With her 23rd Emmy nomination coming 62 years after she was first nominated for “The Garry Moore Show” in 1962, Carol Burnett has now been nominated for 14 different shows. The one she’s best known for is “The Carol Burnett Show,” her long-running and wildly popular variety show that ran from 1967 until 1978.
But there were also variety specials (“Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall,” “Sills and Burnett at the Met”), dramas (“6 Rms Riv Vu,” “Friendly Fire,” “Law & Order: SVU”) and comedies (“The Larry Sanders Show,” “Mad About You”). And now, at the age of 91, one of the most beloved entertainers of the television age has been nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the Apple TV+ comedy “Palm Royale,” in which she steals more than a few scenes as Norma Dellacorte, a rich society dame who spends a third of the season in a coma and then another big chunk of it conscious but unable to talk except in grunts and squawks.
The show’s 11 nominations include lead actress Kristen Wiig, who plays a desperate social climber in 1969 Palm Beach who is anxious to claim the inheritance of Norma, her husband’s aunt. Signing on to play the part, said this year’s oldest and most beloved nominee, was a no-brainer.
At this point in your career, has what you’re looking for in projects changed?
Not really. Everything that I’ve tried to do — some have been successful and some not — I’ve wanted to do it because I thought it would be fun. And for the most part, it has been. And that’s one of the reasons I was so happy to be offered the job in “Palm Royale.” All I had to do was hear who was gonna be in it: Kristen Wiig and Allison Janney and Laura Dern and Ricky Martin and Leslie Bibb and Julia Duffy…. Not even knowing what I was gonna do, I said, I wanna be in it.
That’s good, because “your character is in a coma for the first four episodes” isn’t the most enticing pitch.
I know! (Laughs) Well, they told me that after I said yes. They said that I’m kind of the matriarch of this whole Palm Royale situation, but I’m in a coma for several episodes.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: It was really funny. I’d be in bed and I’d get up at five in the morning and go to the studio, go to the makeup trailer, get into my costume and go right back to bed. That’s quite a good gig.
When the character comes out of the coma, she speaks in grunts and groans. Did you come up with those on your own?
Yeah. You can’t write that stuff. I said, “What do I do?” And they said, “Just try to talk, but it comes out as gibberish.” And so I said, “OK, I’ll do gibberish. And I really enjoyed doing that ‘cause I never quite knew what was gonna come out of my mouth.
Including something that sounds like your famous Tarzan yell.
That was not intentional! It just came out. At one point I said, “Should we do that again?” And they said, “No, leave it in.” What the heck?
One of the things that’s so great about it is that when we meet Norma, she’s in a coma and she’s played by Carol Burnett, so we’re guaranteed to have sympathy towards her. And then once she wakes up, the show gradually strips away all of our sympathy.
I know! (Laughs)
Was that a fun transition to make?
Oh, definitely. It’s a lot of fun playing a villain. Like Miss Hannigan (in Annie). And in Law & Order: SVU, I was a villain. In fact, I think I killed a few people. It’s fun to do that, and I’ve been so lucky ’cause I’ve been able to do so many different things. And it’s still happening. I’m amazed at my age, but I’m happy. I’ve got all my parts, my hips and my knees, and I think I’ve got my brain.
In the last episode, you have a conversation with Ricky Martin’s character about how terrible it is to grow old. I watched that wondering if any of your own feelings were in there. But I don’t think you’re weary or embittered the way she is at all.
Not at all. And also, people treat her differently. I’m not treated the way she is. So I have no bitterness about getting older. I mean, hey, what’s the alternative?
In that final episode, there’s also a huge bombshell when we learn Norma’s true identity.
Yeah. I never knew that until, like, halfway through. And then (showrunner) Abe (Sylvia) said, “She’s not really who she pretends to be.” I go, “Oh, that’s kind of fun. So I guess I’m Agnes, right?” We’ll find out in the second season just who and what Agnes is and what she did.
“Palm Royale” is set in the late 1960s and one of the points of the show was how tumultuous that time was politically and socially. For you, that was a time when “The Carol Burnett Show”was rolling and things were going well. Do you remember that era as being tumultuous?
Definitely. And we didn’t discuss it, but we just went ahead and did sketches where nothing was topical. Because I just wanted it to be the V words — variety and even vaudeville — and I wanted it to stand the test of time.
Once in a while we might do something a little political, but it wasn’t our deal. You know, ours was just to make people laugh, to do movie takeoffs and certain characters like Mrs. Higgins and Mr. Tudball and Eunice and the family that people could identify with. And I think that’s one of the reasons that our show is still running. You know, we’re on Me TV, and people YouTube us. (Pauses) I’m so excited about this. Do you ever watch TCM?
Sure.
I’m on it all the time, because I was raised in the ’40s and ’50s going to movies with my grandmother. And recently my husband and I were at a function where Dave Karger, who is one of the hosts of TCM, was a moderator. We met him and I said, “Oh, I watch you all the time.” And my husband Brian said, “We have an idea. What if you show the full movie, say, of “Mildred Pierce” and then show “The Carol Burnett Show” takeoff of it? And they jumped at the idea.
So I’m gonna be interviewed by him in September, and then they’re gonna show these takeoffs in December. We’re showing “Double Indemnity,” “Gone With the Wind,” “A Stolen Life,” “Torch Song,” “Mildred Pierce” … They’re gonna show “Double Indemnity” with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck, and then show the takeoff we did with Steve Lawrence called “Double Calamity.” I’m really excited about that because one of my favorite things that we always did on my show was the movie takeoffs. I’ve wanted to do something like that for so long, and I didn’t think they would ever go for it.
What else do you have in the works?
We’re developing a series with Apple TV based on the famous rehearsal club in New York in the 1950s. A movie was written about it years ago called “Stage Door” with Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. It’s based on where I first moved when I went to New York. I lived in this building with 25 other women. It was a safe haven for all of us who wanted to be in show business, and it was sponsored by wealthy ladies in New York so that the rent was only $18 a week, room and board.
I lived in one room with four other girls. We each had a cot and a dresser, and we shared one bathroom and one closet, so you can imagine. But everybody rooted for everybody. I remember one time I got four other girls together, and we each put in $5 to buy an audition dress. We went to Bloomingdale’s and we found an orange dress that would work for all of us, because we wanted something that would stand out. If we had an audition, we’d sign up and get the dress, wear it for the audition, then be responsible for having it cleaned and hung back up in the closet for the next girl.
It was just a wonderful time in the ’50s when I first got there. So we’re gonna develop a series featuring all the different girls and their stories. I’ll be helping create that, and I’ll be behind the scenes. (Laughs) Thank God I’m healthy enough to work when it’s offered and when I think it’s gonna be fun.
This story first appeared in the Down to the Wire: Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
