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Wednesday was a very special milestone for Carol Burnett as she celebrated her 90th birthday in style with the help of NBC.
Dubbed “Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter and Love,” the network’s two-hour celebration will take viewers back to some of Burnett’s funniest and most memorable moments — from her Broadway Her debut on “Once Upon a Mattress,” her early roles on “The Gary Moore Show,” her hit films “Four Seasons,” “The Wedding,” “Pete’n’Tillie,” and her role as Hannigan in “Annie” to her critically acclaimed sketch comedy series “The Carol Burnett Show,” which ran for 11 seasons on CBS and was instrumental in the development of the comedy.
Filmed at Avalon Hollywood in Los Angeles, the special was produced by Burnett, Brian Miller, Steve Sauer, Paul Miller and Baz Halpin, Mark Bracco and Linda Gierahn of Silent House Productions.
“We go all the way back to 1956 when she first appeared on TV, on a show called ‘Omnibus,’ all the way to ‘Better Call Saul. The next series produced by TV+,” Bracco said in an interview with TheWrap. “It’s hard to pull it all off, but I think we do represent the breadth of her career really well.”
“Another guy needs a dozen lives to have a career like Carroll’s,” Halprin added. “She paved the way and opened doors for all her followers.”
The TV and comedy icon spoke with TheWrap about taping the special and her long and illustrious career.
TheWrap: What’s it like celebrating such a fashion milestone on NBC?
Burnett: It’s absolutely fantastic. What I don’t want is a birthday party with cake and balloons and confetti and all that. I hope it’s really what it is, a variety show with live entertainment and clips from the beginning. Not just the “Carol Burnett” show, but Broadway and cameos and all kinds of stuff like that.Hats off to Harvey too [Korman] and Zhao Wei [Lawrence] and lyle [Waggoner] and Tim [Conway] and Bob McKee. And then all these wonderful live performances with a 19-piece orchestra. Live performances by Bernadette Peters, Kristin Chenoweth, Jane Lynch, Billy Porter, Katy Perry, Aileen Quinn, Darren Criss and Sutton Foster. So it’s very musically heavy, and it’s a variety show, not a barbecue or a birthday party.
Were there any particular moments during the recording that really stood out to you?
There are so many. They are all, every one of them. Many of them are also different. Kristen Wiig, Alison Janney and Laura Dern are hysterically funny. They come up, they do a little bit. I will not give up. And having Bernadette and Kristin being so sweet to me and my buddy Julie Andrews. Julie was with me all evening, sitting next to me. President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, Oprah, Dolly Parton, Jimmy Fallon, Bill Hader, Steve Martin and Marty Short, among others Both posted some really sweet videos, which I wasn’t expecting. It’s just so cute because there’s so many surprises I didn’t know they did until they showed it, which is awesome. All I can say is I was dumbfounded the whole evening.
What are some key lessons you’ve learned throughout your career?
Never take yourself too seriously.sometimes instead of show business its the show Business. I emphasize that, and [business is] As far as I’m concerned, it’s nothing. It’s about getting into the sandbox and having fun and playing. That’s why we got into it in the first place. There’s a saying I love that goes, “People may forget what you did and what you said.” But they’ll never forget how you made them feel. I hope I can make people happy and laugh when they might be upset.
What advice do you have for someone looking to break into the entertainment industry, especially comedy?
Again, don’t take yourself too seriously. And if you’re auditioning and don’t get it, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen at the next audition. Sometimes I crave something and I think I get it but I don’t and another girl gets it – but I’ve never been disappointed. I do not know why. But what I thought was, well, it’s not my turn yet, and sooner or later it will be my turn.
So if you’re really interested and your stomach is on fire, go ahead and try it, it’s your turn. You have to be ready and ready, but sometimes you don’t get anything but say, ‘Well, it’s not my turn yet. ‘
What is your favorite moment in your career?
The first will be selected for a Broadway production directed by George Abbott. It was “Once Upon a Mattress,” many years ago, and that was my first big break on Broadway. It started off as an off-Broadway show, then we moved to Broadway. Then being cast as a performer on “The Garry Moore Show,” which was a hugely popular variety show in the ’60s, gave me a lot of TV experience.
