, some of the funniest sketches are the ones where everything unraveled or someone had to overcome a late cue, a costume malfunction, or an ad lib from a colleague. And quite often she would use the hilariously-flawed version instead, because it was funnier.
Burnett surrounded herself with talented guests. Each week, Burnett invited popular singers, Broadway and film actors, and budding comedians on her show. She also invited a broad selection of some of the best dancers of the time. All of them have been profiled for the Today in Dance publication. A partial list includes:
George Chakiris, from West Side Story — Today in Dance profile
Betty Grable, movie musical star — Today in Dance profile
Gwen Verdon, Broadway star and wife of Bob Fosse- Today in Dance profile
Chita Rivera, from Chicago — Today in Dance profile
Donald O’Connor from Singin’ in the Rain — Today in Dance profile
Edward Villella, ballet dancer — Today in Dance profile
Rita Hayworth from Down to Earth — Today in Dance profile
Debbie Reynolds from Singin’ in the Rain — Today in Dance profile
Violette Verdy, ballerina — Today in Dance profile
Paula Kelly, from Sweet Charity — Today in Dance profile, Dancers Lost in 2020
Janet Jackson — Today in Dance profile
Sammy Davis, Jr. — Today in Dance profile
Shirley Maclaine, from Sweet Charity — Today in Dance profile
Rita Moreno, from West Side Story — Today in Dance profile
Dick Van Dyke, from Mary Poppins — Today in Dance profile
Ben Vereen, from Pippin — Today in Dance profile
Carol Burnett will always be remembered in my household as a gracious performer, an inspired comedian, and a darn good dancer. She inspired this dancer to explore humor as an option for dances and I will never forget how fun it is to make an audience laugh. I’m so glad we had this time together last summer.
