Willie sits down with the legendary Carol Burnett. They talk about her life in comedy, and her scene-stealing role in the Apple TV+ series, "Palm Royale". (Original broadcast date March 31, 2024)
Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist
EMMY NOMINEE: Carol Burnett
Reese's peanut butter cups are the greatest but let me play devil's advocate here. Let's see. So no that's a good thing. That's definitely not a problem. Reese's you did it. You stumped this charming devil. This is the day of the big sale at your gift shop which isn't just a big day for your business but for the network keeping it all connected. So is it possible to get business internet you can really count on? It is. With 99.9% network reliability from Comcast business. It's like this neat little bow. Would you like that gift wrapped? Really ties it all together. Reliable internet for your business. It's not just possible. It's happening. Comcast business. Powering possibilities. Hey guys Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday sit down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. I sincerely could not be more thrilled to bringing my conversation this week with an honest to goodness American icon. She is Carol Burnett. Carol Burnett. Unbelievable. Got a chance to spend some time with her in New York City. She's in town talking about her new series Palm Royale on Apple TV Plus in which she plays the matriarch of Palm Beach Society in 1969. A big beautiful colorful show. A dark comedy it's funny but it's devious and ugly in other ways. The way these women and men behave themselves in this society. She'll tell you so I'm not giving too much away but she starts the series in a coma. Does Carol's character name Norma? Series stars Kristen Whig. Alison Janney is in it. Laura Dern. Ricky Martin is really good in it. It's a great show. Apple TV Plus if you want to check it out but Carol and I got together in New York just up the street from a place well that used to be there called the rehearsal club where she arrived from Hollywood where she grew up in New York City in 1954. 70 years ago. She arrived and stayed at this club. She'll tell you all about it. It's a place where young women who wanted to work in theater or were working in theater lived together kind of communally on 54th Street in New York City and we were just up the block from there which was so cool. We start talking here about Wirtle. I hope you play the Wirtle. If you don't you should check it out. It's on the New York Times app. It's a word game. She is a legend of Wirtle. It's kind of amazing. If you understand Wirtle she has gotten it in one try seven times which the rest of us are lucky if we do it once in our lives but I digress. I'm not going to give you the big wind up. You know who Carol Burnett is. 11 seasons of the Carol Burnett Show. 25 Emmy Awards. She's won the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Mark Twain Prize on and on and on. She is so loved and looked up to by so many people and I must just say she could not have been more lovely in the room. Sharp as a tack. A few weeks shy of her 91st birthday. You'll hear it remembers every story, every detail, every date, every place and every name and is also just a wonderfully generous woman to be around as I think he'll take away from the interview. So I will step aside and turn it over now to Carol Burnett on the Sunday sit-down podcast. Carol thank you for doing this. Thank you for having me. I sense we could do an entire interview on Wirtle but maybe we shouldn't out of boredom for the audience but let's just say you are something of an expert. Well you know it's all random you know but I have I have the um what do I have the nerve to you know I'm gonna brag seven in one unbelievable. I know seven yeah so you got it in one seven times for most of us getting it once is an occasion. Well me too the first time I got it it was audio and I went yay and then boom boom boom and it's only been within the last three months. Three or four months. The audio was a lot sooner but uh and the rest of them have been the past three months. You're incredible. It's all an accident. It doesn't take brains to get it in one. Right that's a bit of a guess. It's yeah totally I just happened to guess right. Well I'm impressed even if it's luck I am very impressed. We were just talking and I was struck by the fact that place is very special to you the rehearsal club. Yeah it's just a couple of blocks or was a couple of blocks from where we're sitting right now and for people who know is the place you kind of got your start and show business when you came to New York. Yeah I got here and I was lucky enough to get a cot at the rehearsal club and the rehearsal club was a boarding house for young women who wanted to be in the theater and the rent guess what the rent was every week. Fifty bucks. Eighteen dollars. Eighteen. Room and board. Wow. That was because some very rich ladies in New York you know the ladies will lunch. Sure. They sponsored the club which then allowed it to charge just eighteen dollars. So I moved in and then we had a house mother. It was all very much on the up and up. There were rules. You know no drinking you had