by Cindy McLennan, May 6, 2016
Credit: Courtesy of TJL Productions.
PBS is airing a new 90 minute special, Carol Burnett's Favorite Sketches. The special features favorite moments, personally selected by Burnett, from The Carol Burnett Show. The sketch comedy and variety show ran for 11 seasons on CBS from September 11, 1967 to March 29, 1978. While the network wanted to renew it for a 12th season, Burnett wanted explore other kinds of work. The show returned in the fall of 1991 with a new cast, but was cancelled after nine episodes.
Carol Burnett's Favorite Sketches includes sketches from the first five years of The Carol Burnett Show, which have not been seen in decades. Carol Burnett's Favorite Sketches airs Friday, June 3, 2016, from 9:00 to 10:30pm ET. Check your local listings. The special includes skits with Burnett and Carol Burnett Show regulars Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner, as well as special guests, Steve Martin and Betty White.
CAROL BURNETT'S FAVORITE SKETCHES features these performances:
- "As the Stomach Turns: Close Encounters"
- The soap opera parody pokes fun at the alien visitation classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind with guests Steve Martin and Betty White.
- "The Dentist"
- The famous sketch with Harvey Korman as the very first patient of nervous dentist Tim Conway, who just got out of dental school and accidentally injects himself with Novocain.
- "Went With the Wind"
- Ranking as of the greatest sight gags in TV history: Starlet O'Hara (Carol) appears in a dress made from curtains in this famous Gone With The Wind parody.
- "Nora Desmond: The Commercial"
- Carol satirizes Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard as an actress looking for a career via a Knock 'Em Dead bug spray commercial.
- "The Oldest Man: Galley Slaves"
- Slave ship taskmaster (Lyle Waggoner) assigns a rowing partner in the form of "The Oldest Man" (Tim Conway) for one of his men (Harvey Korman).
- "The Family - Sorry!"
- Eunice, Ed and Mama sit down for a nice little game of Sorry! and things get ugly fast, causing Mama to lay into Eunice with the put-down "You got splinters in the windmills of your mind."
- "Tudball and Wiggins"
- Mr. Tudball and his secretary Mrs. Wiggins are up to their old shenanigans trying to implement a fire safety program.