The Hollywood legend Carol Burnett is speaking out this week to reveal the one project that she’d like to be remembered for from her 70+ year career in entertainment.
Burnett Discusses Her Legacy
Burnett, 92, would like to be remembered for The Carol Burnett Show. The classic sketch comedy show ran from 1967 until 1978, and it is still beloved to this day.
“Our show made people happy when they needed it. When they needed a laugh,” Burnett told The New York Post. She said this while discussing Sarah Jessica Parker receiving the honorary Carol Burnett Award at this year’s Golden Globes.
“I get that a lot in my fan mail,” Burnett continued. “Some people say, you know, sometimes we were having a rough time at home, and we watched your show, and for an hour we could forget our troubles and laugh.”
Burnett made her TV debut back in 1955 with a small role in The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show. The then starred in the short-lived sitcom Stanley. This was followed by guest appearances on The Tonight Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. There, she performed her hit satirical song, “I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles.”
Burnett’s big break came when she was cast as a regular performer on the CBS variety series The Garry Moore Show in 1959. Around this same time, she also starred as Princess Winnifred in the popular Broadway musical Once Upon a Mattress.
The Carol Burnett Show
Burnett was 34 year-old when The Carol Burnett Show premiered on CBS in 1967. She starred on this show alongside her fellow comedy icons Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner and Tim Conway. In her latest interview, Burnett credited her co-stars with making her show a success.
“It’s not just me. It was our show, with Harvey and Vicki and Tim and Lyle,” she explained. “We were a repertory company.”
“Yeah, it had my name on the title, but there were sketches where Harvey would be supporting me, I’d be supporting Tim, Vicki would be supporting Lyle,” Burnett added. “So it was an absolute joy because we got into the sandbox and played.”
Nearly 50 years after The Carol Burnett Show went off the air, Burnett still has fond memories from it.
When asked what the most meaningful moment was from the 11 years The Carol Burnett Show was on the air, Burnett replied, “All of it. All 11 years, because it was like playing.”
“We just had fun, and I’m grateful for that,” Burnett gushed. “It was a family.”
The Carol Burnett Show was still drawing in an average of 30 million viewers a week when Burnett decided to end it in 1978. Indeed, it was important to her that they go out on top.
“I called it quits because I thought we had done just about everything we could do, and we had started to repeat ourselves in sketches,” she explained in 2024. “I wanted to say goodbye.”
Burnett Talks Palm Royale
These days, Burnett is still working in entertainment. She’s currently starring on the Apple TV series Palm Royale.
“I remember when they asked me to do it about two years ago,” Burnett said of this series, which was created by Abe Sylvia. “He called me and said we’d love you to be one of the characters.”
“I said, ‘Who’s in it?’ And they said, Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Allison Janney,” she remembered. “I said, ‘Don’t go any further. I’ll be on. I don’t care what you want me to do. I want to work with those people.”
With over 100 film and television credits to her name, Burnett wants it to be known that she has no regrets from her career.
“I’m very happy with where I am, and the things that have happened to me before have gotten me to where I am now,” Burnett concluded. “So why change it?”
Burnett is a true legend, and there will never be another one like her. In the end, she can rest assured that she will never be forgotten.
God bless you, Carol Burnett!