to be actively pursuing a career in the theater. You could hold down a part-time job to pay for your rent and everything but you had to show proof that you were going to auditions and all that to you know no drinking of course and no men allowed except in the parlor and the men could stay until 10 o'clock every night in the parlor then they had to leave and so I moved in and they put me in what they call the transit room where I had a dresser and a cot and a little thing where I could put my suitcases you know at the foot of the bed and four other roommates for the women's other five women in one room and one bathroom and one closet for five women. Wow. Wow. But we managed and each one of my roommates was like out of central casting. There was one it was kind of tough she'd been around the block a few times and then there was another who was a method actress who for some reason never bathed. So and then there was the ballerina who actually she became she wound up being Batgirl on television Yvonne Craig right but she was with us she was a ballerina and then there was a very cute British kind of plumpish girl named Tinker who had curly hair and kind of sweet and always very cheerful and for some reason she's British her she's into Spanish dancing. Oh sure. So it was a whole it was like out of central casting you know and I was the hick you know because I'd never been any further east than Texas right I didn't know how to go about anything but I learned from these girls we don't happen what how to pursue auditions and so forth you know. So we went all the way back to the beginning there which I love hearing about. We'll talk more about your road here but I want to talk about the here and now which is Palm Royale. Yes this incredible vibrant big hilarious dark series that you're in. People are gonna love seeing you and this entire cast in 1969 Palm Beach right this wild society. So tell me if you would about Norma and what you like. My character Norma she's the matriarch of all of the Palm Beach Society and she rules the roost because she knows everybody's secrets and she even has a secret of her own but we won't say what that is yet but so she kind of black males everybody to be donating to her each year she has a ball that she puts on but but she kind of gets a lot of the money when it's supposed to go to a charity she kind of siphons off a bit for herself because as I say she's a black male and of course in the first three episodes poor Norma is in a coma and we don't know why or how it happened or anything but it was kind of strange for me as an actor I get up at five in the morning go to the set get laid up get all this up you know on everything and then go back to bed so it was I mean slam dunk you know I said and I got paid easy money just to go go just to do this is it true that when you heard about the cast and the kind of show they were doing you just said yes I said yes before I read a script is that right once I heard who was in it Kristen wig come on Allison Janney Laura Durn and then Ricky Martin who's one Leslie Bibb Josh Lucas Julia Duffy I mean one and on and on I thought with a cast like that I'm just gonna have a ball and then I read the script and I thought well that really was the icing on the cake and so we did it was just was a joy to shoot we had wonderful directors and and the script of course is kind of crazy yes I guess you would you call it a dramedy or what I guess so comedy but then it gets dark there's a darkness yes which is a lot of fun and and I'm not a very nice person don't know what is not and I said this before I think some of the people who aren't very nice it's kind of fun to play them I bet you know I'm only done two or three like like Miss Hannigan and Annie she wasn't nice but I love playing her you know was there when you did get the script yeah and you said hmm I do put on the makeup I go to the trailer and then I go lay in a bed yeah did you say is there anything else for the character oh yes once I read the script I mean she does come out of it and I love when she starts to come out of the coma she doesn't really want anybody to know so she's the devious the mind is going and that was fun to do it so that finally and but then when I was coming out of the coma I had to improvise the fact that she couldn't speak very well so every time they said okay you've got to answer Kristen in the scene I wouldn't need you yeah so all of that was improvised oh really yeah I mean how could you write that right right yeah yeah I mean the the fact the way she comes out of it or pretend she hasn't come out of it a little bit adds to the sort of the devious evil nature of her but I have to imagine not just the cast but the setting must have been so fun to be plopped back into those costumes in 1969 believable I mean the costumes in the scenery there it's like a trillion dollar movie what they've done with it is just even in the ball when when we're sitting at the table the placemats and the place settings that were there you don't even see them on camera but they're elaborate I mean unbelievably beautiful and I said you know what it's gonna see this but it's for the actors right to see that and feel that grandeur you know