16 Ear-Tugging Facts About “The Carol Burnett Show”

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Kara Kovalchik and Mental_Floss present 16 Ear-Tugging Facts About The Carol Burnett Show.  Here are three of my favorites…

8. HARVEY KORMAN WAS THE FIRST CAST MEMBER HIRED.
The producers wanted a “Harvey Korman-type” for Burnett’s second banana, but didn’t bother to actually ask Korman if he was interested in the job because he was already a regularon The Danny Kaye Show, and most likely he wouldn’t leave a steady job for an unproven new show. Burnett herself spotted Korman in the CBS parking lot one day and “practically threw him over the hood of a car” begging him to join her show. Unbeknownst to her, Kaye’s show was about to get the axe after a four-year run, so Korman cheerfully accepted her offer shortly after that first meeting.

9. TIM CONWAY RARELY FOLLOWED HIS SCRIPT.
Conway had been a frequent guest star on the show and when Lyle Waggoner decided to leave the show in 1974 (he felt that he was being “underused”), Conway was hired to replace him the following year. Conway was legendary for veering off-script and ad-libbing for lengthy stretches, to the amusement of some of his co-stars (Korman) and annoyance of others (Lawrence, who sometimes resented Conway’s disruptions and spotlight-hogging). Lawrence finally slipped her own ad-lib in on one memorable occasion, as Conway rambled on and on about an elephant during a “Family” sketch. Her NSFW remark brought the rest of the cast to their knees and was said to be Dick Clark’s favorite all-time outtake on his Bloopers and Practical Jokes TV show.

16. THERE WAS ONLY ONE CELEBRITY GUEST THAT BURNETT WAS NEVER ABLE TO BOOK.
Over the 11 seasons the show ran, a veritable “Who’s Who” of the entertainment industry did a guest turn, from Steve Martin to Julie Andrews to then-governor Ronald Reagan to Robin Williams to Ethel Merman. The only guest who Burnett dearly wanted to have but never did get was Bette Davis. Davis was willing to appear but demanded more money that the show had budgeted. Joe Hamilton advised his wife that if they gave in to Davis’ demand, it would set an unpleasant precedent.

The Twilight Zone: “The Hitch-Hiker” [Season 1, Episode 16] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “The Hitch-Hiker” [Season 1, Episode 16]
Original Air Date: January 22, 1960

Director: Alvin Ganzer

Writer: Rod Serling based on the radio play by Lucille Fletcher

Starring: Inger Stevens, Adam Williams and Leonard Strong.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Nan Adams [Stevens], a young woman driving cross-country alone, becomes unnerved when a hitch-hiker continues to approach her for a ride no matter how many times she passes him and no matter what roads she takes.

Final Thoughts: After a string of strong episodes, The Twilight Zone comes up with an average offering.  Not great and not bad… but good.

Rating:

The Twilight Zone: “I Shot an Arrow in the Air” [Season 1, Episode 15] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “I Shot an Arrow in the Air” [Season 1, Episode 15]
Original Air Date: January 15, 1960

Director: Stuart Rosenberg

Writer: Rod Serling based on an idea by Madelon Champion

Starring: Dewey Martin, Edward Binns and Ted Otis.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

When a U.S. spacecraft crash lands on a barren wasteland leaving only four surviving crew members, the Commander of the expedition has his hands full when one of the crew wants to make it every man for himself.

Final Thoughts: Another classic Twilight Zone twist ending.  Madelon Champion met Rod Serling at a party where she suggested her story idea.  Rod Serling bought it on the spot and fleshed it out into I Shot an Arrow in the Air.

Rating:

The Twilight Zone: “Third from the Sun” [Season 1, Episode 14] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “Third from the Sun” [Season 1, Episode 14]
Original Air Date: January 8, 1960

Director: Richard L. Bare

Writer: Rod Serling based on a short story by Richard Matheson

Starring: Fritz Weaver, Edward Andrews and Joe Maross.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

William Sturka [Weaver] and Jerry Riden [Maross] work at a government security installation on a top-secret space craft.  With the threat of world-wide nuclear war imminent security is tighter than ever.

Security Officer Carling [Andrews] is watching everyone like a hawk which makes it tough on Sturka and Riden since they have a plan to steal the space craft and escape to another planet before nuclear Armageddon.

Final Thoughts: A classic Twilight Zone twist ending!

Rating:

Twilight Zone: “The Four of Us Are Dying” [Season 1, Episode 13] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “The Four of Us Are Dying” [Season 1, Episode 13]
Original Air Date: January 1, 1960

Director: John Braham

Writer: Rod Serling based on a short story by George Clayton Johnson

Starring: Harry Townes, Phillip Pine, Ross Martin and Don Gordon with a cameo by Beverly Garland.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Arch Hammer [Townes, Pine, Martin and Gordon] has the ability, with intense concentration, to change his appearance to look like anyone.  Hammer arrives in town and begins to impersonate various people in order to con their friends and business partners out of cash.

