Carol Burnett Was “The World’s Worst Guest” On Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show”

There you go, welcome back ladies and gentlemen, oh my friends, oh my deer, my

guest

tonight

is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning actress and the queen of television variety

show

s. She now stars in the Apple TV plus series Palm Royale. The answer to all my problems would be yes I could suffocate you with this pillow I dare you to try it you don't have it in you you don't have the guts the dynamism that lives or dies Shine but I could have it in me die I won't shoot just die Norma already die Norma, look, you don't have it in you oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, of course I would never do something that bad.

Bad Maxine, please, welcome back to the Late Show Carol Bernett, sweetie, please come down, it's a pleasure to see you fantastic. lovely and I love Carol, as you can see I'm not the only one excited that you're here, thanks for being here. I have had the opportunity to interview you several times on both this

show

and the last show, and it is always a joy that you are one of my favorite

guest

s of all time, you are so natural and relaxed but also larger than life at the same time, but I'm curious, I mean, you've had such a long experience and career in store, did you ever get nervous on talk shows?

Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember a long time ago, you know, when Johnny Carson was on sure, sure, uh, and I would get nervous, he would make me nervous because when you sat in that chair. You had to score, you know, because it was so important like every Freddy deoro was on you like a hwk, yeah, dude hacket and Bob hul and this and and I'm not a stand-up or anything so I was like what am I? I was going to do I decided and I didn't tell Johnny that I was going to be the

worst

guest in the

world

, so I shuddered to imagine that I came on the show, this was years ago, and he said, I'm so glad you're here.

Carol, I understand that you just moved from New York but you grew up here in Hollywood and then you went to New York and now you're back in California again. Are you excited about that? I said yes and then he said. she said and wasn't Betty Grael your favorite movie star when you were growing up in Hollywood. I said yes and they said, and I understand you bought Betty Grale's old house, so you're living in it. Yes, she said, did you ever think that? such a thing would happen to you, I said no, well, of course, he realized, sure, sure, I mean, you know, and then he started asking all kinds of interesting questions, of which I could only say, maybe not. , very good, I'm jealous. anyone who's had any time with Carson because obviously he's the model for a lot of us, but you also had, um, you started your career with Gary Moore as a big on stage before the S Show, yeah, and then you were on The Ed Sullivan Show seven times I understand that's what the research says they couldn't print that if it wasn't legal there seven times and of course so many people got on this stage in fact, where are we Beatles sitting now? he performed at the Center up there, but we were told that Elvis performed here with the Jordan behind him, where basically, where is this desk?

Have you ever met any of those big names? Well I was in when Elvis was in uh when he was in the Army and they did a big thing when he was in the Army on stage and they put me first no one wanted to see me I mean it was Elvis where hell is Elvis? We want to see. I bombed it, oh my god. It was terrible, I can't imagine, it was horrible, but did you greet him like you came back? I met him, he was very sweet and I got his autograph for my kids, oh yeah that's nice, well Elvis inspired the song you made.

I called, I made a fool of myself with John Foster Dulles, right, I know this song, yes, I heard this song, yes, but for the people who don't know, tell people who John Foster was. John Foster Dalles in the '50s was our Secretary of State, so-called, he was so boring, there was really nothing there, you know, and I remember he wore this coat and his hat and he never smiled or anything, so he was making a song with special material that my friend wrote. uh called I Made a Fool of Me by John Foster Dalles, which was meant to be like everyone was going crazy over Elvis, so he wrote this song about this young girl going crazy over John Foster Dulles Elvis Dallas, it's a very short jump there, well, i did it.

I was on the even show and then I was working at a nightclub, the Blue Angel, and I came back to do the second show and the phones were ringing off the hook and one of the calls was from David Waters, who was Mr. .Dulles. and like he said, Mr. Dulles didn't see it, but could he go back to the jack par show and do it so he could see it? So I came back and did it again and then I did it again on The Ed Sullivan Show and All Hell Breaks Loose, I mean, it was on the front page news.

Who is this girl who sings so well about the Secretary of State? Have you ever done it? Did he ever like to tell you something about it? What happened a week later I'm home and I'm watching Meet the Press and Mr. Dulles is on the show and you know, he's where all the difficult things that they're talking about in the

world

today are, sure, the Cold War. , and at the end of the show the guy said Mr. Dallas, could you? Tell us, Mr. Secretary, could you tell us what's going on between you and this girl who sings that love song about and I'm glued to the set like this and he said it's my policy to never discuss matters of the heart in public?

How cute, how cute, so he had a sense of humor, Carol, we have to take a little break, please don't leave and neither do you, we'll be right back with more Carol brnette for everyone.