The BEST Episodes of The Carol Burnett Show
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
Last Updated: Nov 5, 2019
Network: CBS
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 Sid Caesar, Ella Fitzgerald
Season 1 - Episode 14
· ""Christmas Medley"" sung by Ella and Carol · Charwoman sings ""Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas""
10.00 #2 - with Lynn Redgrave, Mike Douglas
Season 1 - Episode 15
· ""Puppy Love"" sung by Vicki and Carol
10.00 #3 - with Lana Turner, Frank Gorshin
Season 1 - Episode 16
10.00 #4 - with Trini Lopez, Ken Berry
Season 1 - Episode 17
· ""V.I.P."" interview with the wife of the Jolly Green Giant · Lopez sings ""Sally Was A Good Old Girl,"" ""Sonny,"" ""Land of 1000 Dances"" (with the dancers) · ""The Swinging 6 O'Clock News"" – news done in the style of The Jackie Gleason Show · ""Mack the Knife"" – Ken sings · ""Showdown on the Showboat"" – ""Showboat"" takeoff
10.00 #6 - with Peggy Lee, Jerry Stiller, and Anne Meara
Season 6 - Episode 8
Carol's fans got used to watching for the moments when Harvey Korman would fight to hold back his laughter, but this episode features a rare moment in which Carol, as Mary Worthless, cracks up at the sight of Harvey taking a less-than-graceful fall through a prop window. Interesting to note that one of Carol's first TV laughs was earned with the same move. As Jill in a "Jack and Jill" sketch on The Garry Moore Show, she also had to tumble through a window. Happy to have the work, Carol assured the crew and producers that she knew exactly how to do such a stunt. In fact, it was the first pratfall she'd ever taken(she was even naive enough to thank the crew for providing her with a fall-breaking mattress. Mr and Mrs Chou En Lai--a Stiller and Meara routine. The Car Accident---different ways men and women react to car accidents. Street Wedding---a wealthy couple meet their low-class soon-to-be in-laws.
10.00 
#7 - with William Conrad and The Jackson Five
Season 8 - Episode 16
William Conrad, nearing the end of his five-year CBS run as portly detective Frank Cannon, is the guest star for his eighth-season episode that also features The Jackson Five making the second of three appearances on The Carol Burnett Show). The brothers perform "The Life of the Party," returning for the musical finale, a rousing salute to such musical groups as The Mills Brothers, The Andrews Sisters, The Coasters, And The Supreme's. The Cannon star shows his versatility by singing a "Movies Were Movies" tribute to silent-comedy stars, then slipping into a mime routine as Oliver Hardy. He next shows his flair for comedy in a sketch with Harvey (they're doctors and golfing buddies). But the highlight is his portrayal of Willy, the widowed Mama's wealthy suitor in the "Family" sketch titled "The Gentleman Caller."
10.00 #8 - with The Pointer Sisters
Season 9 - Episode 12
One of the many engaging aspects of The Carol Burnett Show was Carol's opening question-and-answer time. In this ninth-season episode, regular audience member Mrs. Miller asks, "Who do you have to know to get a front seat?" Carol arranges a quick seat swap for the elderly fan, then invites a young boy from the audience to feel her double-jointed hip in action. Only when he is on stage does Carol learn that the delighted youngster is the son of guest star Ruth Pointer (of the Pointer Sisters). comedy sketches include "The Noisy Speech," with Harvey Korman trying to overcome the noise made by his friend (Tim Conway), and "Miss Nobody," with Carol as a meek woman having lunch with her friend (Vicki Lawrence). The Pointer Sisters sing "Save the Bones for Henry Jones," returning for a rock retelling of the Cinderella story.
10.00 #9 - with Eydie Gorme
Season 9 - Episode 13
· ""The Hospital"" – Stella Toddler (Carol) is put in a room with a famous actress (Gorme) · Salute to Richard Rodgers
10.00 #10 - Family Show
Season 9 - Episode 24
This ninth season episode features several of the show's best-loved recurring characters. There is a "Family" skit with Ed (Harvey Korman) agreeing to take Mickey (Tim Conway) to a hardware exhibition, then trying to keep it a secret from Eunice (Carol) and Mama (Vicki Lawrence). Then there's a sketch with Tim's long-suffering Mr. Tudball trying to wish Carol's ever-vacant Mrs. Wiggins a happy birthday. And the grand finale features Carol's Charwoman remembering back on the season, so glad that "we had this time together." Other highlights include the "Baby Face" number, with everyone dressed in children's clothing, and "The Digs," a sketch with Carol and Harvey as couple that can't help tearing things apart and tearing into each other. The irony is that few television shows boasted a happier family than The Carol Burnett Show.
10.00 
#11 - with Eydie Gorme
Season 10 - Episode 19
Highlights include: Eunice prepares for an appearance on "The Gong Show" and, inevitably, bickers with Ed and Mama over the clothes she would wear for her appearance; Mr. Tudball tries to teach Mrs. Wiggins the ropes about Las Vegas gambling; a wealthy woman (Carol) whose husband has been kidnapped is coached by a TV reporter (Harvey) who is interviewing her about the abduction; guest Eydie Gormé 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".
