As Carol Burnett turns 90, she bristles at the idea of looking back at her legacy. She’s not one to watch old episodes of her iconic “The Carol Burnett Show,” for example. “I’m not like Norma Desmond,” she quips, referring to the fading star in “Sunset Boulevard.” “The only time I do it is if I have to for a reason.”
In this case, NBC gave her a good one. The network is set to air “Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love” on April 26, and the special features both new performances and clips from Burnett’s storied career. And it gave Burnett a chance to reminisce with old friends — and new.
“It’s exactly what I wanted,” Burnett said. “I didn’t want a birthday party with cake and balloons and confetti and all of that. What I wanted was to have an entertaining show. And that’s what we got. It’s a variety show, with live entertainment by Bernadette Peters, Kristin Chenoweth, Billy Porter, Katy Perry, Darren Criss and Sutton Foster. And then funny moments with Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney and Laura Dern. We had a 19-piece orchestra live.”
Burnett says she was stunned that the producers found clips of her on stage at age 24, before making it to Broadway. “It really kind of covers most of what I’ve done professionally,” she says. “And then of course, paying tribute to [original ‘Carol Burnett Show’ co-stars] Harvey Korman and Vicki Lawrence and Tim Conway and Lyle Waggoner. Showing some wonderful clips of them.”
Burnett’s original “Annie” movie co-stars Peters and Aileen Quinn help her re-create musical numbers from that film adaptation, along with Jane Lynch and Porter. “It brought tears to everybody’s eyes, especially to see Aileen — who was 10 or 11 years old when we did Annie — and here she is a grown woman,” Burnett says.
The special also includes a “lovely” tribute to Burnett’s long-lasting friendship with Julie Andrews. “Julie Andrews, my chum, was there and she sat with me the whole evening. Bernadette Peters and Kristen Wiig then do ‘Old Friends,’ about Julie and me, which was a Stephen Sondheim song,” she says.
Burnett said she was “pretty gobsmacked” by the special, which also featured appearances by Bob Odenkirk, Amy Poehler, Cher, Lily Tomlin, Taraji P. Henson, Marisa Tomei, Tracee Ellis Ross and others.
But there’s another reason why Burnett isn’t looking back: She doesn’t need to. The comedy icon is the busiest she’s been in years. Her schedule of late has included an important part in the final season of “Better Call Saul” (in which her character plays a pivotal role in sending Odenkirk’s Saul Goodman to jail). And next up, Burnett stars in the upcoming Apple TV+ comedy “Palm Royale” (formerly known as “Mrs. American Pie”) opposite Wiig and Janney.
“As long as I’m healthy, and I’ve got my brain — thank God — and if it’s fun to do, I’ll do it,” she says of her work schedule.
Besides cherishing her lifelong bonds with the likes of Andrews, Burnett says she’s enjoying her new friendships with folks like Janney. (“We do Wordle every morning,” Burnett says of the online game. “We text each other to see if we got the word within the allotted amount of letters.”)
Burnett marvels at what “The Carol Burnett Show” pulled off back in the 1970s, but she also knows it was a different time. “They can’t be like we were because of the cost,” she says. “I mean, we had a 28-piece orchestra. We had 12 dancers, a rep company, and we did a musical comedy revue every week. [We had] 65 to 70 costumes a week, all Bob Mackie designs. Do the math. We did a Broadway show every week! No way that would happen today.”