it's just were you familiar at all Carol with Palm Beach Society we were discussing before we sat down it still has elements to it today no way no no that's not in my background I know I know that the there's something though about I guess the entitled wealthy class that must be fun to sort of what was interesting to is with all of these people these characters all they care about is how they look how much money they have and how much influence they have they have there is nothing in their will that's about the Vietnam War about Nixon as president about any of that it's all about their their it's like they're in prison or something but they're having they don't want to know anything or they don't care maybe about what's going on in the world that time 1969 hello but I know it's all about power and money and looks and clothes and how shallow yes how shallow they are and they do live in this bubble yeah where it's the outside world is not that's right happening exactly place in any ways did you go back to 1969 in your mind and consider what was going on in the world or was going on your own life even while you were shooting this I was I was in the third year of doing my variety show so yeah I was aware of what was going on yeah yeah yeah I I was reading you know Kristin way Allison Janney the creators of the show they were all they talk to a woman and a man about what a thrill it was for them to work with you oh that's sweet because they so look up to you and Kristin says you're one of the big reasons she wanted to be a comedian and all of those other things what does that mean to you to hear that well I'm very flattered of course but I I have said this before if I had never been born they'd be doing what they're doing you know no question but it's sweet to think I do remember when I met Lucy you see a ball she was I mentioned I said I just look up to you as a mentor or somebody and she will all kid you'd be doing this anyway you know and but I can understand what they say it's really a matter of age because it might have been here for a hundred years and they're just starting out almost you know in comparison well it's more than that you had such an impact and maybe showed them the way right in the way that Lucy showed it well maybe all because they thought they could see that a woman could host a show right which a variety show which had never been done you know so I think that that could kind of run her own show and stuff like that you know which was kind of rare and the Lucy was the first hmm did they seek you out and Kristin and others if you're sitting around I don't know the craft services table or the makeup and just get stories and we just talk about story oh yeah yeah yeah how we got started and you know the breaks that came our way well speaking of how you got started it's it really is an extraordinary story for people who don't realize when you think about you living in that one room apartment in Hollywood with your grandmother I think with a Murphy bed even maybe she slept on the Murphy bed and I slept on the couch yeah I slept on a couch for 21 years and then I went to New York and got a cot moving up in the world I'm thrilled I never had a bed and when I got to the rehearsal club and it was a cot which nobody would think was great but I went oh my gosh all for me I've made it hey guys thanks for listening to the Sunday sit-down podcast stick around to hear more from Carol Burnett right after the break you've almost certainly been prescribed a medication before but did you understand how it worked the way your medication works in your body shouldn't be a mystery learn how Vivgard titrulo fgartigamod alpha and hyaluronidase qvfc works by visiting vivgart.com/moa that's v-y-v-g-a-r-t-dot-com/moa brought to you by Argentics this NFL season all-fandual customers can bet five bucks and get three weeks of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV so if you've got a hunch you can watch it come to life live 21 plus and present in Colorado offer ends 922 24 after three week free trial the full price of NFL Sunday ticket will be automatically charged seasonal cancel anytime no refunds terms restrictions and embargoes apply YouTube TV base plan required to watch YouTube TV redemption requires a Google account and current form of payment gambling problem call 1 800 next step or text next step to 5 3 3 4 2 Reese's peanut butter cups are the greatest but let me play devil's advocate here let's eat so no that's a good thing that's definitely not a problem Reese's you did it you stumped this charming devil welcome back now more of my conversation with Carol Burnett so when you think back Carol to your childhood you talk a lot about the movies that you go see all the time as being some kind of an escape do you look back fondly on your childhood yes people read about it in the hill poor thing you know because my parents were alcoholics and my grandmother raised me and she was a character and so and we were poor and we were on welfare time and but my grandmother and I we would save our pennies and go to the movies so I that was my outlet my fantasy watching Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland up there singing saying