The BEST episodes of The Carol Burnett Show
Every episode of The Carol Burnett Show ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Carol Burnett Show!
A variety / sketch comedy show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967 to March 29, 1978 for 278 episodes, and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33 (known today as the Bob Barker Studio). The series won 25 prime time Emmy Awards, and in 2007 was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All Time."
#1 - with Steve Lawrence
Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/21/1974
Steve Lawrence is back to honor songwriter Frank Loesser. In a Las Vegas setting, the cast sings Loesser tunes led by that old favorite "Lucky in Love". Harvey Korman has fun intoning "Moon of Mankura"; Carol, Steve and company make the most of such oldies as "Slow Boat to China", "When I Fall in Love" and "Luck Be a Lady Tonight". Also stay around for Carol as Nora Desmond, silent screen star being roasted by Hollywood cronies Lawrence and Korman.
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#2 - with Ross Martin, John Davidson
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/10/1969
"The Helen Feibelbaum Story" spoofs celebrity biopics chronicling the rise and fall of a singing star; Harvey plays a go-go bachelor whose romance is ruined by a moppet (Carol); and musical performances by guests John Davidson ("Both Sides Now" and "I Will Wait for You") and Ross Martin ("The Man in the Looking Glass"), as well as by Carol ("Look at That Face", "Nine Cents a Dance") and a number by Vicki and the dancers ("'Tain't No Sin").
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#4 - Family Show
Season 9 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/13/1976
Ed takes flak from Eunice and Mama after he tries to sneak his assistant along on a business trip to Chicago in "The Family"; Mr. Tudball attempts to surprise Mrs. Wiggins on her birthday; a married couple takes to pinpointing each other's physical defects; and the dancers perform to "Baby Face" dressed in children's clothing.
Watch Now:Amazon#5 - with Eydie Gorme
Season 9 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/6/1975
Guest Eydie Gorme plays a hospitalized TV star with Carol as Stella Toddler for an old lady roommate. There's also a mini-musical revolving around the music of Richard Rodgers. In other skits, Carol is a plant shop owner with Tim Conway as a customer who wants to return a plant that hates him; spoofs of TV commercials; and a foppish prince tries to torture a woman into marrying him. Gorme sings "As Time Goes By".
Watch Now:Amazon#6 - with Jim Nabors
Season 9 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/13/1975
Eunice leaves Ed after she catches him going into a massage parlor in "The Family"; an eccentric military hero does not want his latest commendation; and a Bicentennial salute to America's cities and towns. Nabors sings a medley of saloon songs, and duets "I Feel at Home with You" together with Carol.
Watch Now:Amazon#7 - with Ken Berry, Tim Conway, Kay Medford
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/20/1969
In a vaudeville segment, Tim Conway plays a bumbling acrobat. Carol is a dance hall Mom to daughter Vicki Lawrence in a tearful melodrama. Ken Berry dances to "Down By the Winegar Woiks". Also, Carol and Ken Berry play a computer-matched couple singing love songs. Tim and Harvey do a skit about a homesick truck driver. Kay Medford pops up as a sister-in-law in the weekly "Carol and Sis" routine.
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#8 - with Carl Reiner
Season 7 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/19/1974
A musical version of "Little Red Riding Hood" performed in the manner of a Mexican folk story for children. In another skit, an accident-prone woman (Carol) and her husband (Carl) attempt to buy insurance before her next accident. Also, Burnett as a spoiled child star, and a supermarket checkout sketch. Miss Burnett performs "I Wonder What Became of Me" and "Send in the Clowns".
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#9 - with Tim Conway, Bernadette Peters
Season 7 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/16/1974
In "As the Stomach Turns" Marian's possessed niece (Bernadette) is exorcised by priest Tim Conway; two Japanese soldiers (Tim and Harvey) argue underwater; and a salute to musicals of the 1930's. Bernadette performs "I Can't Get Started with You" and "Blame It on My Youth".
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#10 - with Alan Alda
Season 8 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/21/1974
Alda plays "Morton of the Movies", who courts his girl with movie lines. In "The Family" sketch, long-lost son Alan Alda is home for Christmas. Carol and Alan duet on "Nobody Does It Like Me" in the midst of a department store Christmas rush. For the close the entire cast performs a salute to New York City.
Watch Now:Amazon#11 - with Tim Conway
Season 8 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/11/1975
Tim Conway plays a bumbling waiter in a Japanese restaurant; in a boxing sketch, Conway is in a match with first woman boxer Carol; Bert tries to convince Molly to see an X-rated movie in "The Old Folks"; a spoof of "The Pirates of Penzance". Carol sings "All of Me", and the whole cast performs "Mack the Black".
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#12 - with Eydie Gorme
Season 10 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/12/1977
Eunice prepares for an appearance on "The Gong Show" and bickers with Ed and Mama over the clothes she should wear for her appearance; Mr. Tudball tries to teach Mrs. Wiggins the ropes about Las Vegas gambling; a wealthy woman whose husband has been kidnapped is coached by a TV reporter who is interviewing her about the abduction; guest Eydie Gorme sings "What I Did for Love" and, for the finale, participates in a medley of movie music featuring such numbers as "Hooray for Hollywood", "Over the Rainbow", "San Francisco", "Born Free", "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" and "The Way We Were".
