Shock value isn’t humor, Queen of Comedy Carol Burnett tells newcomers
By Gayl Murphy
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 7/14/07 – Though her long-running, award-winning “The Carol Burnett Show,” lives on only in syndication, TV icon Carol Burnett still effortlessly entertains. So much so, that the red-haired comedienne will soon be the subject of an upcoming PBS “American Masters” show, chronicling her life and work in Hollywood.
Burnett came from humble beginnings, but traces her entertainment motivation to weekends she spent watching movies as a child. “There were times when we would see as many as eight movies a week, though they were double features then,” Burnett said. “The movies of that era, somebody might look at them now and say, oh, they’re so old fashioned and so forth. But they gave this little girl hope. The bad guys got their just dues, and the good guys always came through. I felt that I could do anything.”
Foregoing her other dreams of becoming a journalist and a cartoonist, Burnett eventually borrowed some money from a friend and headed to New York, the only place she imagined she could become the next Ethel Merman or Mary Martin. Burnett said, “I’d never been to New York, never been further east than Texas, didn’t even know where I was going to stay. That’s how stupid I was. But I found my way, and I was never frightened and I really think it was because I was naïve . . . I just thought life was a movie and this [was] going to end okay.”
After years of various comedic and Broadway roles while befriending the likes of Garry Moore and Lucille Ball, Burnett really exceeded expectations with the debut of “The Carol Burnett Show” in 1967. To Burnett, the key to the show’s success was remembering why they all became entertainers to begin with. “I got [all the cast] together at one point, and I said, ‘We are here’ — why do we get into this business as kids? I mean, when you really think of it, we get into it to have fun,” Burnett said. “And I know that sounds like Pollyanna, but I think if you go into it with that attitude . . . and if we [can] impart that to our audience and have fun with each other, that’s going to make our show successful.”
Although CBS initially had misgivings about the success a variety show helmed by a woman might have, all doubts were eventually quashed as the show went on to win 22 Emmys throughout its 11 season run. While many comedies today may hope for the same chance Burnett’s show received, the likelihood is slim, even in her opinion.
“I feel sorry for anybody starting out today that might want to do what we did, because I don’t think it can be done anymore,” Burnett said. She continued, “I don’t think a network would have the faith in it, nor would they want to put the money into it. It would cost a lot more now to do what we did then.”
Besides, or perhaps due to, studio reluctance to nurture new shows, Burnett remarked that television simply isn’t “that much fun anymore.” She said, “I miss good dramas and I miss good comedies and I do miss variety. I mean singing, dancing, sketches, costumes, guest stars. Maybe somebody can come back and a network would have the faith in someone who would do that. I can think of a few people who would be wonderful, but it’s really the suits. They run it.”
And the lack of fun may also be attributed to the tendency for modern comedy to be more about being insulting or vulgar than just purely funny. Reflecting on that trend, Burnett said, “We did some sketches that were pretty pointed, but we were never intentionally cruel. And I just find it’s not funny to me. It’s not that everybody has to be [smiling all the time.] I don’t mean that. But it’s a different world, and everybody is talking, ‘Edgy. Let’s get edgy‘. . . And you don’t get those belly laughs that much anymore.”
But that doesn’t mean that Burnett has completely written off all of the industry. There are still many performers she respects and admires. “The other Cary Grant now is George Clooney,” she said. “I think he’s terrific. He’s funny. He’s smart, dresses great. Now younger, I’m crazy about Johnny Depp. I think he’s so talented, and I love the fact that he does all kinds of different things.”
For the female side, Burnett said, “Meryl Streep . . . can do no wrong. When she did ‘Devil Wears Prada,’ I just — and also Anne Hathaway. In fact, I was surfing last night and that movie was on, and I watched part of it again, and Anne was just terrific. . . I think Lindsay Lohan is a big talent. I think she is a very big talent, and my wishes go with her. She has a lot to offer and I just –I am praying for her that she’ll be okay.”
Even some of this decade’s popular comedy has Burnett‘s approval. Last year she guest starred on soap dramedy “Desperate Housewives” and this year she’d love to guest on NBC’s “The Office” – if only they’d return her phone calls. “I keep calling them,” Burnett said, “but they keep changing their number. I don’t know. I don’t think they have guest stars [on ‘The Office’] that much, but if they did, I’d be right there.”
In the meantime, she just may have to settle for starring in a movie alongside Steve Carell. Burnett is currently working on the FOX CGI-animated version of Dr. Seuss’s “Horton Hears a Who!” Burnett will voice the villainous Sour Kangaroo alongside Jim Carrey’s Horton and Carell’s Mayor of Whoville. “I’ve never done [voice work] before,” Burnett said, “but you are acting in a vacuum. They’re not with you. And I wish Jim and I could be on the same set together because I think we could be ad-libbing and overlapping and stuff. But I’m still having fun.”
Besides the film, Burnett is writing again, this time an anecdotal book about the different stories she’s told people in Q&As, and she also plans to perform at benefits for Santa Barbara charity Girls, Inc. in the fall. She is definitely keeping busy, but she will always link her greatest professional accomplishments with her show.
She said, “I’m proud of so many people that I’ve worked with and had the joy of knowing. Certainly up there is the eleven years of our show. And I’m also proud of a lot of the specials that we did and proud — with Julie [Andrews] and Placido Domingo and especially my darling Beverly Sills. And that will always live within me.”
Burnett’s “American Masters” will air this fall and “Horton Hears a Who!” is slated for a March 14, 2008 release.