Hammer’s ability to change his appearance makes it easy to convince others that he is who he looks like.  Women and money are ripe for the taking.  Sadly, as this is the Twilight Zone, Hammer’s ability will bring him even more than he bargained for.

Final Thoughts: When this episode was first being prepared it was thought that one actor would play all four characters that Hammer impersonates.  When it was determined that it would take too much time in make-up, it was decided that a different actor would play each part.

Rating:

Twilight Zone: “What You Need” [Season 1, Episode 12] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “What You Need” [Season 1, Episode 12]
Original Air Date: December 25, 1959

Director: Alvin Ganzer

Writer: Rod Serling based on a short story by Lewis Padgett

Starring: Steve Cochran and Ernest Truex with a cameo by Arlene Martel.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Fred Renard [Cochran] is a thuggish man who gets what needs from life through bullying, intimidation and worse.  Sadly Renard’s ways have gotten him little.  In a bar one night an old man [Truex] enters selling little novelties and necessities.

The old man peddler seems to know what each person needs before they do.  The peddler tells a woman she needs stain cleaner and she accepts it.  Another patron needs a bus ticket to Scranton.  The patron is doubtful but accepts it.  Within minutes the old man is proved correct — he has provided them exactly what they need.

Renard has found the golden goose!  He intimidates the old man to provide him with what he needs for quick, easy cash.  The old man comes through but Renard isn’t satisfied.  He tracks the old man down for more.  Will the old man have what is needed?

We’re in the Twilight Zone, baby!  Of course he will.

Final Thoughts: The ending is a twist but one most won’t see coming.

Rating:

Twilight Zone: “And When the Sky was Opened” [Season 1, Episode 11] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “And When the Sky was Opened” [Season 1, Episode 11]
Original Air Date: December 11, 1959

Director: Douglas Heyes

Writer: Rod Serling based on a short story by Richard Matheson

Starring: Rod Taylor and Jim Hutton

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Astronauts Lieutenant Colonel Forbes [Taylor], Major Gart [Hutton] and Colonel Harrington are piloting an experimental rocket ship’s initial flight. Upon reentry the ship crashes in the desert.  Gart suffers a broken leg and is hospitalized.  Forbes and Harrington visit Gart and share the newspaper with a headline declaring the three of them as heroes.

After the visit Forbes and Harrington go to a bar to celebrate. Harrington suddenly begins to fill ill and decides to call his parents.  His parent answers and tells a shocked Harrington that they have no son! Harrington instantly disappears and the newspaper headline changes to two astronauts as heroes.

Forbes didn’t see Harrington disappear and begins to look for him.  Everyone in the bar says that Forbes came in alone.  Forbes remembers the newspaper headline and gets it to show the bar patrons.

Shocked to see the headline has changed, Forbes rushes back to the hospital and to tell Gart what has happened.  Gart shocks Forbes by saying there were only two of them on the flight.  Forbes suddenly begins to feel ill…

Final Thoughts: Rod Taylor sells the episode.  The ending is a bit of a letdown but everything leading up to is excellent.Rating:

12 Timeless Facts About “12 Monkeys”

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Janet Burns and Mental_Floss present 12 Timeless Facts About 12 Monkeys.  Here are three of my favorites…

6. WILLIS TOOK A PAY CUT FOR THE GIG, AND EVEN OFFERED TO SHAVE HIS HEAD.
As Den of Geek reported, Willis and his co-star Madeleine Stowe both accepted substantially less than their usual pay rates for their roles in 12 Monkeys in order to work with Gilliam. During the intensive filming process, it was Willis who came up with his character’s signature hairstyle. “It was his idea to shave his head, and it changed him a lot,” Gilliam said. “It makes him much stronger, much more dangerous. He looks like a prisoner from a Soviet Gulag … Bruce has got one of the great architectural craniums in the world! It’s just a great, beautiful thing to photograph.”

8. BRAD PITT UNDERWENT PSYCHIATRIC COACHING FOR THE ROLE.
Dr. Laszlo Gyulai, who directs the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine’s bipolar disorders unit, helped the then-up-and-coming actor to fine-tune his institutionalized character’s mannerisms through the study of real mental illness. Gyulai told The New York Times that films featuring psychiatric patients sometimes “make them look like lunatics, [while] many patients who are mentally ill are not crazy at all, particularly if they have depression or mood disorders.” Legend has it that Gilliam put an extra and very genuine bit of tension into Pitt’s performance by taking away his cigarettes on set, too.

9. PITT’S HARD WORK EARNED HIM A GOLDEN GLOBE, AND HIS FIRST OSCAR NOMINATION.
12 Monkeys made its splash at the box office just as Pitt’s career was hitting overdrive, and his Academy Award nomination and Golden Globe win for Best Supporting Actor were among the actor’s very first accolades. As the Manila Standard reported, Pitt was “surprised” by his 1996 award, and kept his comments brief during the “moment of absolute terror” in which he delivered his acceptance speech, stating: “I’d like to thank the members of—actually, the makers of Kaopectate. They’ve done a great service for their fellow man.”