Watch Now:Amazon#13 - Family Show
Season 9 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/8/1975
Guest Helen Reddy sings "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady", joins the cast in a series of musical blackouts, and participates in a sketch about an extramarital affair endangered by a surprise call on a futuristic TV phone. Also: a woman struggles with so-called "easy openers" on household appliances; fortune cookie messages start a battle between friends; and a French marine explorer sends his assistant out on a hunt for a deadly white squid.
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#14 - with Dinah Shore
Season 10 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/13/1976
Business professionals (Carol and Harvey) discuss his marriage proposal in the style of a business meeting. Dinah Shore sings "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover". Tim's plays the oldest living butcher with Harvey as an impatient customer. "Went With The Wind," a "Gone With The Wind" spoof features Carol as Starlet O'Hara, Vicki as Sissy, Tim as Brashley Wilkes, Dinah as Melody, and Harvey as Capt. Rat Butler. A musical salute to New Orleans with "Basin Street Blues" as the centerpiece.
#15 - with Lana Turner, Frank Gorshin
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/8/1968
Carol's guest Lana Turner sings "Heavenly Music" while dancing with the Lester Flatt troop. Frank Gorshin does impressions then becomes Bluebeard with Carol his 13th wife. Carol and Harvey are a bickering couple on a game show.
Watch Now:Amazon#16 - with Telly Savalas and The Smothers Brothers
Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/12/1974
In a spoof of "Algiers", Savalas plays a great lover at the Casbah, facing Carol, the world’s most beautiful woman. In "The Family" skit, Eunice, Ed and Mama visit brother Jack (Tom Smothers) in the hospital. Also, Savalas and Korman play two men discussing a business merger as if it were a love affair. Savalas croons "Rubber Bands and Bits of String" and the Smothers Brothers perform "Love Me with All Your Heart".
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#17 - with Vincent Price and Joan Rivers
Season 8 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/4/1975
Carol plays Alice Portnoy, who blackmails people into giving money to the Fireside Girls; ham actors Funt and Mundane are sabotaged by ambitious understudies; a spoof of TV show "The Waltons". For the finale, the cast and dancers do a young people's concert, "Sarah and the Moose".
Watch Now:Amazon#18 - with Ruth Buzzi, Richard Crenna
Season 7 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/15/1973
A salute to movie bad girls with spoofs of such films as "Mrs. Robinson", "All About Eve", and "Born to Be Bad". Other sketches include Burnett and Crenna as a husband-and-wife cop team; a game show parody called "Celebrities and Peasants"; a production number about the mimeograph machine and women's voting rights. Ruth Buzzi performs "Oh, You Beautiful Doll".
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#20 - with Sid Caesar, Ella Fitzgerald
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/25/1967
Highlights of this Christmas edition include: guest Sid Caesar demonstrating self-defense; Carol and Sid as a couple who quarrel on Christmas night; Sid, Carol and Harvey in a sketch that takes place in ancient Rome; guest Ella Fitzgerald sings "A Foggy Day" and "Always True to You in My Fashion"; Carol performs "Bare Necessities", and as the Charwoman sings "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas; and a cameo by Jonathan Winters.
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#21 - with Eileen Farrell, Marilyn Horne
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/16/1968
Harvey Korman delivers a presidential fireside chat with his family; Eileen Farrell sings "Kiss Him Now"; Carol plays an awkward newswoman interviewing her matinee idol; Marilyn Horne performs the page's song from the opera "Les Huguenots"; an operatic version of "The Three Little Pigs"; a musical production of "Big Spender"; and for the finale, a Christmas carol medley.
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#22 - with Tim Conway, Perry Como, Sydney Omarr
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/20/1969
Carol plays a lovesick patient who tries the patience of a handsome doctor (Lyle Waggoner). Tim plays a drunken prison warden on New Year's Eve, and courts rich spinster Burnett, undergoing tests arranged by a careful father. Perry Como sings "Sunshine Wine" and "Here's That Rainy Day." With Miss Burnett, he offers a love-song medley. Astrologer Sydney Omarr makes some predictions for the year 1969. Omarr joins the entire company in a "What's in the Stars?" segment, focusing on the astrological sign of Aquarius. Miss Burnett and Como sing "Aquarius".
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#23 - with Bing Crosby, Paul Lynde
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/3/1971
The main sketch is an old-fashioned melodrama spoof, in which Crosby plays Carol's booze-soaked father, with Lynde and Harvey Korman portraying twin mustache-twirling bankers. In "As the Stomach Turns", Paul Lynde plays the town masochist and Harvey is Mother Marcus. Crosby solos "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" and "Love Thy Neighbor", and teams with Miss Burnett on "Get Happy" and "Sing". This episode is noted as Show #510 in the Lost Episodes DVD set.
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#24 - with Cass Elliot, Bernadette Peters
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/10/1971
In a spoof on soap operas, Cass plays a high-fashion model and Bernadette a tap-dancing nun. Cass performs "The Look of Love". Miss Peters sings "Cherish" and "It Had to Be You". This episode is noted as Show #503 in the Lost Episodes DVD set.
Watch Now:Amazon#25 - with Ray Charles, Vincent Price
Season 6 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/22/1972
A salute to horror movies, with Harvey Korman as Frankenstein's monster and Lyle Waggoner as Count Dracula. In "Carol and Sis", Carol thinks Chrissy is pregnant; in "George and Zelda", George dreams he's a riverboat gambler. Ray Charles and the Raelettes sing "Every Saturday Night" and Ray plays piano in a cocktail lounge, singing tunes for a sentimental customer (Carol). Price plays Fagin in a bit from "Oliver" and the cast concludes with a production number, "The Transylvania Trot".
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