# Carol Burnett movie parodies: why never on video/DVD? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2006, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994 "2006-07-03T00:45:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/1 "2006-07-03T00:45:35Z")
I would love to see those, they were invariably the best part of her show (unless she was doing a duet with, say, Lena Horne or Ethel Merman). _Millions_ of Carol Burnett episodes have been released on video or DVD, but they’re all complete episodes, so you have to fast-forward through the unbearable charwoman or Eunice sketches to get to anything good. _Went with the Wind . . . The Doily Sisters . . . 43rd Street . . . A Swiped Life_ (“Do you have a 3 million watt bulb I could borrow?”) . . . _Mildred Fierce_ (“Kids! What are you gonna do?”) . . . _Torchy Song . . . Double Calamity_ (“We found your husband sticking out of a tuba at the Rose Bowl game with a mouth full of marbles and three bullets in his back. We think it’s an accident”) . . . _Golda . . . Flora_ . . . Why the hell has no one released these on DVD?! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/2 "2006-07-03T01:13:18Z")
It’s a lot easier just to transfer a tape then to go through every episode and pull out excerpts. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone comes up with the idea of doing all the parodies, but that would probably not be for a few years yet. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/3 "2006-07-03T02:58:48Z")
And let’s face the facts, Eve, you probably do not resemble the typical viewer in this regard. Relatively few viewers are going to have a love of old movies that’s as great as your own. ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/4 "2006-07-03T03:49:43Z")
I’ve never even been able to find full episodes on DVD though I haven’t exactly looked hard. I wish they could make Carol Burnett DVDs where they take out all the Tim Conway. Then I’d be pretty damn happy. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/5 "2006-07-03T03:59:07Z")
Or give us a Conway/Korman DVD. I’d buy it in a second. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/6 "2006-07-03T03:59:37Z")
Sounds like a great idea **Eve**. Which skit had her playing an old time Hollywood Actress getting into the back of a station wagon? I think it might have been a parody of “Sunset Boulevard”. I still love “Went with the Wind” and the curtain rod scene still gets mentioned and laughed at. I think that was my favorite scene in all the long run of her show. Jim ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/7 "2006-07-03T17:24:26Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] I still love “Went with the Wind” and the curtain rod scene still gets mentioned and laughed at. I think that was my favorite scene in all the long run of her show. [/QUOTE] That piece actually made TV Guide’s list of ‘100 Greatest TV Moments’ a few years back. Those sorts of lists are usually pretty goofy (de gustibus & all that), but it’s hard to argue with that one. I literally fell out of my chair laughing the first time I saw that bit. (No, I mean really literally. When I was able to breathe again after the “I just saw it in the window …” line, I found I was sitting on the floor, with only a vague memory of how I got there. Brilliant.) ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/8 "2006-07-03T21:12:40Z")
My family watched Carol Burnett religiously, and I vividly remember her movie parodies. As a kid, my first exosure to old movies were these spoofs. I’d be watching the real film years later for the first time and suddenly realize I had already seen it on Carol Burnett’s show in the form of a parody. **Eve** , am I remembering right? Didn’t the real Ruby Keeler step into the _43rd Street_ spoof and actually perform a dance number? She got an enormous hand, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/9 "2006-07-03T23:54:46Z")
[QUOTE=teela brown] **Eve** , am I remembering right? Didn’t the real Ruby Keeler step into the _43rd Street_ spoof and actually perform a dance number? She got an enormous hand, IIRC. [/QUOTE] Nope, you have completely hallucinated that; if I recall, Bernadette Peters was the guest star that night (God, I’m old!). I remember the Laura/Flora, Double Indemnity/Calamity and A Swiped/Stolen Life as being particularly funny . . . But that was 30 years ago, maybe they don’t release them because they’re not as good as we remember? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/10 "2006-07-04T00:16:14Z")
[QUOTE=SCSimmons] That piece actually made TV Guide’s list of ‘100 Greatest TV Moments’ a few years back. Those sorts of lists are usually pretty goofy (de gustibus & all that), but it’s hard to argue with that one. I literally fell out of my chair laughing the first time I saw that bit. (No, I mean really literally. When I was able to breathe again after the “I just saw it in the window …” line, I found I was sitting on the floor, with only a vague memory of how I got there. Brilliant.) [/QUOTE] I also remember laughing a lot at that scene, although in retrospect I wonder why. I was a kid then and don’t think I’d seen Gone With The Wind, so I didn’t catch the reference, although seeing the curtain rod in the dress probably did it. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/11 "2006-07-04T01:22:49Z")
Harvey Cormen as Quint in Jaws as hysterical. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2006, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/12 "2006-07-04T01:34:10Z")
[QUOTE=Eve] - A Swiped Life\* (“Do you have a 3 million watt bulb I could borrow?”) [/QUOTE] I really wanted one of those lightbulb props when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/13 "2006-07-04T20:56:12Z")
[QUOTE=pokey] I’ve never even been able to find full episodes on DVD though I haven’t exactly looked hard. I wish they could make Carol Burnett DVDs where they take out all the Tim Conway. Then I’d be pretty damn happy. [/QUOTE] I have two episodes on DVD that I got from my sister (I think she got them through Columbia House)–one of them has _Went With The Wind_ on it. I don’t know if they’re still available, though. (And I LIKE Tim Conway! 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2006, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carol-burnett-movie-parodies-why-never-on-video-dvd/362994/14 "2006-07-17T05:52:48Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] Sounds like a great idea **Eve**. Which skit had her playing an old time Hollywood Actress getting into the back of a station wagon? I think it might have been a parody of “Sunset Boulevard”. [/quote] She used “Madam” more than once. Wasn’t until years later that I saw **Sunset Boulevard** and had a :smack: moment. > [@](#): > > I still love “Went with the Wind” and the curtain rod scene still gets mentioned and laughed at. I think that was my favorite scene in all the long run of her show. Yeah, I also love when Melanie (Dinah Shore) is dying and says, “Scahlett, Ah wanna tell you sumthing…” Scarlett leans in and Melanie slugs her.