So Glad We Had This Time Together

Carol Burnett takes a look back at some of her favorite and funniest moments from her classic show.

- Craig Tomashoff

IF YOU EVER WANT THE experience of hearing a live TV audience absolutely lose their minds with laughter, just watch an episode of The Carol Burnett Show—or all 279 of them. We can assure you that you’ll laugh just as hard as they did. But where to begin? We asked the show’s eponymous star and comedy goddess Carol Burnett to tell us about her most memorable sketches with co-stars Vicki Lawrence, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Lyle Waggoner, and other famous guests.

The Funn Family

Season 1 — Episode 13

Burnett and company, alongside Mickey Rooney and John Davidson, paid tribute to old-fashioned movie musicals.

“It was in our first season, and that started us doing those backstage movie tributes. This one used a plot similar to a lot of those old Fox musicals … kind of a mashup of those types of films. We had Mickey Rooney and John Davidson as guest stars, and along with Vicki we played this old vaudeville team. It was set in the Ziegfeld Follies era, and the whole [idea] was they had to split up their act. Harvey played a character named Ziggy Flofeld, and he wanted a patriotic trio, so he only needed three people. Mickey was Pappa Funn and goes off on his own. We created original music for this one, which I think was about 20 minutes long, one of the first long-form things we ever did. I just loved doing it!”

As the Stomach Turns

Season 1 — Episode 20

In this recurring parody of soap opera conventions, Burnett played Marion, a constantly troubled resident of Canoga Park.