we're gonna put it on a show and it'll wind up going to Broadway and all of those fantasy thing so I grew up watching those movies so and they were wonderful in the 40s because they were cynical the good guys always made it always got it the bad guys got their just desserts and so when I got my break to go to New York it never occurred to me I was so naive that good things wouldn't happen because they always happened in the movies and that gave me my I was very naive and that gave me my courage to look back and see it can be done and you know so I never doubted that I wasn't going to somehow succeed whether or not I would be famous but I wanted to at least have a job in the theater where I could put clothes on my back and food on the table and pay the rent I never thought I'm doing well I kind of yes I did think I thought I wanted to be like Ethel Merman or Mary Martin and be on Broadway like a musical comedy person but again I said I thought if I if I can't get that at least I'll be some somebody in the theater and then I got lucky and got into to a show called once but a mattress which kind of made my name and then I was lucky enough to get cast on the Gary Moore show which is a very popular comedy variety show shot right here yeah and Sullivan theater only then it was called studio 50 and so then I was doubling I was doing Gary's show every week every side work every day and mattress every night so I was young and what happened was I never thought I would be a television person at all it was Broadway it was but what I started doing Gary show I thought that's is more fun than doing eight shows a week doing the same thing with Gary we would do every week would be different I would have different songs to sing I would have different sketches to do different characters to play different wigs and books and you know and this is more fun than Broadway and it was only because of Gary and so it was and he was wonderful I had spoken about this before people said what was he like and what did you learn from him and I remember when like we would be now his name was on it was the Gary Moore show right but we'd be reading the script for that week and Durbord Kirby who was the second banana and I was the second banana then we'll call that because we support the star but we'd be reading a script and Gary would see something he said and there would be a punchline or a joke and he would say you know give this to Carol or Durbord they can say it funnier than I can how about that so what he wanted was a rep template and I took that advice and that was what my environment had my name on it but there were sketches where I'd be supporting Harvey Korman Vicki would be supporting Tim Tim would be with Harvey Harvey would support me it was a rep true rep company and I think that's what made it successful yeah it's I mean for you to go from loving movies as a little girl in Hollywood I mean it's one thing to love a movie we all love a movie but it seems to me like you were determined to make a career out of this from the time you were young to do this and some form or fashion actually no really I wanted to be a journalist in school I was editor of my junior high and high school Hollywood High News and then I wanted to go to UCLA and major in journalism but when I got to UCLA they didn't have a school major in journalism you could take a course and join the daily brew in the newspaper so what am I gonna major in you know and I looked at the catalog and there was thing called theater arts English where you could take the playwriting courses because I always wrote and I thought that would be interesting too and because they had in the theater department they had theater arts English theater arts theater theater arts film theater so I took theater arts English but I didn't realize as a freshman that every freshman whether they wanted to be in the film or the theater part or writing had to take an acting course a scenery course costume course aside from all their other subjects oh so I got into this acting class I was late in arriving a couple weeks late so everybody had kind of paired off and they were doing scenes and I was terrified and the teachers said okay I'm gonna give you a choice of two monologues and you pick one and then you do one so she gave me scenes from the country girl and mad woman of Shio and I read the one so I picked the mad woman of Shio because it was shorter and that's how I could so now everybody's getting up there doing their scenes crying they're doing dramatic I'm never I was just really scared then I got up and I did my monologue from oh I said this is from the mad woman of chalet I didn't even occur to me to learn how to pronounce or read the play all I did was the scene yeah so I remember she said Miss Burnett I'm giving you a D only you're not getting enough but you're getting a D only because you memorized it I totally bombed it was why am I in here I don't want to be here in the first place so then the next besides some more scenes to do and I was teamed up with this guy I felt and we chose red peppers which was Noel Coward and they even say they were a couple like vaudeville or something like that and we had to do a little song and now I