Today, it's hard to fathom a prime-time sketch-comedy show running for 11 years, but The Carol Burnett Show did just that from 1967 to 1978. Its memorable moments are legion, from Tim Conway cracking up Harvey Korman to Vicki Lawrence's Mama cracking wise, from Burnett's opening Q&A to her closing ear tug. And then, of course, there's that epic ''Went With the Wind!'' send-up of the Civil War classic that climaxed with Burnett as Scarlett emerging with a dress made of drapes, curtain-rod still attached. ''I saw it in the window,'' she cooed, ''and I just couldn't resist it!'' And we can't resist her, especially after sitting down with the TV icon (No. 6 on EW and TV Land's list of the top TV icons of all time) to talk about how that indelible moment came to be, as well as why she's never done a traditional sitcom.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What does the whole idea of a ''TV icon'' mean to you?
CAROL BURNETT: I get a little embarrassed saying [in response], ''I'll call somebody else one, I don't call me one.'' I don't know if that's false modesty or what. I guess what comes to mind, if you want to do it in one word, might be longevity. And the fact that the audience can conjure up moments that they like to think about or talk about: ''Hey, do you remember the time Lucy set fire to her nose?'' That's iconic.
As you were doing your show, did you ever feel like you were entering into that kind of territory, like you were carrying a TV comedy torch?
Never thought that, not once. Which is very healthy, because we were living in the moment. We never knew from one season to the next whether [we] were going to be renewed or what. We had no idea what they're going to throw up against [us]. So that was never, ''Oh, well, we're carrying a torch.'' It was like, ''What are we going to do this week, or next week?'' And that was it. That's about as far into the future as I would think.
So how does it feel now to have people speak of you as an icon?
I'm grateful. If somebody says [something] looks nice on you, don't say, ''What? This old thing?'' [You say,] ''Thank you very much.'' But you don't go anywhere else with that. I still have to go to the grocery store, put gas in the car, put [my] pants on one leg at a time.
Are there any other TV icons you admire?
I got my first break on television with The Garry Moore Show, which was way before your time and a lot of folks' time. I learned a lot about how to play sketches on Garry's show. I would never miss watching Sid Caesar [on his variety series, like Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour]. Variety was the thing I loved the most, more than sitcoms, because I loved seeing Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca do take-offs and satire. That's why I didn't ever do a sitcom. I always wanted to do take-offs on some of the movies that I grew up with, and you can't do that on a sitcom.
Why don't you like sitcoms?
I don't watch sitcoms, I really don't. My problem with them is they take so long to film them that there's no spontaneity. I want to see that. They did have spontaneity, I thought, on Everybody Loves Raymond. They were [performing] right in the moment, and that wasn't a laugh-track. That was real people [laughing]. It kind of bothers me that they try to pull a wool over your eyes and say, ''Oh, here's an audience,'' and you know they're long gone.
NEXT PAGE: ''It was one of the longest laughs we've ever had on the show. You can see me kind of biting the inside of my cheek, trying not to laugh.''
