The BEST episodes of The Carol Burnett Show season 8
Every episode of The Carol Burnett Show season 8, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Carol Burnett Show season 8!
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.
Watch Now:Amazon
#2 - 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#3 - 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".
Watch Now:Amazon#4 - 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".
Watch Now:Amazon
#5 - 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#6 - with Maggie Smith and Tim Conway
Season 8 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/23/1974
A couple (Carol and Harvey) is visited by an old college chum who has become famous; and a spoof of "Born Free" with guest Tim Conway as a lion who doesn't want to go back to the wild; Carol performs "You Oughta Be in Pictures" and "Oh, to Be a Movie Star"; Carol and guest Maggie Smith duet on "You're So London".
Watch Now:Amazon#7 - with Tim Conway and The Pointer Sisters
Season 8 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/8/1975
Conway tries to become silent screen star Nora Desmond's new servant; a TV hobby show host perseveres despite the bungling of his badly hung over assistant; The Sisters take part in a TV game show skit featuring Burnett as a doddering contestant; Carol and the Pointer Sisters sing "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More". The Pointer Sisters solo with "Love In Them There Hills".
Watch Now:Amazon#8 - with Steve Lawrence and Sally Struthers
Season 8 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/22/1975
In a spoof of the 1939 gangster film "The Roaring Twenties", Steve Lawrence plays the bootlegger, Sally Struthers a chorus girl and Burnett as the often jilted speakeasy operator. Burnett also pantomimes a moviegoer with an upset stomach. Lawrence sings "Make It Easy on Yourself" and "No Sunshine" and Struthers is the principal in a production number of "Next to Livin'".
Watch Now:Amazon#9 - with Wayne Rogers and Buddy Ebson
Season 8 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/8/1975
Spoofs of war movies (including "War Is Heck"); sketches with "The Old Folks" and Carol as the perpetually accident-prone wife; Buddy hoofs to "Rendezvous", for which he wrote the lyrics; and the guests join the cast for the musical finale, "County Fair".
Watch Now:Amazon#10 - with Steve Lawrence, Tim Conway, and Steven Warner
Season 8 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/7/1974
Tim plays a man who has the surprise of his life when he visits a woman who is actually a cop on a stakeout; Steve plays a blackmailer in "As the Stomach Turns"; and for the finale, a salute to the music of Lerner and Loewe. Lawrence performs "On a Clear Day" and Warner performs "Why Is the Desert So Lovely to See?"
Watch Now:Amazon#11 - with John Byner and Helen Reddy
Season 8 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/16/1974
Two men attempt to pick up women at a singles bar; in "The Family", pandemonium breaks out when Eunice, Ed and Mama play the board game "Sorry"; and a musical salute to women songwriters.
Watch Now:Amazon#12 - with John Byner and Ken Mars
Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/9/1974
Carol plays a soap-opera addict; John appears in a parody of TV record commercials where he impersonates top pop singers as well as being the announcer; Vicki performs "Rolling Down the Hills"; a woman (Carol) creates a scene in an elegant restaurant while breaking up with her boyfriend (John); a married couple each has dreams of being with other people; and for the close, the "Mr. Globe" contest.
Watch Now:Amazon#13 - with Eydie Gorme and Rich Little
Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/26/1974
Guest Rich Little impersonates Alfred Hitchcock in a salute to the legendary director; a married couple (Carol, Harvey), no longer on speaking terms after a night out, argue through actions; guest Eydie Gorme sings "You'll Remember Me"; and for the finale, a musical salute to composer Jerome Kern.
Watch Now:Amazon#14 - with Jack Weston and Michele Lee
Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/5/1974
A tribute to composer Stephen Sondheim with songs performed by Carol and guest star Michele Lee. As for the skits of the show, guest Jack Weston plays a patient who believes he is going to die in a soap opera bit; Carol becomes a lady of the evening; and Miss Burnett teams with Weston to play a couple giving marriage a bad name.