pictured that I was Betty Grebel with a Cockney accent Betty Grebel was my favorite movie star and so we did it and I had I had I had fun I was channeling the movies that I loved and I got an A and then I did a couple more things and I started to get laughs and some scenes where they should laugh and then some kids came up and introduced themselves to me on you know on campus and said we saw you in that would anyone have lunch and all of a sudden this nerd who was in Hollywood high I started to get popular and it never happened to me and I thought this is kind of nice and then I decided that's I wanted to be in show business I wanted to be an actress it was all had there been a major in journalism I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you now yeah and the fact that you channeled the movies you love exactly to get yourself into that that's just amazing yeah and then you get a little help from a I guess anonymous benefactor at UCLA who says I'm gonna help you get yeah get what you're looking for you to New York yeah I was in the class called musical comedy workshop and all of a sudden I started to be able to sing I used to sing with mama and my grandmother in the kitchen with the ukulele then my mother would play but somehow I got interested in the music department and I was in the chorus of a scene but all of a sudden I started to belt loud like Ethel Merman and the director said you shouldn't be the chorus because you're too loud and he said I want you to do a scene from guys and dolls I said seen alone you know solo yeah and it was a wonderful song called Adelaide's lament in guys and dolls and the character has a cold and I thought well that's not bad because if I hit a wrong note or a sour note I can blame it on the fact that the character has cold so that gave me my dumbbells feather which was I knew I could do it you know and then I started getting interested in musical comedy you know and so I was in this class and the professor was going to be in a part I have a bon voyage party for him and his wife and it was going to be a black tie affair in San Diego in he said to all of us in the class I'm only nine of us why don't you kids come down be the entertainment for the evening and I'll grade you there instead of you know in the classroom so we all drove down and I just seen from Annie gets your gun and we're finished and then I went over to the hors d'oeuvre table and I put a napkin down and I'm stealing hors d'oeuvres to take home to my grandmother and there's a tablet I said oh my god I'm busted and it was this gentleman and his wife black tie affair all just he said well I like what you kids do are what do you want to do with your life that's some day in New York he said why don't you there now I'm hoping to save up you know they said I'll lend you the money and I thought it was a champagne talking and his wife said no he means me gave me this is card they said be in my office next Monday 10 o'clock and we'll see what we can do so as a result I went to his office he said what he wanted to do was that I said this is what yes what I said okay I'm going to lend you a thousand dollars now that thousand dollars today would have been like giving me a hundred thousand dollars our rent was thirty dollars a month a dollar a day and we could barely make that he said there's stipulations you pay it back if you can within five years you never reveal my name you must go to New York with this money and if you're successful you must promise to help others out so that was my ticket to New York Wow I got home and I had cash to check just so that I could get gas to drive back and I my grandmother you know the Murphy bed and I put all this cash on Murphy I thought she was gonna have a heart oh my oh oh this wonderful look what we can do with all this money when I said nanny I'm going to New York she's you're crazy you can't do that but what are you talking about I said that's what is for and I had she was very upset and didn't want me to go and all that she said she said it's too cold back there you'll be dead in a week your blood it's too thin that the encouragement you were looking for this is really and she called it a pipe dream and all of that really oh yeah but I anyway I'm on the plane and now here's where the naivete comes in I had no idea where I was gonna go and stay in New York I've never been there but I'm okay it's gonna be good so I'm just gonna have so I'm reading the New Yorker on the plane and there's an ad for the Algonquin Hotel so I and I've heard about that with the round table and I said okay so and it's raining I get off and like find my way to the Algonquin Hotel one room nine dollars a day I go oh my god you know I rent was one dollar a day and plus I had you know I money for the plane and I had to have two wisdom teeth pulled before I got so money wasn't I didn't have that much left what am I gonna do anyway I've got up to the room called home collect and my mother and my grandmother and my kids are saying come home we miss shot just got you and anyway as I said I'm gonna be fine I'm gonna be fine hung up the phone and I started to cry because you're what also now there was that was this was the first bed I slept in at