Comedian Carol Burnett’s first major role on television was in the 1964, a TV adaptation of the Broadway musical “Once Upon a Mattress,” where she re-created her stage role as Princess Winnifred. While that production is not currently streaming, episodes of “The Carol Burnett Show” are available on several platforms.
Below are some more highlights of movies and TV shows from her long career.
‘The Carol Burnett Show’
Sammy Davis Jr. and Carol Burnett in a 1976 episode of “The Carol Burnett Show.”
(Getty Images)
Comedy-variety | TV-G | 11 seasons (1967 – 78)
Apple TV+ (11 seasons) | Prime Video (11 seasons) | The Roku Channel | (11 seasons) | Peacock (3 seasons)
Eleven seasons of “The Carol Burnett Show,” from 1967 to 1978, made Burnett family to more than one generation of television viewers, all the more because it was a show families watched together. It might be bawdy, but it was never blue; and though it could be cutting, even a little upsetting, as in the “Family” sketches in which the star played the much-abused Eunice, the show’s default mode was a genial, generous silliness. It had no interest in the news; its favorite targets — or subjects, rather, as the satire was affectionate — were the iconic Hollywood films Burnett grew up on. When television is finally laid to rest, we will still remember her sweeping down a staircase, in a dress made from drapes — and their rod — in a takeoff on “Gone With the Wind.” (Read more) — Robert Lloyd
“The Carol Burnett Show: Show Stoppers” features highlights from the long-running comedy-variety series.
(CBS)
‘The Carol Burnett Show: Show Stoppers’
2001 | TV Special | 43 minutes
Prime Video (Rent/Buy)
This CBS TV special showcases some of the series’ funniest moments.
‘The Four Seasons’
1981 | Romantic comedy |Rating: PG | 1 hour 47 minutes
Netflix | Prime Video (Rent/Buy)
Alan Alda, a man who likes to discuss relationships, gives us both sides of the coin Sunday: the nice marital and the not-so-nice extramarital. In “The Four Seasons,” scored to Vivaldi, we get a year in the life of happily married Alda, droll movie spouse Burnett and four longtime friends, suddenly thrown into disarray by the defection, divorce and impending remarriage of one of their number. This was Alda’s feature writer-directorial debut, and it plays like the best TV sitcom you ever saw: predictable but charming, with easy, deft interplay among the ensemble. (Read more) — Michael Wilmington
‘Annie’
Carol Burnett, center right, in a scene from the 1982 musical film “Annie.”
(Columbia Pictures/Getty Images)
1982 | Musical comedy |Rating: PG | 2 hour 7 minutes
Prime Video (Rent/Buy) | Apple TV+ (Rent/Buy)
“Annie” has three crackerjack performances: Aileen Quinn’s meltingly lovable Annie; Albert Finney’s Daddy Warbucks, which has dimensions you might not have believed possible given the comic strip original, and Burnett’s Miss Hannigan, directress of the orphanage, who takes to gin as a sensible antidote to a single life bounded on all sides by little girls. She is the film’s Cruella de Vil, the sort who might chew up little orphans and use their bones as toothpicks. Burnett’s sense of comic placement is unerring: You actually see life from her viewpoint. (Read more) — Shelia Benson
‘A Little Help With Carol Burnett’
Advice show| TV-G | 2018: 1 season
Netflix
Burnett and her Tarzan yodel returned to series TV for the first time in decades with the recent arrival of Netflix’s “A Little Help With Carol Burnett.” The unscripted chat show features Burnett and a rotating cast of pre-K and grade-schoolers candidly discussing everything from the meaning of love to technology to parenting advice: “Bribery always works,” said one of her more astute co-stars.
The 12-episode series, created by Burnett, also features regular Russell Peters and guests such as Wanda Sykes, DJ Khaled, Lisa Kudrow, Julie Bowen (“Modern Family”), Candace Cameron Bure (“Fuller House”), Mark Cuban, Billy Eichner, Tony Hale (“Arrested Development”), Taraji P. Henson (“Empire”), Derek Hough (“Dancing With the Stars”), Brittany Snow (“Pitch Perfect”) and Finn Wolfhard (“Stranger Things”). (Read more) — Lorraine Ali
‘Better Call Saul’
Carol Burnett in the final season of “Better Call Saul.”
(Greg Lewis/AMC)
Drama| TV-MA | Final season (2022: Four episodes)
Netflix
“Better Call Saul” is set several years before the events of “Breaking Bad,” the Emmy-winning drama that introduced us to Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). The prequel tracks the transformation of lawyer Jimmy McGill into the Saul Goodman viewers came to love in the original series. (Read more) — Yvonne Villarreal