Watch Now:Amazon#15 - with James Coco and The Pointer Sisters
Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/28/1974
Star-crossed lovers meet on a Pacific cruise in a spoof of the movie "One-Way Passage"; a woman argues with her tub of margarine in a parody of Parkay commercials; a man (James) is nervous about a blind date and gets advice from Harvey Korman; a spoof of "Kojak". Musical numbers include guests The Pointer Sisters performing "Steam Heat", and joined by Carol on "Salt Peanuts".
Watch Now:Amazon#16 - with Carl Reiner and Ken Berry
Season 8 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/14/1974
In a spoof of "Airport 1975" Carol is the brave stewardess, Ken Berry is a passenger on his way to a nose transplant and Carl Reiner is Carol's jealous boyfriend. Ken Berry performs "Razzle-Dazzle". For the finale, a musical spoof of Hamlet.
#17 - with Alan King and Lena Zavaroni
Season 8 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/2/1974
Guest Alan King plays a baseball fan who is being pestered by a woman who has more interest in him than in the game; two former silent screen stars (Carol, Harvey) are reunited at the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard; a woman claims a package that she found at a bus stop; guest Lena Zavaroni performs "If They Could See Me Now"; and for the close, a salute to the music of DeSylva, Brown and Henderson.
#18 - with Roddy McDowall and Bernadette Peters
Season 8 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/15/1975
Eunice, Ed and Mama visit accomplished younger brother Phillip (guest Roddy McDowall) in his California home in "The Family"; Carol and guest Bernadette Peters play two synchronized secretarial typists who do everything in unison; and "The Lady Heir" (a spoof of the 1949 film "The Heiress"). This episode is noted as Show #821 in the This Time Together DVD set.
#19 - with Jean Stapleton and Phil Silvers
Season 8 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/29/1975
Sketches include: Carol doing a parody of Cher; a mismatched couple in adjacent apartments; Spoofs of TV commercials including Mr. Coffee, sleeping pills and life insurance; an "Old Folks" bit about wedding anniversaries; and a feminist (Jean) argues with a man (Harvey Korman) who holds a door open for her. Stapleton solos Stephen Sondheim's "Losing My Mind" and duets "Flings" with Miss Burnett. For the finale, Phil Silvers re-creates his famous Sgt. Bilko in a musical production.
#20 - with William Conrad and The Jackson Five
Season 8 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/25/1975
The Jackson Five 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. Guest William Conrad 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."
#21 - with Jim Nabors
Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/14/1974
Jim Nabors helps Carol launch her eighth season as guest star. Nabors plays the dumb wide-eyed attendant at a shooting gallery, watching Carol shoot it out with the Ringo Kid (Harvey Korman). Mama, Eunice and Ed come back home from church "The Family". Cabaret singer Carol wails "Just a Gigolo" to ex-boyfriend Korman with his new girl, Vicki Lawrence. The finale salutes old time vaudeville.
#22 - Family Show, Tim Conway
Season 8 - Episode 24 - Aired 4/5/1975
Eunice and Mama visit Ed at the hardware store in "The Family". As a mother of three, Carol gives advice to expectant Vicki Lawrence in a skit, and the two dust off a medley of old-fashioned lullabies. Conway plays the world's oldest living clock maker. "When Your Lover Has Gone" is Carol's main vocal number, and she closes the season with "The Charwoman".
#23 - with Rock Hudson and Nancy Walker
Season 8 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/15/1975
Another look at the most memorable TV commercials of the year; a spoof of the 1948 musical "When My Baby Smiles at Me"; Korman plays a ventriloquist who wants to break up with his dummy; Rock and Nancy duet on "Mine".
#24 - with Tim Conway and Dick Patterson
Season 8 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/22/1975
Mama is recovering from a broken leg after a fall in "The Family", and guest Tim Conway appears in a sketch as the "Old Man"; Carol and Vicki duet on "If Mama Was Married", with Harvey appearing as "Mother Marcus"; and a musical finale about Cleopatra with Carol in the title role, and featuring such songs as "Up a Lazy River" and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".