the Algonquin the cotton was the next one and so I thought then it started to rain and I love rain not flooding but I love rain and good things had happened to me a lot when it rained so I said and I what am I gonna do and it started to rain and I turned on the radio and it said Hurricane Carol is hitting New York no look it up come on August 1954 you are kidding well I had one phone number to call and it was a gal that had gone to UCLA was ahead of me and her boyfriend she's told her boyfriend if Carol ever comes to New York give her my phone number so Larry gave me her phone number I called her her name was L.A.E.B. she said for you I said at the Algonquin hotel she said get away from there come up here gave me the address was the rehearsal club so that's how if I hadn't had her phone number I don't know what so it's just like the gods were smiling yes yeah I love that you started with the Algonquin it's just the one you'd heard of right when then you know you begin to have some success you mentioned some of the shows you did and I think the more shows it fair to say was the catalyst listen was for your own show right because you had the deal with CBS do I have that yeah and you basically have the power to kind of launch your own show right right and so at what point did you say I'm ready for my own thing it was when I signed a 10 year contract that was in 1960 something that would allow me to do one special and two guest shots a year on CBS and also then if I decided within the first five years of that contract to do up my own variety show comedy variety show I could say I push that button to say I want to do that and they would have to put it on whether they wanted to or not for 30 shows your negotiator he was his name was Ted Ashley he was a great angel I don't think anybody ever got a contract like that before since yeah so I it was the last week of the five years and between Christmas and New Year's and my husband I decided let's push that button and I called New York and got one of the vice presidents and hi Carol Merry Christmas great I said Mike I'm calling because I want to push that button and it was this pause what button I said you know where I get to do 31 hour a variety show he didn't remember and he said I'll get back to you so I always say I guess they got a lot of lawyers out of Christmas parties that night and he called me back the next day and he said yeah I see that he said and this is classic but you know Carol comedy variety is a man's game was said Caesar Milton Burl Jackie Gleason Dean Martin had just started and I said well this is all I know from Gary's show I want I learned and that's that's what I know he said well we got the sitcom we would like you to do like here's Agnes give me a picture I said I don't want to be Agnes every week I want to have music I want to have guest stars I want a rep company I want sketches I want big orchestra all the whole nine yards and they had to put us on they didn't have any faith in us because they thought okay it's only gonna be 30 shows but they wound up being 270 so much shows you know and it was it's just a great break stick around for more of my conversation with Carol Burnett right after a quick break this NFL season all-fandual customers can bet five bucks and get three weeks of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV so if you've got a hunch you can watch it come to life live 21 plus and present in Colorado offerings 922 24 after three week free trial the full price of NFL Sunday ticket will be automatically charged seasonal cancel any time no refunds terms restrictions and embargoes apply YouTube TV base plan required to watch YouTube TV redemption requires a Google account and current form of payment gambling problem call 1-800 next step or text next step to 53342 Reese's peanut butter cups are the greatest but let me play devil's advocate here let's eat so no that's a good thing that's definitely not a problem Reese's you did it you stumped this charming devil this is the day of the big sale at your gift shop welcome in which isn't just a big day for your business but for the network keeping it all connected so is it possible to get business internet you can really count on it is with 99.9% network reliability from Comcast business it's like this neat little bow would you like that gift wrap really ties it all together reliable internet for your business it's not just possible it's happening Comcast business powering possibilities welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Carol Burnett at what point did you realize you were doing something right that the audience was responding I think when they renewed us you know that they gave us the second season and the third season I thought well okay so you know you know and we went 11 seasons and they wanted me to do a 12th but I Harvey had left after the 10th year to go do his own show on ABC and and we did the 11th year which was good but I kind of missed Harvey and on and then I figured after 11 years we're kind of repeating ourselves a little bit in some of the sketches and I just wanted to leave before they knocked on the door and say goodbye I wanted to be the one to make that choice it's hard thing