For most of America, when you think sketch comedy, you think of “Saturday Night Live.” But before SNL debuted with its stellar cast, the bar for sketch comedy was set by “The Carol Burnett Show,” which aired from 1967 to 1978. It is known as one of the best television series of all time.
Ironically, when SNL recently asked the public on social media who they would like to see host the show in the upcoming season, Carol Burnett was the number one choice!
Shame on SNL for never having her host before!
The cast of the iconic show were greats like Tim Conway, Betty White, Steve Martin, Vicki Lawrence, Dick Van Dyke, Lyle Waggoner, Harvey Korman, and others.
It was a pretty firm rule on the show for the actors to maintain their characters. This of course led to some healthy competition among the comedic greats.
One sketch that became a spin-off was the “Mama’s Family” sketch.
Carol and Harvey played Ed and Eunice and Vicki Lawrence played Mama. They had a host of other characters join them from time to time.
“I never wanted to stop and do a retake, because I like our show to be ‘live,’” Carol wrote in her memoir. “So when the ‘Family’ sketches came along, I was adamant that we never break up in those scenes, because Eunice, Ed, and Mama were, in an odd way, sacred to me. They were real people in real situations, some of which were as sad and pitiful as they were funny, and I didn’t want any of us to break the fourth wall and be out of character.”
Well, that was all well and good until you bring Tim Conway and Dick Van Dyke into the scene.
You have to see this scene to believe it, and you ought to watch it at least once a month. It could just make the world a better place. You actually get to see take one and take two on the clip below.
And after you watch this iconic scene, you can listen to some thoughts that Vicki Lawrence has about it.
By the end, you will be petitioning SNL to get Carol on the show before it’s too late.
