Carol Burnett had a clause in her 1967 CBS contract that allowed her to demand a primetime variety series within five years. Network executives did not even remember the clause existed when she invoked it, and they tried to steer her toward a sitcom instead, telling her that variety was a man’s game. She refused, cited the contract, and got her show. The Carol Burnett Show premiered on September 11, 1967, and ran for 11 seasons.
It won 25 Primetime Emmy Awards and made Burnett the first woman to headline, produce, and fully own a primetime variety series. The production was demanding, with a 28-piece live orchestra, 12 dancers, and two guest stars each week. Behind the scenes, the pressure was severe. Designer Bob Mackie hand-made up to 65 costumes per week, totaling roughly 17,000 over the show’s run.
Burnett also overrode CBS lawyers who feared her unscripted audience Q&A segment would invite lawsuits, and she took full responsibility for whatever happened live. In 1976, the National Enquirer published a fabricated story claiming Burnett had a drunken public altercation with Henry Kissinger at a Washington restaurant. Burnett, whose parents both struggled with alcoholism, found the implication deeply offensive and sued for libel. A jury awarded her $1.
6 million, though the amount was later reduced on appeal. The cast dealt with internal tensions as well. Harvey Korman struggled with anger issues and frustration over his supporting role, and Tim Conway once threatened to leave the show if Korman shouted at him again. Burnett gave Korman an ultimatum after he was rude to Conway and guest star Petula Clark, and a plaque reading “Mr.
Happy-Go-Lucky” was later placed on his dressing room door. Lyle Waggoner left in 1974 after feeling typecast as the handsome announcer, later landing a role on Wonder Woman. CBS pressured the show to bring in Dick Van Dyke as a permanent cast member in 1977, but he lasted only a few months, admitting the sketches built around Korman’s style did not fit him. The network rarely interfered with content, but there were exceptions.
In a nudist colony sketch, CBS Program Practices forced a rewrite of a double entendre line. The original joke was that nudists danced “very carefully. ” The network’s replacement was “cheek to cheek,” a fix Burnett later noted was racier than the line they had banned. A far darker controversy came during the final season.
For one taping of the recurring Mama’s Family sketch, the cast dropped their exaggerated comedic accents and performed the dialogue with quiet seriousness. The result was not comedy but an unflinching portrait of family dysfunction and trauma. The studio audience stopped laughing, crew members were in tears, and Burnett found the footage so close to her own difficult childhood that she kept it out of syndication for decades. Another piece of footage from 1977 became legendary for a different reason.
During a taping, Tim Conway abandoned the script and launched into an improvised story about Siamese elephants joined at the trunk. Harvey Korman broke character completely and struggled to breathe on camera. Vicki Lawrence eventually snapped at Conway in character, asking if he was finally through, and Conway and Van Dyke fell off the couch laughing. At one point, Lawrence delivered a profanity that violated FCC and network broadcast rules.
CBS cut the word from the broadcast and locked the raw master tape in a corporate vault. The show was not canceled. Burnett made the personal decision to end it in 1978 at the height of its success, saying she felt exhausted and worried the show had started to repeat itself. Afterward, cast members went on to successful careers.
Burnett moved into dramatic film roles and received the Mark Twain Prize. Korman starred in Mel Brooks films. Conway created the Dorf franchise and voiced Barnacle Boy on SpongeBob SquarePants. Lawrence headlined the spin-off Mama’s Family for six seasons, and Waggoner built a multimillion-dollar studio trailer rental company called Star Wagons.
The uncensored elephant footage was eventually released decades later during unedited late-night retrospective specials. The moment remains one of the most famous genuine laugh breaks in television history.
