“The Carol Burnett Show” is known for being one of the funniest shows to ever be on television, which is why it’s come as a surprise that Carol Burnett herself is now opening up about the one sketch from the program that left her devastated.
The 87 year-old icon told The Wrap that she remembered filming a 1974 sketch that featured guest star Maggie Smith, along with herself as character Eunice Wiggins, Harvey Korman as her husband Ed Wiggins, and Vicki Lawrence playing her role as Mama.
In the skit, the Wiggins paid a visit to their son Bubba’s Sunday School teacher, played by Smith, to talk about how he was acting like a bully to his peers. It quickly becomes clear in the scene that Bubba was acting out due to his upbringing at home.
Burnett explained that the actors did the scene without their usual Southern accents and overstated style, following a suggestion from someone on set.
“Before we were going to take, one of us said, ‘You know, just for fun, let’s do a run-through of this without doing the accents and without going over-the-top, let’s do it. Like it would be for real people, you know?’ And we did. And it was, it was devastating,” Burnett recalled.
Burnett also talked about how successful the show was, calling it the “proudest” achievement of her career.
“We were able to, for a while, whatever it was, make people laugh and maybe forget some of their troubles even for a moment,” she said.
This comes after it was announced that all eleven seasons of “The Carol Burnett Show” will be available for streaming on Amazon Fire, Apple TV and a number of other platforms as of June 1. The hilarious show is sure to provide some joy in a difficult time of coronavirus quarantine.
Like millions of other Americans, Burnett has been in quarantine for weeks, and she said the thing she misses most is connecting with other people.
“Not being able to socialize and see my family, that’s tough, but we keep in touch,” Burnett said. “I talk to my sister and my kids almost every day, and everybody’s doing as well as can be expected.”
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