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Hello, miss Carol Burnette. How
are you? I'm good? Hi,

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Renee, how are you? I
don't know how I am. I'm sweating

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and they told me ten minutes ago. And how can you talk to your

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lifelong idol in ten minutes? I
don't know? So wait, let's do

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this. Oh my goodness, so
um hello, hello Renee. Oh my

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gosh. And the book is fantastic
in such good company, sort of like

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a little homage, if you will. You're a love letter to to this

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industry in that era that you made
amazing. So thank you for that.

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Well, thank you for the compliment. Absolutely, I before we get into

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the book though, I'm a huge
fan of Turner classic movies and um,

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of course um Lucille Ball and I
love that narrative you did. Oh,

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thank you, thank you. She
was a very good friend, a very

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close friend. And I you know, this kind of a Renee is kind

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of nat day goes by that she
kind of doesn't dip into my mind and

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heart, you know, just just
even if it's a fleeting moment I think

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of her. That's so cool to
know that and to know that you had

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people that inspired you, especially strong
leading women, because for someone like myself

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who breaking into this industry, and
you know, I'm trying to be funny.

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I don't know if it works all
the time, but you were sort

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of an inspiration and made me believe
I could go after my dreams and passion

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and know that funny is funny whether
you're a female or not. Well that's

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true. Thank you for that,
and you know, keep it up,

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keep doing it. And it's so
wonderful today when there's so many I mean,

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with Kristin Wig and Tina and Amy, and it's just it's it's great.

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You know. I remember when I
wanted to do my show, I

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was kind of the network didn't want
me to do it because they kept saying,

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no, no, it's a man's
game. Variety is a man's game,

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like Sid Caesar and Milton Burrows,
you know, Dean Martin and Jackie

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Gleason and so forth, and so
I was, you know, they tried

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to dissuade me from doing it.
And so are we to get a lot

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of the insight stuff that maybe we
haven't even seen in one of the many

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specials you've done with with in such
good company. Oh yeah, I've got

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Well, it's got a lot of
anecdotes about some of the guest stars,

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backstage things that went on, how
we got the show, how I found

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Harvey and Vicky and Lyle and Tim
and just a general and then I list

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some of my favorite questions and answers
that we had, and then I list

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I talked about some of the iconic
sketches that we did. You know,

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La Gone with the Wind and take
Off on Love Story and Doris Day movies

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and Sunset Boulevard and so forth,
how all of those things came about.

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So it's really kind of an homage
to that, to that time, that

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era, and also when we were
doing our show, there was just tons

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of other variety shows on the air. It was a golden age for variety

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in the seventies when you think of
Laughing and Sonny and Chair and the Mothers

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Brothers and Arry Como had a show, Glenn Campbell, Jim Neighbors, it

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was just and Flip Wilson, just
really wonderful, wonderful time for variety.

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How did you come up with the
structure of your show and how much say

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did you have at that time?
Well, what happened, Renee was I

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had started out. One of my
big breaks was when I was in my

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twenties, I was chosen to be
a regular performer on the Gary Moore Show,

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which was a wonderful comedy variety show
that was based here in New York.

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And so I learned to do sketches
and comedic sketches from the Gary Moore

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Show. So when I got my
show, what was wonderful was that several

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of the people who had worked on
Gary show the risk and came out to

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California to be on my show.
The head writer, the choreographer, and

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one of the lead dancers, some
of the other writers and the producers and

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all so that we just it was
there were no labor pains. We just

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fell right into doing my show the
way we learned on the Gary Moore Show.

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And You're no stranger. Two Awards, Emmy's, you know, all

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kinds of honors. Of course,
obviously the Kennedy Center Honor, that's that's

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a pretty big deal. But I
need to point out the Mark Twain Prize

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because obviously Mark Twain house right here
in Connecticut, and you know, growing

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up and with the reading and writing
and things like that, who inspired you

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as a little girl to turn into
this amazing icon. You are today.

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Well, thank you for that.
But actually I wanted to be a writer,

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and I that that was my goal, and at one point even the

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cartoonist and I'd had my own comment
strip. But so then when I got

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to UCLA, I took a theater
arts English course in order to get playwriting

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courses and you know, other kinds
of writing. But because it was also

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a theater arts course, I had
to take an acting course as a freshman,

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which I wasn't really I was scared
about, but I had to take

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the course. And I remember I
did a scene from a play and I

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picked something that would be easy.
I thought, easy to do, you

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know, I didn't want to do
any heavy dramatic stuff. And they laughed,

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you know, the kids in the
class laughed, and I thought,

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wow, that's a good feeling.
Eighteen years old, before I realized that's

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really what I wanted to do.
We are chatting with Carol Burnett, and

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I know my time is quickly coming
to an end. The book is in

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such good company, and I'll leave
you just with I'll try to get this

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last question in here. The rapport
between you, Harvey, Vicky and Tim

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Unlike I know, there were many
other people involved, and I know that

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there were great bits and skits and
things like that whatever, but that I

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don't think. I'm trying to think
in my head right now, quick off

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the top of my head. Maybe
if I had more time, But I

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don't know if there is such a
rapport right now or even something close to.

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I know there's great you know,
sidekicks, of course, and there's

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great groups of people together. But
my god, that was magic. It

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was magic. And I think that
in that era it was too. It

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wasn't just our show. You look
at the rapport on Mary's show, Mary

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Tyler Moore, Dick Van Die right
right, you know All in the Family,

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my goodness, and you know that
was those we're all on the same

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night. You know, it was
really a pointment television. And I think

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today the networks and some of the
producers and writers say they were it to

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death. They don't seem to want
to have fun and be loose, you

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know, But we were. And
I think that's what made our show as

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successful as it was. And I
still watch it. I still watch I'm

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still watching Sandford ince On. I'm
so watching All in the Family. And

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although you know, the different networks
that have different things on and of course

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I love things today, but there
just is something I guess that is the

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best way to put it. And
I'm stealing from your your pr line here,

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but it was magic. It was
a golden era, and this book

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is. This book is a great
gift for anybody who just wants to laugh

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and revisit these times in such good
company. Carol Burnett, I have to

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tell you from the bottom of hor
what an inspiration you have been seeing.

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Thank you, sweetheart, that's so
nice of you. Thank you well.

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Continued success, and if you're ever
in Connecticut or Newingham, please considered an

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open invitation here will do. Thanks
dear ye