I enjoyed it. I grew up watching her show and last night’s special was quite entertaining. I always liked the audience give and take and they did pick some good pieces out to revisit. Actually, I would have enjoyed a 2 hour show.
Also, am I alone in thinking Carol was actually quite attractive when she was younger?
I missed last night’s special (dammit), but I’m hoping to see Harvey Korman and Tim Conway live in Branson, MO, later this year. I’ve watched previous specials though, and laughed myself sick. These people were truly geniuses of comedy!
I watch the old shows from time to time and I do think that she was (and still is, for that matter) a pretty woman, although some of the fashions then were not terribly flattering for someone with her coloring and complexion. Once in a while, though, they’d put her in something perfect, and she’d look wonderful!
I never thought she was attractive. She had a weak chin and an annoying voice. Her cosmetic surgery has fixed the chin somewhat, but hasn’t rendered her any more attractive, unlike Lucille Ball, who was a true beauty under the weird makeup and frowzy hair.
On the other hand, the skits on her show were often side-splittingly funny. Tim Conway was a master at looking dumpy while pulling off the most amazingly athletic bits. The show was a classic and the writers from SNL could take some serious lessons from watching the reruns.
Carol & company never get old for me (except perhaps for Lyle Waggoner who was always the weakest link [but hasn’t he aged incredibly well? Of course he was a Playgirl centerfold and is bloody rich due to wise investments, so both of those probably help him keep up the workouts]). Tim Conway is a comic genius (Dorf notwithstanding- gotta make a living, after all), Carol has done one of the finest aging jobs in Hollywood, Vicky Lawrence still looks great (of course she’s a lot younger than the others) and even Harvey Korman still gets off a good improv once in a while. I wish the show had shown some clips from the show other than the “Q&A”, but even those were funny. (I loved the bit with the old lady trading seats.)
Does anybody know anything about Carol’s husband? I didn’t realize she had remarried until recently.
Trivia that I found interesting: when Carol mentioned her granny (for whom she tugged her ear), I always thought of a little “gray hair in a bun” lady knitting doilies. She was in fact only about 38-39 when Carol was born, was married six times and was an expert on stripping restaurants and other businesses clean when she was broke. (Carol said she never remembers buying toilet tissue: when they ran low Nana would take them to a restaurant, excuse herself, and return with her purse stuffed with tp rolls, soaps, towels and anything that wasn’t nailed down, then make off with the silverware and condiments if she felt the need.)
Is anyone besides me old enough to remember Mrs. Miller? I recall her being a well-known audience member on several chat shows and variety shows, but I can’t remember why.
I laughed myself silly at last night’s special. I miss this kind of TV.
Mrs. Miller had a god-awful singing voice, but nonetheless recorded an album after her brief bout with fame. She had this horrifying off-key warble that was funny for about 20 seconds.
I caught one lousy ad for this on TV Land. Geez, you’d think TV Land would have endorsed this show left and right. No one can beat Tim Conway, in my mind. And that Mr. Tudball and Mrs. Sue Higgins skit will always crack me up.
We have a two-way intercom at work. People buzz up to be let in from the street. You have to press down the lever down to talk, and then up to listen. I can never remember to press it up to listen whn most intercoms don’t require this step, as I have experienced, anyhow.
Can’t help but LOL as I picture Mrs. Sue Higgins, whenever someone buzzes…
Did they do any of those Tudball skits, I hope? Even now, I LOL 
No, they didn’t really do any sketches. The show was focused on the audience Q&A sessions, both for the special itself and the old ones from the series.
I loved the Bea Arthur lookalike singing. She had a good voice and a great attitude. You know she was the unofficial social director of every seniors cruise she sailed on!
Sorry for the hijack, but do you think that this kind of TV would work today? What’s different about MadTV and SNL and all from Carol Burnett (I’m not denying that something is- it’s vastly different)? I guess irreverent has become so commonplace that it’s just not fun anymore and the CB show is fresh because it had to rely on…
I don’t know. It was just funny. (Did anybody else ever feel that Carol Burnett’s writers were eavesdropping on your family when they wrote the Eunice sketches?)
In one Q&A (not shown last night) Carol was asked how she developed the Higgins shuffle. She said it wasn’t intentional- the skirt was about 4 sizes too small and it was only a slight exaggeration of the way it made her walk.
Continuing this hijack…
I suppose what makes it different for me is that there was a sense, back then, that everyone was cheerfully making fun of themselves - and they seemed to be having so much fun together. Nowadays (she said, pulling her lace bonnet a little tighter) it seems like sketch comedy is much more mean-spirited, much more poking fun at others, and oh, so very “precious.” They’ve replaced the light silliness with self-conscious mockery.
Was it Mrs. Sue Higgins or Mrs. Wiggins done it that weird Mr. Tudball accent?
I never heard it as Mrs. Sue Higgins, but as Mrs. uh-Wiggins.
I think the best part of the show was seeing the outfits that Bob Mackey had designed for Carol, and the hair styles. I’m old enough (and then some) to remember that women really looked like that back then.
And then there was Vicki Lawrence’s **current **outfit. Didn’t anyone tell her what she looked like in those colors?
I loved the "I’m-76-and-still-go-to-the-bathroom-by-myself / He’s-doing-it-now joke.