Last night, you could have found me at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills, watching Carol Burnett trying to interview Tim Conway about his new book which, at times, he didn't seem to have read. It was another fine, treasured evening staged by the Writers Bloc group that puts together these wonderful events. In each case, a celebrity author is there to promote and sign his or her new book, and another celeb (who may or may not have a book of their own to hawk) is there to interview them. And these events tend to attract other celebs. In the house last night, one could spot Bob Newhart, Stan Freberg, Queen Latifah, Jack Riley, Pat Boone and plenty of others.
Mr. Conway was, of course, very funny. I don't know that the man is capable of not being very funny. He did seem a bit weary and unfocused and at several points, Ms. Burnett — who did a great job as host-interrogator — had to walk him through his own anecdotes. One would like to think this was because Conway is now slogging through a Bataan Death March of book promotions and was just tired…though he did seem to spark up whenever he found himself on the topic of Harvey Korman.
There was much talk of the halcyon days when the Burnett show seemed to be all about how far into the sketch they'd get before Tim got Harvey to break up. Burnett even said that sometimes, the staff would run a pool not on if Harvey would start chortling but when. Whenever it occurred, from that point on, the sketch was not the least bit about what it was about. It was about Harvey Korman being unable to keep a straight face. Among folks who make their living in comedy, this is still controversial.
They used to tape each episode of The Carol Burnett Show twice on tape date in front of two separate audiences — and as Carol noted, they'd tape an entire hour show in around 90 minutes, whereas there are sitcoms today that take 5-6 hours to tape a half-hour — a practice, she says, that drives her crazy. In any sketch with Mssrs. Conway and Korman, the first of the two tapings would be pretty much per the script with everyone well aware of what was coming and Harvey remaining in character.
Between tapings, Tim could go to the director, Dave Powers, and ask, "Did you get it all, Davey?" — meaning: Did you get all the necessary shots so as to make the first taping airable? If Powers said yes, then Tim knew he could screw around the second time and if it didn't work, they could just broadcast the first one. Assuming they'd gotten all the necessary shots, Conway would then add things to the second go-round intended to set Korman to breaking up and he usually succeeded. Later, the producers would decide which version to broadcast.
My friend Gary Belkin, who was one of the writers, used to grumble that they too often opted for the latter. He said, "It was usually a choice between a well-written sketch and a Bloopers episode and they decided audiences would rather see the Bloopers version." He admitted the Conway/Korman gigglefests were funny but felt they were a betrayal of what had made the Burnett show special in the first place. (Lorne Michaels always discouraged that kind of thing on Saturday Night Live. He felt it made for cheap, easy laughs and that it prompted writers to go for laughs that way instead of by earning them with clever material.)
Anyway, I enjoyed the evening though as is usual for these things, I winced a bit when Carol said, "Let's take some questions from the audience." There were a few great ones but there were a lot of folks who seized on the opportunity to talk about themselves and to try to have their public moments with the Big Stars. I kinda wish Newhart had walked down the aisle, waited his turn at the mike and said, "I don't have a question. I just wanted some of this undeserved attention."
Afterwards, Tim stayed a long, long time signing books for a long, long line. If you can't get to one of his many signings and would like an unsigned copy of his new autobiography, here's an Amazon link. And while I'm at it, here's a link for Carol Burnett's latest book. She was especially (but not surprisingly) wonderful last night. And best of all, here's a link to the Writers Bloc site. If you're local to Beverly Hills, you'll want to keep an eye on that page for upcoming events. I've enjoyed every single one I've ever attended.