to do sometimes isn't it could keep going to the well right right but I think I made the right decision yeah yeah without question I was just saying to you when we were taking a break that watching clips of the show it just seems so genuinely and sincerely like you all were just having fun we were hilarious friends having fun together yeah absolutely is that what it amounted to for you oh yeah and we I lucked out with the cast too I mean to get Harvey Korman was one of the best comedy actors I've ever seen you know I wanted someone like Carl Reiner this is his his or had and I got Harvey and then Tim wasn't a regular until the ninth year is that right everybody thinks he was on all the time but he was a guest a lot of times because he had a couple of shows of his own while we were doing ours and then Vicki I got her after I saw her in a contest really yeah what happened was because we knew we were gonna do kind of a sketch every so often where Harvey and I would be a married couple raising my kid sister so we hadn't started the show yet I'm reading fan mail this was in January of 1967 and we were going to go on in the fall of 1986 I'm reading fan mail and there's this letter from this girl 18 years old said everybody says they I remind them of you and I it was a very sweet intelligent letter and then she enclosed a newspaper article that also had her picture and it's saying she was going to be one of nine girls in the misfireball contest of Inglewood California and the picture it looked more like me than I did it 17 or 18 then well maybe there's something and then now reading this article I look at the date and it's gonna be tonight because the fan letter had been written three or four weeks right but then finally got to me through CBS so it's tonight I said my husband came downstairs I said don't get too comfortable we're gonna go see them as fireball contest tonight he's a what are you talking about wow I said well then and I said well maybe but don't you think you ought to call her and if she would be okay with our coming okay so I her father's name was listed in the article Howard Lawrence called the operator got their phone number ring ring lady answers she said hello I said hi is Vicki Lawrence there she said this is her brother who's calling and I said it's Carol but Vicki she just broke and Vicki got on said oh yeah hi Marshall I said it's not Marsha I'm not putting you on I got your letter would you be okay if we came to see the contest she said yeah okay so we went from saw she won the contest went backstage talked to her then I said I'll be in touch with you so come that fall we not know the summer we called her and then there was another girl to audition who had a lot of experience Vicki had none except high school but she came in and she read the sketch and all and I just said let's let's hire her now today no network would let let you do that right because here she is 18 years old and she learned look at she started out as my kid's sister wound up being my mother and she just had get this last week her 75th birthday did she really oh wow yeah I mean I had what instincts you have that she would was up to it that she could do it out of the fireball what was nice to you know she was kind of raw at first one of the CBS executives call it don't you think she's she's a little rough and this what her I said so her diamonds at first but they let me keep her on and as a result she she's grew she did sketches wonderful and created mama you know it's a brilliant 24 years old when she did that you know and it was like seeing a bloom a blossom it was just that made my heart feel so good when she won her in me all from a fateful letter and an invitation absolutely that's amazing it has such wonderful luck crazy crazy luck you know I don't know if there's something out there boom boom boom but I whatever it is I'm grateful little talent helps to Carol little yeah I mean you that your show went off the air gosh 45 46 years ago but I'm struck by how you have worked so consistently since then I mean we're talking about palm royale this big splashy series you're starring in and better call saw I love doing better calls I mean you found your way into whatever the moment is you find yourself there is that important to you to take these roles and still be doing what you love if it's gonna be fun I'm not one that says I've got to keep working or else that's not it but what happened was all came along and I love I love the show and the people in it and so I said absolutely and then palm royale because and look at that you know so I don't know if this one if they have a second season and if I'm in it that may be the last thing I would do I don't know you never know I hope so we're hoping for a second season it deserves one for sure I have you seen over the years obviously times change and what people view as funny changes I guess but is there something central to comedy that's always been funny is there something that was funny when you started in 1954 what's funny today look at the Dennis sketch the Tim and Harvey do that's maybe 45 years old and I dare anybody to watch it today and not lose it funny is funny you know and what I never did and I'm not