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Log inAMERICAN MASTERS ON PBS...
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AMERICAN MASTERS ON PBS...
by Outspoken on Sat Mar 08, 2008 9:28 pm
AMERICAN MASTERS
Carol Burnett: A Woman of Character premieres Wednesday, March 12, 8:00pm (ET) on PBS.
In the interview below, the versatile performer provides her own take on an award-winning career that began in New York City in the 1950s.
Q: What challenges did you face starting out?
A: I wanted to be on Broadway, but in musical comedy. Aside from being cast in Once Upon a Mattress, which was a comedic role but also a great singing role, I was asked to be a regular performer, one of the second bananas as they say, on The Garry Moore Show. I kept thinking, "I'm not really television, I really want to be Broadway." But the television became more fun for me because we still did music and we still had comedic sketches, with the advantage that it changed every week. So I was able to learn how to do different characters, and to be different people, as opposed to being the same person on a sitcom every week, or the same person eight shows a week on Broadway. This was like doing a little Broadway revue every single week, and that became what I liked the most because it gave me, as we say, variety.
Q: Tell us about your early days in New York City and doing summer stock.
A: I got there in August of '54, and the following year I got a 10-week commitment for summer stock, in the summer of '55, at a place in the Adirondacks called Green Mansions. There was a lot of training. In fact, some of the people who were starting out then too, were also in this same summer stock group. Sheldon Harnick, who later went on to write Fiddler on the Roof, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, who went on to write Bye, Bye Birdie, Bernie West, the comic, and Mickey Ross, who was the director, went on to produce All in the Family. We did an original musical comedy revue every week on a Friday and a Saturday. We would do a variety show, where we would do our own acts, on Sunday. On Tuesdays we would do a play, and on Thursdays we would do an operetta. Sometimes you were in all of them. And you had to learn that much in a week. It was fabulous training. The following year, I went to another summer stock place in the Poconos called Tamament, where Arte Johnson and I were the comics, along with Bernie West. The year before I got there, they wrote Once Upon a Mattress at Tamament.
In '57, I got a job at the Blue Angel nightclub, and a gentleman named Ken Welch wrote all my material for me. I lived at a place called the Rehearsal Club that was actually the basis for a play called Stage Door. It was a brownstone that housed about 25 young ladies interested in the theater. It was all on the up and up, and run like a tight ship. The gentleman callers couldn't go above the parlor. And every one of us in the club had to be actively pursuing a career in the theater because the rent was subsidized by a lot of wealthy New York socialites. They only charged us $18 a week room and board. I got a part-time job with one of my roommates at a ladies tea room called Susan Palmer's Tea Room. My roommate Joyce and I split the tips. We got tips and food. But we made around $30 each a week, which left us 12 bucks after rent to squander.
More here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/burnett_c.html
Carol Burnett: A Woman of Character premieres Wednesday, March 12, 8:00pm (ET) on PBS.
In the interview below, the versatile performer provides her own take on an award-winning career that began in New York City in the 1950s.
Q: What challenges did you face starting out?
A: I wanted to be on Broadway, but in musical comedy. Aside from being cast in Once Upon a Mattress, which was a comedic role but also a great singing role, I was asked to be a regular performer, one of the second bananas as they say, on The Garry Moore Show. I kept thinking, "I'm not really television, I really want to be Broadway." But the television became more fun for me because we still did music and we still had comedic sketches, with the advantage that it changed every week. So I was able to learn how to do different characters, and to be different people, as opposed to being the same person on a sitcom every week, or the same person eight shows a week on Broadway. This was like doing a little Broadway revue every single week, and that became what I liked the most because it gave me, as we say, variety.
Q: Tell us about your early days in New York City and doing summer stock.
A: I got there in August of '54, and the following year I got a 10-week commitment for summer stock, in the summer of '55, at a place in the Adirondacks called Green Mansions. There was a lot of training. In fact, some of the people who were starting out then too, were also in this same summer stock group. Sheldon Harnick, who later went on to write Fiddler on the Roof, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, who went on to write Bye, Bye Birdie, Bernie West, the comic, and Mickey Ross, who was the director, went on to produce All in the Family. We did an original musical comedy revue every week on a Friday and a Saturday. We would do a variety show, where we would do our own acts, on Sunday. On Tuesdays we would do a play, and on Thursdays we would do an operetta. Sometimes you were in all of them. And you had to learn that much in a week. It was fabulous training. The following year, I went to another summer stock place in the Poconos called Tamament, where Arte Johnson and I were the comics, along with Bernie West. The year before I got there, they wrote Once Upon a Mattress at Tamament.
In '57, I got a job at the Blue Angel nightclub, and a gentleman named Ken Welch wrote all my material for me. I lived at a place called the Rehearsal Club that was actually the basis for a play called Stage Door. It was a brownstone that housed about 25 young ladies interested in the theater. It was all on the up and up, and run like a tight ship. The gentleman callers couldn't go above the parlor. And every one of us in the club had to be actively pursuing a career in the theater because the rent was subsidized by a lot of wealthy New York socialites. They only charged us $18 a week room and board. I got a part-time job with one of my roommates at a ladies tea room called Susan Palmer's Tea Room. My roommate Joyce and I split the tips. We got tips and food. But we made around $30 each a week, which left us 12 bucks after rent to squander.
More here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/burnett_c.html
Last edited by Outspoken on Sat Mar 08, 2008 10:18 pm; edited 2 times in total
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
Re: AMERICAN MASTERS ON PBS...
by Outspoken on Sat Mar 08, 2008 10:04 pm
I know I am really looking forward to this broadcast. I love Carol Burnett. Some of her characters are the memorable in television history. Who can forget these?
"Ma-a-a-x!!"
"It was something I saw hanging in the window and I just had to have it."
"Mrs. a-Whiggins, you are the only person Ah know who can actually tailgate-a herself."
"Ma-a-a-x!!"
"It was something I saw hanging in the window and I just had to have it."
"Mrs. a-Whiggins, you are the only person Ah know who can actually tailgate-a herself."
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
Re: AMERICAN MASTERS ON PBS...
by Outspoken on Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:46 pm
Just a few "memories" with Carol Burnett...
Enjoy. I know I still do.
"Gone with the Wind" (Part 1): http://youtube.com/watch?v=4aRMZ4ePmMM
"Gone with the Wind" (Part 2): http://youtube.com/watch?v=TjhtxfSMIWk
"Coochie, coochie, coochie..." (with Charo): http://youtube.com/watch?v=5sixJx1YmyU
"Nora Desmond is Dead": http://youtube.com/watch?v=jKfBCitChcg
"Nora Desmond Gets Roasted": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiZ6Sw7-X7M&NR=1
"Mr.Tudball needs a secretary" (Blooper): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJIh70IZua8&feature=related
"Tudball & Wiggins: The Phone Call": http://youtube.com/watch?v=3P2dbwrT_fQ
Enjoy. I know I still do.
"Gone with the Wind" (Part 1): http://youtube.com/watch?v=4aRMZ4ePmMM
"Gone with the Wind" (Part 2): http://youtube.com/watch?v=TjhtxfSMIWk
"Coochie, coochie, coochie..." (with Charo): http://youtube.com/watch?v=5sixJx1YmyU
"Nora Desmond is Dead": http://youtube.com/watch?v=jKfBCitChcg
"Nora Desmond Gets Roasted": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiZ6Sw7-X7M&NR=1
"Mr.Tudball needs a secretary" (Blooper): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJIh70IZua8&feature=related
"Tudball & Wiggins: The Phone Call": http://youtube.com/watch?v=3P2dbwrT_fQ
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)