I just want to be on stage. Then I realized that once I got “The Gary Moore Show,” I’d love doing TV a lot more because I could be a different person and perform a different song and a different character every week instead of being the same guy eight times a week. A role on Broadway. I never thought television would be my thing, but that’s what it turned out to be.
What was it like to start working on the final season of “Better Call Saul”?“
One of the best experiences of my career. I’m a friend of Vince Gilligan, and I’m a big fan of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. I was so engrossed in the show that we had dinner one night, my husband and I had dinner with Vince and his wife, Holly. He mentioned, “Well, maybe I can write you something in ‘Better Call Saul.'” I said, “I don’t care if it’s a sentence, I’ll be there.”
So they wrote me, and the whole cast and everything was great, because most of them had been together for 15 or so years, because a lot of the cast was from Breaking Bad. So they know what they’re doing, they’re on time, they couldn’t be better, and I’m in love with Bob Odenkirk. We had a great relationship, and then I started working with Peter Gould, who was also one of the creators, which was great. It’s a family like my show, and that’s a great feeling.
Is there a specific program or project that you haven’t had the opportunity to do, but would like to do?
You never know what will happen. That’s not something I can be sure of. I just recently finished an episode of “Madame”. American Pie” with Kristen Wiig and Laura Dern and Allison Janney and Ricky Martin. It took place in Palm Beach in the 70s with wealthy society people. That came out, I read the script, and there were 10 episodes. I Said yes so I did and I think they’re going to start airing this coming August or September which is the complete opposite of what I did on Better Call Saul. This is a very rich lady, With nice clothes and all that sort of thing. She’s the matriarch of Palm Beach society.
So, okay, what else would I bring? I don’t know, I’ll have to wait and see what happens. If I like it and I want to do it, I’m in.
What is your opinion on the development of television media?
There are good and bad. You can do more because there is a lot less censorship.But on the other hand, there are too many [television] It’s hard to choose. Plus, it’s no longer appointment TV. Everyone has their own TV, they can use TIVO, and when we started there were only three networks. So we do a show for about 30 million people a week because there are only three networks. The lineup that Saturday night was unbelievable. People wouldn’t go out because there were no VCRs back then. It was “Family Guy,” “MASH,” “Mary Tyler Moore,” Bob Newhart and us, and that was a Saturday night show. I don’t think it has ever been surpassed.
How has comedy evolved over the years?
[“The Carol Burnett Show”] Still hold on. You’ll see some clips from the show in specials. Some of these sketches are 40, 50 years old, and I bet anyone shouldn’t laugh at Tim and Harvey’s dentist sketches. That’s been around for over 40 years, and it sticks with what we do; I think that’s why our show goes on. We’re on TV, we’re all over YouTube, we have DVDs and everything, because we’re after belly laughs, we’re not trying to be newsworthy, we don’t fit ourselves into a particular schedule. It’s important to me because it’s fun and we showed moments with Tim Conway and Harvey in the special. We had the audience there, and they were laughing hysterically at a lot of stuff.
Comedy, these days, it’s edgier and its language rougher. I’m not a serious person by any means, the only thing I don’t like is if it’s gratuitous language and gratuitous body parts, they say something just to shock with laughter. I don’t approve of that. But if it’s edgy, I don’t think it’s ok, but it’s out of character, out of truth, where is there a character who would talk like that, not someone just trying to make the audience laugh just for shock value.
What message do you want viewers to take away from the NBC special?
I want them to take away a sense of being truly entertained and knowing that you can start from humble beginnings and eventually succeed at anything you really choose to do. Unfortunately we had to cut 33 minutes from the night because it was too long. But with luck, the full thing will be running on Peacock the next day. So the full 2.5 hours will start and we’ll touch on almost everything. I’ve done a lot of things, a lot of different movies and different sketches that I did myself, different specials. It’s a good question that we just can’t solve everything.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
“Carol Burnett: ’90 Years of Laughter + Love’ Airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC airs Thursdays on Peacock.
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