knocking anybody who did I never wanted to be in the news in other words because I wanted our sketches to not be dependent on what was happening today you know in the news or anything so very seldom do we do anything like that I wanted just overall sketches about the human condition and some were really silly and then some got a little serious like the family with units and Ed and mama yeah those were so beautifully written and there wasn't one joke in them it was all about character and so that's and I really enjoyed doing those characters there I watched the dentist sketch this morning did you it's funny you didn't you mention that so that's just on the top of my mind it's just it's brilliant you can't you can't help but well of course Harvey didn't know Tim was gonna do all of that the leg and the fly and the fly is lying around I think it seems to me Carol you are I don't know if uncomfortable is the right word but when people talk about you as an icon and a legend and all that I mean I'm sure that's not an easy thing what do you say when someone says that to you but is it gratifying in some way to know the mark that you have left oh yes yeah that I am really thrilled now I'm getting fan mail from 10 year olds teenagers because of YouTube me TV shout all the seven and I it just makes me feel so good and you know they ask for advice and sometimes I'll call one yeah if they're young I mean I don't I don't like kids if they call like I'm one little girl just recently it was it got the lead and once upon a mattress in her grammar school gray seams her name and she wanted to know if I had any tips on how to play Winifred which was the role I created and she left her phone number and address so I thought instead of writing her I'm just gonna call her and we had she was shocked you know but we had a nice conversation and I even called her when I knew that the show was gonna go on and I said good luck tonight have some fun you know and she was very sweet and so I haven't heard back I said write me and let me know how it went you know how wonderful of you to do that oh well I put myself back into maybe when I was eight or nine or ten or whether and if somebody that I looked up to connected with me what I feel this it's it's no big deal to call it's easier to do it's easier than to sit down and write advice it's much easier to talk talk to them and sometimes I get people say how do you deal with rejection you know I want to be in show business well how do I how do I stand not not getting the job getting a know every time and I don't know I said there was one time and I can't remember exactly what it was but I did have a an audition and another girl and I were kind of up for the final call back and I thought I had it but I didn't she had it and what saved me and said I don't know how I came up with this but it worked I don't wait a minute it's her turn Wow it's not my turn my turn will come but it's not today it's for her and that kept me from being disappointed and I think that's good advice you know it's pretty mature to yeah to be able to do that in that moment well it was a gift it just came to me so that when you know a young actor comedian comes to you and or even someone like Kristin Wig or somebody and they say what's the advice how do I how do I get to where you are right now is that part of it just the the show business part of it but also yeah the person Kristin Wig wouldn't need to do that but they love you so much they seek you out anyway if I were to say to you Carol your legacy not just in comedy but in American culture is blank how would you answer oh okay there's a quote and I don't remember who it is with people may forget what you said forget what you did but they'll never forget how you made them feel so I'm hoping that I made them feel good at times when they were down they needed to laugh so that's that's what I would like you know we've done that yeah isn't that a great cause I know that quote it's beautiful is that I don't know who said that but it is I think about that too I love it yes Carol thank you so much for the time was a joy thank you so much it's lovely to be you know what I love about you oh we had a conversation yeah there are no notes you know you I mean you did your homework well home I don't you think it's better than it's we don't want it to be an interrogation or a list of questions right I just love it oh good thank you thank you this was so fun my immense thanks to Carol Burnett it honestly was a thrill a joy and honor to spend that time was such a wonderful person who has impacted so many people thank you Carol Burnett and do check out pom royale streaming now on Apple TV plus it's really good and my thanks to all of you for listing again this week if you want to hear more of our conversations with our guests every week be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode and don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC I'm Willie Geist we'll see you right back here next week Sunday sit down time Reese's peanut butter cups are the greatest but let me play devil's advocate here let's see so no that's a good thing that's definitely not a problem Reese's you did it you stumped this charming devil