“The Kardashians!” Carol Burnett says when asked what she’d love to spoof the way she used to on her iconic variety series.
The 90-year-old living legend opens up about her career on “The Art of Kindness with Robert Peterpaul’s” 100th podcast episode, which drops on World Kindness Day — Monday, November 13.
“Really, what I loved spoofing more than anything were the old movies,” Burnett says. “Nanny and I would go to the movies when we could save our pennies. I grew up watching movies in the ‘40s and ‘50s. So when I got my show, I would do take-offs on the classics, like ‘Mildred Pierce’ and ‘Gone with the Wind’ and ‘Double Indemnity’ and ’The African Queen’ and ’The Postman Always Rings Twice.’ It was a thrill for me to be able to do those take-offs.”
She confides that her most famous look ever — playing Scarlett O’Hara in a dress crudely fashioned from Tara’s drapes — almost did not happen!
“That was the genius of our costume designer Bob Mackie. He came up with that idea,” she recalls. “Originally, they wrote it so that I would be coming down the stairs with the draperies just hanging on me and Bob thought, ‘That’s not that funny.’ So, when I went into costume fitting that week, he said, ‘I have an idea for the curtain dress.’ I walked in and he had it on a mannequin. I fell on the floor laughing. I said, ‘This is gonna be one of the greatest sight gags in the history of television.’ And it is. It’s in the Smithsonian.”
Burnett says doing the podcast in honor of World Kindness Day “is so important.”
“I’m so happy.”
Peterpaul, the show’s host and producer, adds, “To me, kindness is an action. It’s using your time on this earth to make someone else’s life brighter. Carol Burnett has done that a million times over for us all. She has woven the most beautiful legacy of kindness in the arts, making her a dream guest for ‘The Art of Kindness’ podcast’s 100th episode. I’m beyond grateful and still can’t believe it even happened!”
Tune in to “The Art of Kindness with Robert Peterpaul” here, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
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