Carol Burnett talks about what's funny now – and what's not
It's not quite accurate to say that Carol Burnett's heyday was 40 years ago, because it never ended.
Peter Tolan, the executive producer of the upcoming "Mad About You" revival, told TV Insider that he is hoping to convince Burnett to return to her role as Jamie's (Helen Hunt) mother.
A Netflix movie, "Sorta Like a Rock Star," just cast Burnett alongside "Saturday Night Live" alum Fred Armisen, Netflix's "One Day At a Time" star Justina Machado and newcomer Auli’i Cravalho ("Moana").
Last week, Parade magazine named "The Carol Burnett Show" as one of "the 20 absolute best TV shows of all time," to quote the headline.
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The 86-year-old legend spoke to the USA TODAY Network recently about topics ranging from the TV shows she watches to her young YouTube fan base. The conversation is edited for length and clarity.
Question: You're very open with your audiences. Why aren't you on social media?
Burnett: I'm just not interested. There's enough going on in this world. I don't Twitter and I don't tweet, or whatever all of that is. I like to have my downtime, too. I'm a happy camper without it.
Q: On Nov. 21, the Paley Center for Media is saluting you and other comedy legends (Norman Lear, Bob Newhart, Carl Reiner and Lily Tomlin). With all of the awards you've received, is it still special to get this kind of recognition?
Burnett: Oh, absolutely, and I'm happy about this one because I'm with some wonderful people. I'm in reaaally good company. I think we're going to have a great evening.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2019/05/14/tim-conway-remembered-celebrities-mourn-carol-burnett-show-star/3667046002/Carol Burnett, Judd Apatow, RuPaul, more stars pay tribute
Q: One of your great early moments was your comic love song to President Dwight Eisenhower's secretary of state, "I Made a Fool of Myself over John Foster Dulles." Is there anyone on today's political scene who deserves a comic love song?
Burnett: I can't think of anybody because nothing is that funny anymore. That was perfect. I was 20-something and working at a nightclub called the Blue Angel. My special-material writer was Ken Welch, and he was really brilliant. This was at the height of the Elvis Presley craze in 1957. He said, "Wouldn't it be funny if you're this young girl and you're in love with not Elvis, but John Foster Dulles?" who was aptly named. He was kind of a dull person. You never saw him crack a smile or anything like that.
I did it on a Tuesday night on the Jack Paar show. I went back to do my midnight show at the club and the phones were ringing off the hook. And one of the calls was from a man who was Mr. Dulles' television adviser. He said, "Mr Dulles didn't see it, but could you go back on the Paar show again and do it?" Then I went back on Thursday night and did it. Then Ed Sullivan called and I did it again on Sunday. That was three times in one week.
Q: On "Law & Order: SVU," you had a memorable guest-starring role as a very complicated villain. Is that something you enjoy doing?
Burnett: Oh yes. It's fun to play a villain. … You can really go all out. The secret, I think, of playing a villain is they don't think they're villains. They think they are right. They think that everybody's against them, that they're really good people.
Q: Do you feel a kinship with someone like Tina Fey?
Burnett: I love her. We're friends, along with Amy Poehler. I'm actually just thrilled there are so many women now being recognized in comedy. When I started out, the main one was Lucy (Ball) and that was it. And now you've got Tina and Amy and Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon and Maya Rudolph and Jane Lynch and on and on. A lot of them are producers and they write their own shows. They're right up there with the men.
Q: "The Carol Burnett Show," for a lot of us, made staying home Saturday nights and watching TV just fine. Why would you want to go out?
Burnett: Well that was a great night, when it started with "All in the Family," and then "M*A*S*H," and then Mary (Tyler Moore) and Bob Newhart, and us. There weren't VCRs then, so people stayed home. We all averaged maybe 30 million viewers a week, because there were only the three channels.
Q: Do you watch a lot of TV now? Are there shows where you say, "I'm staying home to see this"?
Burnett: I'm more into cable and the drama shows. I was just crazy about Vince Gilligan with "Breaking Bad" and now "Better Call Saul" and those things. The comedy that I like recently is "Schitt's Creek." I think they're great. I've been a fan of Eugene (Levy) and Catherine (O'Hara) ever since "SCTV." To have them back on is a delight.
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Q: One of your latest credits is playing Chairol Burnett in "Toy Story 4." How do you play an animated chair?
Burnett: You don't. You just play it like yourself and they do the animation. I had the script and they were telling me what it was about and they showed me a photograph of what the chair looked like and I said, "OK." But that didn't make me go, "What would a chair say?" That was easy.
Q: This spreads your fan base from those who've watched you since the ’50s to little kids today seeing that movie. That's really amazing!
Burnett: What's neat, too, is because we're on YouTube (with "Carol Burnett Show" skits), and the DVDs sold well, and we're on MeTV, I'm getting fan mail from 10-year-olds and teenagers. Some of these kids say, "I watch it when I get home from school before I do my homework." They watch a couple of sketches. So they hold up. I've said it before, I dare anybody to watch Harvey (Korman) and Tim (Conway) in the dentist sketch and not lose it, and that's over 40 years old.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Carol Burnett: Comedy legend answers our questions about funny
