In her tell-all memoir titled “In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, and Fun in the Sandbox,” Burnett revealed previously unknown details about the show including details about a certain co-star that she did not enjoy working with.
Burnett enjoyed working with her co-stars and guest stars, but there was one celebrity who was different. She did not name this celebrity by name, but she did describe him.
Burnett wrote, “During our 11-year run, there was only one guest who was a royal pain. I won’t name him, but he wasn’t a happy camper from the get-go. We tried to accommodate him at every turn, but to no avail.”
Eventually, Burnett found out a potential reason that the celebrity was extremely difficult. She wrote, “We later learned he was ‘on’ something, which might’ve explained his orneriness.”
If you’re trying to think back to the show, remember guest stars, and try to figure out who it was, that’s not going to work. This celebrity’s episode never aired. Burnett explained, “At any rate, it came as no surprise when he simply decided to walk the day before we were to tape the show.”
Even though Burnett decided not to mention the name of the person who walked off the show, she did reveal an unflattering nickname that he was given by the show’s producers. She wrote, “He was a belligerent little SOB. I say ‘little’ because he was very short, which prompted one of our writers to label him ‘a pony’s ass’.”
In 2020, in an interview with AARP, Burnett reflected on more positive moments of her experience on the show, and there were many. For example, she named her favorite guest – Steve Lawrence. She explained that he was her favorite guest because “not only could he sing, but he was brilliant in comedy.”
Burnett is very proud of her show and believes that there’s nothing like it on TV today. She said, “We did, in essence, a musical-comedy revue every week. It was like a mini-Broadway show, with dancing and singing and comedy and sketches, with guest stars — minimum 65 costumes a week and a 28-piece orchestra. They can’t do that today!”
If you haven’t seen “The Carol Burnett Show” or if you just haven’t seen it in a long time, you can watch all 11 seasons of the show here. According to Burnett, “The sketches we did 40 or 50 years ago hold up today.” She added, “The only time anything looks dated is what we wore.”