10.00 #12 - with Tim Conway, Valerie Harper
Season 6 - Episode 20
· ""The First Blind Date"" – two couples go on a blind double date · ""The Fireman"" – the world's oldest living fireman (Tim) attempts to rescue someone (Harvey)
9.50 #13 - with Jim Nabors
Season 9 - Episode 1
· ""The Family"" – Eunice leaves Ed · ""The Hollow Hero"" – an eccentric military hero doesn't want his commendation
9.33 #14 - with Tim Conway, Perry Como, Sidney Omarr
Season 2 - Episode 15
· Carol and Perry sing ""My Funny Valentine"" and ""They Didn't Believe Me""
9.00 
#15 - with Carl Reiner
Season 7 - Episode 17
Carl Reiner, the versatile mirth master who played second banana to Sid Caesar throughout the '50s (on both Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour), appears with another of television's great second bananas, Harvey Korman, in the "Funny6 Lady" sketch, which features Carol as a stand-up comic seeing a marriage counselor because she can't stop pelting her husband (Harvey) with one-liners. The psychiatrist tries shock therapy: She must remain absolutely quiet while he asks her such questions as, "How lazy is your brother-in-law?" The first-rate second bananas also appears with Carol in "Accident Prone," about a couple trying to get a Small State insurance policy, and "La Caperucita Roja," a Mexican-flavored retelling of Little Red Riding Hood (the wolf is a bull, played by Carl, and Harvey in Grandma).
9.00 
#16 - with Tim Conway, Bernadette Peters
Season 7 - Episode 20
It's Carol's turn to break up at Tim's antics during an "As the Stomach Turns" parody of The Exorcist. Guest star Bernadette Peters has a devil of a good time playing 12-year-old Raven, Carol's possessed niece. Tim, a favorite guest star before becoming a regular in 1975, is the exterminator-turned-exorcist who battles evil with such symbols of purity as a white shoe worn by Pat Boone, a picture of Doris Day drinking a glass of milk and a branch from the King Family's Christmas tree. Bernadette then sings "Blame It on My Youth," and returns for the finale, a mini-musical salute to composer Harry Warren. Harvey and Tim also team up for a World War II sketch about Japanese sailors in a two-man submarine out to sink Cleveland (the city where Tim got his start on television).
9.00 #17 - with Tim Conway
Season 8 - Episode 15
· ""Pirates of Penzance"" takeoff
9.00 #18 - with Cher
Season 9 - Episode 3
Carol Burnett and her versatile co-star, Cher, sing and dance their way through the "Variety" number, reminding the CBS Television City audience that they are the only two women in prime time with variety shows. That was precisely the case when this ninth-season episode aired. Also seen on CBS, Cher was airing in the 7:30-8:30 p.m. Sunday time slot. Cher, later an Oscar winner for Moonstruck (1987), also demonstrates her flair for comedy in "The Not So Eternal Triangle," a sketch about a glamorous woman whose husband (Harvey Korman) is throwing her over for a timid and homely lover (Carol), and an installment of the soap satire "As the Stomach Turns." She then joins the entire cast for the "Solid Silver Platform shoes" finale, a spoof of '70s rock music (featuring Tim Conway as the Elton John-like character he would play again that season).
9.00 
#20 - with Dinah Shore
Season 10 - Episode 8
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 "oldest living man" as a 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.
8.75 #23 - with Nanette Fabray, Sonny & Cher
Season 1 - Episode 8
· ""V.I.P."" interview with a nudist (Carol) · Cher sings ""You'd Better Sit Down, Kids"" · Sonny and Cher sing ""Living For You""
8.57 #24 - with Ruth Buzzi, Richard Crenna
Season 7 - Episode 13
Two of television's most enduring and endearing performers are the guest stars for this seventh-season episode of The Carol Burnett Show. Richard Crenna had three series under his belt when he showed up for this appearance: Our Miss Brooks (1952-55), The Real McCoy's (1957-63) and Slattery's People (1964-65). The other guest star, Ruth Buzzi, had just completed her 1968-73 stint on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, where she frequently socked it to people as handbag wielding Gladys Ornsby. Dan Rowan, Dick Martin and announcer Gary Owens were the only other regulars to stay with that celebrated comedy variety series for its entire NBC run. Ruth plays Carol's clueless celebrity partner in a game show parody called "Celebrities and Peasants." Richard plays police officer Carol's partner (and husband) in a skit titled "Adam and Eve 12."
8.50 #25 - with Telly Savalas and The Smothers Brothers
Season 8 - Episode 5
Another eighth-season treat, this episode features the Smothers Brothers, as well as Telly Savalas, then in his second CBS season as lollipop-licking police lieutenant Theo Kojak. In 1974, Kojak was a Sunday-night series for the network. Just a few years earlier, the Smothers Brothers also had a Sunday-night series on CBS but their relationship with the network was not so amicable. The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967-69) was canceled after many fights with the CBS censors and management over material and guest stars. After Dick Smothers tries to get through a song, frequently interrupted by his brother, of course, Tommy returns to play Eunice's hospitalized brother in the third "Family" sketch. Telly Savalas sings "Rubber Bands and Bits of String," then appears in the "Broken Merger" sketch with Harvey Korman.
8.50