Carol Burnett

The legendary Carol Burnett zooms in to talk about her upcoming NBC special and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Mario, Littlemit's up. You're all with Mario Lopez joining me
now on the phone. A comedy legend and American treasure
Carol Burnett. Welcome to the show. How are you are you? Mario?
I am doing so well, So nice to hear from you.
Wish I could see your lovely face. I wish I
could see your lovely face. Ah well, hopefully soon, hopefully soon.

(00:25):
Um milestone birthday hitting the ninth level, turning ninety next month.
That is incredible. I love it, and I love that
NBC is throwing a big birthday party to celebrate. That's
got to feel so cool, right, Oh, it's absolutely Actually
it's not exactly a birthday party, and it's not a roast.
It's it's a variety show. It's it's it's a show.

(00:48):
Even better, we have live entertainment and a nineteen Peace Orchestra.
Entertainment is with Bernadette Peter's, Billy Porter, Jane In, Katie Perry,
Sutton Foster, Darren Chris, Bernadette Peters, and Kristin Chenwith just
to name a few. Wow, that is definitely star study

(01:11):
and I'm much just fabulous yet and then people came
out and introduced different clip packages of it's really it's
not a roast or as I say, a birthday party.
It's more or less kind of going back in history,
is too when I first started, and it showed some
very early clips when I was just getting started in

(01:33):
the Gary Moore Show, My Specials with Juliannerews and Dolly
Parton and Beverly Sills, of course the Burnette Variety Shuttle,
but also the movies, scenes from certain movies that I made,
and so it's kind of a retrospective of the past gulp,

(01:54):
sixty plus years. And I was just thrilled because so
many friends showed up. My chum, Julie Andrews flew out
from back East where she lives, and so she was
she sat with me through throughout the whole evening, and
the better called Salt people were there, uh, Bob Odenkirk
and Ray Shorn and Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould and

(02:17):
oh my gosh, so so many. And then also I
just finished a while back um filming a series that
originally was called Missus American Pie, but it's now called
Paul Royal featuring Get This, Kristen Wig, Laura Dern Alice

(02:38):
and Jenny, Ricky Martin. So I got to work with
all of these people, and it's a trill for me
to just keep working. And but it was I was
gobsmacked by the two hour, two hours evening. It was
just so many people showed up and that I'm a

(02:59):
fan of, and Air came and or said till May
and oh my gosh, Sylphia Vergara, whom I'd never met before.
So there we was just it was just quite an evening.
I must say what, I was pretty gobsmacked by it.
I can imagine what a beautiful, well deserved celebration. And

(03:19):
you were when you brought up better call Saw. You
were so great in that too. I love that you're
busier than ever. And Carol, you've seen Hollywood evolved firsthand
over the years. What was it like when you first
moved to town? When I first came to Hollywood, correct,
I was seven years old, so that's a hundred years ago.
And uh, we lived not too far from where this

(03:42):
particular evening was taped. I lived about three or four
blocks away from the venue and in Hollywood on a
street called Yuka Yea, I know, Wilka. I lived off
a Wilcox myself back in the day. That's fine, really, yes, exactly. Well,

(04:03):
that's where we lived. We had a one room that
I lived in with my grandmother and she slept on
a murphy you know bed that came out from the wall,
and I slept on the couch. Uh. And I went
to Selma Avenue Grammar School because we moved out from
Texas when I was seven years old, and I went

(04:25):
to selmatt In the Grammar School, Lycott Junior High, and
Hollywood High. And then I was lucky enough to be
able to go to UCLA, where after all those years
of being you know, thinking when I was in high
school that I would be a journalist, I got interested

(04:46):
in theater at UCLA. I never ever thought I would
do what I wound up doing, really, but you know,
I had no idea when I was growing up. I
thought i'd be a writer because I left to write
and a journalist. But UCLA didn't have a major in journalism.

(05:08):
So I look through the catalog and majored in what
they call theotore Arts English. They had other theater arts
programs like Theater Arts, Film, theater Arts, theater theato arts design.
This was the Arts English, where then I could take
the playwriting courses. And I thought, well, okay, I'll try to.
But when you're a freshman in theater arts, no matter

(05:33):
what do you want to direct or write or do whatever,
you had to take an acting course of course in
costume design, a course in scenery building. And so I
had this course in acting and I was scared to death.
I had to get up and do a scene and
all the other kids in the class we're doing really

(05:56):
heavy dramatic stuff. And I thought, well, I can't do that.
So I was something simple to do and the class laughed,
and I thought, wow, you know where they should I mean,
they were laughing where they should laugh. And I the
bug bit. I thought, I think I liked this feeling.

(06:16):
I had never done anything like that in school, and
so I went. I just plunged right in and started
working in the theater arts department, and I thought, I
want to be a performer with all by accident, if
there had been a major in journalism, I wouldn't be
talking to you. Now. Wow, that's a happy accident. You

(06:39):
fell into it, then you fell in love with it.
But that's it's ironic to me that it took that
to find out that you were funny, because I would
just imagine that you had just always been funny. I
had no idea that. I mean, I kidded around with what.
You know, we had a neighbor bunch of neighborhood kids
that we played with, you know, roller skated lu kites

(07:00):
and oh, I think I'm the only one you've ever
talked to who can claim that they climbed the Hollywood sign.
Oh wow, absolutely, What was that on a dare or
how did that come out? No, No, we used to
do it all the time, all of us kids are
in the neighborhood. It wasn't it wasn't fenced off or anything.

