This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection by Carol Burnett

This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection

by Carol Burnett

In the early 1960s, it was a popular opinion that only men could be funny. Carol Burnett was perhaps the first female face of variety comedy, with the exemption of Lucille Ball. Her career has spanned over more than 50 years, and she has paved the way for every female comedian since.

Burnett’s memoir ‘This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection’ takes its title from the song she used to end each episode of her variety show, The Carol Burnett Show. ‘I’m so glad we had this time together, just to have a laugh or sing a song. Seems we just get started and before you know it, comes the time we have to say so long’. For fans of her show, this title creates a sense of familiarity. It also acts as a summary of the memoir, as Burnett recounts some of her most memorable anecdotes, as well as some moments she has never shared before.

Burnett starts her memoir at the very beginning of her working life. To be able to earn a small living, she worked as an usherette at a cinema on Hollywood Boulevard. Whilst doing this, she was constantly auditioning for Broadway musicals. Her persistence was rewarded when she was given the lead in a new Broadway show, ‘Once Upon A Mattress’. It was whilst working on this show, and simultaneously a variety television show, The Gary Moore Show, that Burnett was to meet another young woman who was also performing on Broadway at that time. The two would soon become life-long best friends, and work together for three hugely successful television specials. That young woman was Julie Andrews.

Another milestone in Burnett’s career which is detailed in her memoir is the beginning of her own variety show. She tells the reader of the struggle to get her television show made. At that time, men were the only faces of comedy, and the studio wanted Burnett to star in a sitcom instead. Luckily, a clause in her contract forced the studio to air her variety show, which would go on to run for eleven years and become the one of the most popular variety shows of all time. She also relays the stories of how she came to meet the four people who would make up the main cast of the show; Vicki Lawrence, Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, and Lyle Waggoner.

Burnett also gifts the reader with many amusing and sometimes humiliating stories of her chance meetings with other popular personalities in show business. Among these are names such as John Steinbeck, Jim Nabors, Cary Grant, Carol Channing, Mike Nichols, Laurence Olivier, Walter Matthau, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck and Marlon Brando.

There is no doubt that Carol Burnett is a trailblazing comedienne, who led the way for many future female comedians. Without her, we may not have been introduced to the talents we know and love today, such as Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph. Her memoir gives the reader an amusing and heartfelt insight into her life, and leaves them wishing for more.

Carol Burnett is still working to this day, making many guest appearances on television. This year she received the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to comedy.