Original photo by Archive PL/ Alamy Stock Photo
For more than seven decades, Carol Burnett has delighted audiences with her witty and uproarious brand of humor. The Carol Burnett Show, in particular, remains one of the funniest and most creative variety programs to ever grace our television screens. Throughout her prolific career, Burnett has excelled not just on TV, but also on stage and film, carving out a path for the many comedic female voices she inspired along the way. Here’s a look at her incredible life and career, including some lesser-known facts that may surprise you.
Strangers Helped Launch Her Career
Burnett was born in San Antonio, Texas, and as a young girl she moved into an impoverished neighborhood in Hollywood, California. In 1951, she was admitted to UCLA, where she hoped to pursue journalism. However, the family was unable to afford the annual $50 tuition (around $605 today), and it appeared at first that her college education might be an unreachable dream. But one day, a mysterious envelope arrived in her mailbox containing enough money to cover the cost of tuition. To this day, Burnett says she has no idea who provided the funds.
Once at UCLA, Burnett switched her focus from journalism to theater. One night during her junior year, she and several classmates were performing at a home in San Diego when she was approached by a wealthy stranger. The businessman asked Burnett about her dreams, to which she replied that she hoped to move to New York City with her husband, Don, and pursue a career as a performer. In response, the benefactor gifted $1,000 interest-free loans to both Burnett and her husband on three conditions: that they be repaid within five years, that his identity never be revealed, and that Burnett would help others pursue their dreams if she became a success. Burnett held true to her word, and the loan allowed her to travel to NYC in pursuit of fame.
Her Breakout Role Was on Broadway
Before achieving fame on the small and silver screens, Burnett’s acting career began in New York City with revues at the Rehearsal Club, a boarding house for young women hoping to carve out careers in the performing arts. In 1957, Burnett took to performing at cabaret clubs around the city. She became popular for performing a parody song titled “I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles” — Dwight D. Eisenhower’s secretary of state — earning her appearances on The Tonight Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Her big break came in 1959, when she booked the role of Princess Winnifred in the first Broadway production of Once Upon a Mattress. This memorable performance earned Burnett a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. The success of this gig also afforded her the ability to repay the $1,000 she owed the California businessman, a feat she accomplished five years to the day after receiving the loan. By this time a huge name in her own right, Burnett booked a recurring role on The Garry Moore Show and later headlined Carnegie Hall alongside Julie Andrews in 1962.
Her Signature Ear Tug Was a Message to Her Grandmother
From 1967 to 1978, every episode of The Carol Burnett Show ended with a sign-off song, after which Burnett would tug on her left earlobe. This gesture was actually a secret, heartwarming message for her grandmother Mae. Mabel Eudora “Mae” Jones raised Burnett for most of her childhood and often took her to the movies, which helped cultivate her love of the performing arts. Burnett has admitted she borrowed the gesture from a dance troupe she saw, who used the ear tug to say “hi” to their kids while on stage.
After Burnett made it to New York, she called to tell her grandmother she was going to be on television, to which Mae replied, “Well, you gotta say hello to me.” Burnett took this request to heart. Though Mae passed away the same year The Carol Burnett Show premiered, Burnett continued to tug on her ear at the end of each episode as a way of saying “I love you” to her dear grandmother.
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She Taught Her “Tarzan Yell” to an Opera Singer
When Burnett was around 9 or 10 years old, she learned to do a bellowing “Tarzan yell,” which eventually became a trademark part of her act as an adult. During the Q&A portion of each episode of The Carol Burnett Show, audience members frequently requested that Burnett perform this comedic yodel.
During a 2013 interview with Larry King, Burnett explained she’d figured out how to perform the yell after seeing an early Tarzan film in theaters. She also noted how she taught the yell to world-famous opera singer Beverly Sills. Burnett and Sills were contemporaries who became friends while working on the 1976 musical TV special Sills and Burnett at the Met. Sills specifically asked Burnett how to do the yell, and Burnett happily obliged to teach her. Sills immediately replicated the yell with perfection and called it an excellent vocal exercise.
Each Episode of The Carol Burnett Show Was Taped Twice
Although the program had a live feel, each episode of The Carol Burnett Show was actually taped two times in front of two separate studio audiences. The first taping often stuck closely to the script, with actors delivering the jokes as written. The second taping allowed for more improvisation and ad-libbing, often resulting in even funnier jokes.
After each taping was complete, producers spliced the best moments together into a single episode that made the air. There were rarely — if ever — any additional retakes past that point, meaning if someone flubbed a line during both tapings, that mistake would be included in the final cut. In the end, this made for a final product that still emulated the feel of a single live taping.
She’s One Award Short of an EGOT
Burnett has racked up a plethora of accolades throughout her illustrious career, including several Emmys very early on — in 1962 for her role on The Garry Moore Show and in 1963 for Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall. Between 1972 and 1975, she took home three Emmys for The Carol Burnett Show, and she then won another in 1997 for her guest role on Mad About You. Most recently, she won the 2023 Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special for Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love.
In addition to her numerous TV honors, Burnett was awarded a Special Tony Award in 1969, in addition to nominations for Once Upon a Mattress in 1960 and Moon Over Buffalo in 1996. She was also the winner of a 2017 Grammy for Best Spoken World Album (for the audiobook of her memoir In Such Good Company), putting her just one Oscar away from achieving the highly coveted EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). In commemoration of a lifetime of entertainment, Burnett was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, and was also the 2013 winner of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Optimism Media, and previously contributed to television programs such as "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Impractical Jokers." Bennett is also a devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.
