Carol Burnett: Laughter and Reflection

What It Takes®

Academy of Achievement

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4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2016

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Whether you grew up watching The Carol Burnett Show, or your parents did, this comedian, actress, singer and writer is someone you want to get to know better. Burnett broke new ground when she launched her own television variety show in 1967 (hosting was still a man's game in those days). And she kept Americans laughing for the next 11 years. She had a huge influence on the comedians that followed in her footsteps, including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Kristin Wiig. In this episode she talks about her very humble beginnings and dysfunctional family, her mysterious benefactor, her breakthrough role on Broadway, and the path that finally landed her in the medium she loved best - television. She also describes the moment she knew that making people laugh was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2016

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and welcome back to what it takes. I don't usually talk about myself on this
0:04.9	podcast, but last week I kind of had a grim one and I really needed a laugh so
0:11.6	when I was looking through the Academy of Achievement's Archive of
0:14.6	Interviews for which one I was going to feature next, my eyes landed on a name and
0:20.1	I knew this week was going'm Alice Winkler and on this week's episode of what it takes
0:29.0	Carol Burnett. net. gifted and I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
0:43.4	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity,
0:47.1	and you don't take it, you may never have another chance.
0:49.8	It all was so clear.
0:51.3	It was just like the picture started to form itself. There was no way in
0:55.2	which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.
1:01.8	Every day I wake up and decide.
1:05.0	Today I'm going to love my life.
1:07.0	Decide.
1:08.0	My advice is, if they're going to break your leg once when you go in that place stay out of there.
1:14.0	And then along come these differential experiences that you don't look for, you don't plan for,
1:20.0	but boy you better not miss him.
1:25.0	The Carol Burnett show was appointment TV viewing in my childhood. It aired for 11 years starting in
1:35.7	1967, well before the era of Saturday Night Live, well after the era of Sid Caesar. It was Modern American Television sketch comedy
1:46.4	with the lingering flavor of vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley,
1:50.0	and it was hosted by a woman, groundbreaking in those days.
1:54.0	But mostly it was just endearing and hilarious,
	...

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