(07:21):
It was just there. And so if we got bored
roller skating was down board, let's go climb the sign. Wow,
that's not awesome, you know, It's a wonder we didn't
kill ourselves because the scaffolding was kind of old and rickety,
and I remember we got splinters a lot climbing up there.
And I always at the ohs were my favorite. For

(07:43):
some reason, I could get up faster climbing one of
the Ohs of Hollywood. Was it longer than didn't say Hollywood? Land. No,
it did when I first came out, okay, but then
they took the land bit off and so it was
just Hollywood. And the last time I was there was

(08:03):
when I was doing my show The Variety of Show
and Eady Gourmet and I were doing a lidley of
Hollywood music and the very last two bars thin we
went on location and we are filmed right there at
the Hollywood Sign. Oh wow, that's awesome. That's the end
of a whole duet segment, which is very exciting. It's

(08:26):
incredibly exciting, such great stories. Carol, you have six Emmys,
seven Golden Globes, and Tony a Grammy Medal of Freedom.
Is there a specific award you're most proud of, you know, Maria,
I think I'm proud of all of them. I'm but
I think the very first one I got was the
most Promising Newcomer at UCLA from the Theater Arts Department.

(08:53):
And it's it's a little, it's not big. It's it's
just on a plaque and written there and signed by
the theater rized department heads, you know, just promising newcomery. Right,
Oh my god. That was nineteen fifty two gold Bruins
love all right, I love it, you know. I I too.

(09:15):
Am also having a milestone birthday this year. I'm turning fifty.
What's something I have to look forward to in this uh,
this next decade? Oh, fifties are great. Fifties are That's
some of my favorite That was one of my favorite decades.
Oh yeah, no, fifty way back, you know, a long,

(09:37):
a long time ago, fifty was considered old. Do you
remember U the movie with Glorias Flats and Sunset Bolvars? Yes, yes, okay,
well the whole bit was it. They thought she was
over the hill at fifty. Yes, I remember, remember, yes,
And that was back in nineteen fifty. That fifty years

(09:59):
old seemed like it was. And now you see people
like Meryl Street and Alison Jenny, people like that who
are in their sixties and they're still very viable, you know, Carol.
I just I just interviewed um Rita Moreno, who's ninety one,
and maybe she's a year older than I am. She
has she has a bunch of stuff coming up. And

(10:19):
James Bond and Lily Tomlin, they're in their eighties, they're
they're they're killing it and doing great. And I was
just telling these guys I had. I interviewed this nine
who's just wrote a book. She's one hundred and three,
thriving sister Mary Jean. She's from Chicago. She wrote it,
and she's one hundred and three and as sharp as
attack and is doing great. So I'm telling you it's

(10:40):
just these days, we take care of ourselves. We will
be here for a while, which is well, you know,
my grandmother she passed away when she was eighty one,
and I thought she was the oldest person in the
world at the time, you know, but it's it's like
seventy and eighty and ninety aren't as old as they
used to be. Exactly right, You're exactly right, Carol. Last question,

(11:03):
because I'm just curious. I'm also, aside from me and
a big fan of yourself, a big fan of Lucille
Balls and I know you were you were friends. Is
there a particular story about her that sticks with you?
She well, well, yeah, I've got several. But the first
time I met her, I was in an off Broadway
show called Once Upon a Mattress and we great, that's

(11:24):
the best title ever. Once Upon a Mattress is the
best title. Oh, I know, And so I was. We
opened the night before, and so the second night was
a lot of buzz and stuff going on in the audience.
Just before the curtain was going to go up, and
I peeked through the curtain and I saw this Lucy

(11:45):
Luca's red red hair in the second row and Mario.
I was more nervous that night than I was the
night before when all the critics were there Opening night.
And afterwards, she came backstage and to my funky low
Broadway dressing room and talk to me. We visited for

(12:05):
almost a half an hour. She was so sweet. She
called me kid because she was twenty two years older
that I and she as she was leaving, she said, Kid,
if you ever need me for anything, give me a call.
So about four or five years later, I was doing
pretty well in CBS said that I could do a special,

(12:27):
an hour long special if I got a major guest star.
And the producer said, well, he's got to call Lucy.
And I said, I don't want to bother her, you know,
I said, been all those years ago. And he said, well,
all she can do is say I'd loved too, but
I'm busy. Oh so I got up the nerves and
I called her. She got on the phone right away.
I got her office and she said, a kid, you're

(12:50):
doing great. What's happening? And I was sputtering all over
the place and I said, well, I'm fine, by I'm
I'm doing this special for CB, but I know you're if.
She interrupted me and she said, when do you want me?
Oh wow? And she we did the special together along
with Zero Mustelle that it was called Carol plus two.

(13:13):
And then after that she I worked with her on
her show, not I Love Lucy, but the other you know,
the later ones that she did. Sure, and then she
came on my show and she always sent me flowers
on my birthday. Oh wow, happy birthday kid. And this

(13:33):
one morning I got up and it was my birthday
and I turned on the television and she had passed
away on my birthday. Oh wow. In that afternoon I
got the flowers. That's a happy birthday kid. Oh what
a poignant story. Wow. Thanks so much for sharing that.
That is wow, that is incredible. I know that was

(13:55):
pretty wild. I'm sure she's incredibly proud of you. And
she was Carol that it's such a such a pleasure
to talk with you, and I really appreciate you taking
the time. I can't wait for the special. Everyone, please
be sure to watch Carol Burnett Ninety Years of Laughter
and Love April twenty sixth on NBC n Peacock. Once again,
thank you so much for calling in. I really hope

(14:17):
we see you in person soon. I hope so so
thank you, Mario, take care. God bless you, Carol, God
bless you too. Thank you with Mario Lopez