Carol Burnett paved the path for a generation of female comedians and show-runners with her trailblazing television series The Carol Burnett Show, the first sketch comedy program to be presented by a woman. She was a 25-year-old actress in New York who was looking for someone to look up to before she became well-known. Burnett found that in Lucille Ball after a chance encounter one evening in 1959, along with a lifelong companion.
Before moving to New York in 1954 with the intention of becoming an actor, Burnett was born and raised in Hollywood and completed a theater degree at UCLA. 25-year-old Burnett won a position in the off-Broadway production of Once Upon a Mattress after a few small TV parts and the extremely well-known parody song “I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles,” which she sang on The Tonight Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. (When it eventually moved to Broadway, she would receive a Tony nomination.)
In a speech at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Burnett recalled how, on the second night of the show, she peered out from behind the curtain and seen Lucille Ball seated in the second row. Ball, of course, starred in the popular sitcom I Love Lucy, whose six-season run had ended just two years previously. Burnett admitted, “I was more anxious seeing her than I was opening night.”
Ball arrived backstage after the performance. For 30 minutes, the two talked in Burnett’s dressing room. Because she was 22 years older than me, Burnett claimed, “She called me ‘child’.” She said, “Kid, if you ever need me for anything, give me a call,” as she turned to leave.
Burnett made that telephone call a few years later. CBS requested that she perform an hour-long special, but only if she could secure a well-known guest star to join her. She called Ball to ask whether she would appear at the producer’s urging. She promised to be there. Burnett recalled, “When do you want me there? That was it, the end.
Zero Mostel was also an actress in Carol +2, which was televised in March 1966 to rave reviews. Because of the success of the special, CBS gave Burnett what would become her golden ticket to fame: her very own program.
The two outrageous comics were now great buddies. Ball would go on to make multiple appearances as a guest star on The Carol Burnett Show after its debut in 1967. Burnett took Ball’s I Love Lucy successor show, The Lucy Show (1962–68), and Here’s Lucy in exchange (1968-1974).
Burnett continued to look up to Ball despite her enormous success on her own, especially as a fellow female in the male-dominated entertainment industry. Burnett was impressed by Ball’s ability to command respect from the cast and crew while conducting guest appearances on The Lucy Show. In 2015, Burnett claimed during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, “She was able to say things that she felt like a guy would.” “Like, let’s change this sketch, it stinks.”
Burnett and Ball once went out to dinner while Burnett was practicing for The Carol Burnett Show. Burnett said that Ball had related to her a tale of a trying time she had with her writing crew on The Lucy Show. Burnett claimed that Ball “told them in no uncertain terms what was wrong with that script and how to improve it.” She then continued, “And, youngster, that’s when they placed the’s’ on the end of my last name,” after taking another drink.
The two stayed friends even after The Carol Burnett Show ended in 1978 (after garnering a record-breaking 23 Emmy awards) and Ball had largely faded from the spotlight. Ball tragically passed away on April 26, 1989, Burnett’s birthday, at the age of 77. On my birthday, she would always send me flowers, Burnett recalled. I received flowers from her that afternoon that said, “Happy Birthday, kid.”
203