This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection

If you like the Carol Burnett show then you will find this book a fast read and very interesting.

I'm so glad we had this time together. I've known Carol Burnett (the performer) all my life . . . she's been making me laugh ever since I discovered she was the funniest girl since Lucy. I've known Carol (the friend) ever since I profiled her for a Redbook cover feature more than two decades ago. We may not see each other often, we may not send emails frequently, but she is never far from my thoughts. Or my remote. With one click, I can travel back and watch her in action on her self-titled long-running TV series, as a guest star on various shows and sitcoms, in a handful of good movies that too many forget she made. I can relive the magic of Putting It Together or Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall or Moon Over Buffalo. I can flip another switch and hear her voice fill the room . . . singing with her good pal Julie Andrews on the highly collectible Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall or holding a note on "Johnny One Note" (from Let Me Entertain You) that, all these years later, still defies the power of vocal cords. Even Dame Shirley couldn't hold it so long, so steady, so right. Or I could pick up the phone and find Carol at the other end. And that's exactly what I did the other day. The phone rang late Saturday afternoon, and though Caller ID promised a "Private Caller," my gut told me to answer. "Alan? It's Carol!" Memories come flooding back. I begin to cry. We chat. We gab. We giggle. We revisit the past, bask in the present, look forward to the future. I tell her she's the sexiest looking 73-year-old grandmother I have ever seen. (She has two grandkids by daughter Erin.) "Darling, I am turning 77 [on April 26]!" she corrects me. As she speaks so candidly and honestly, as she talks about her husband, her children, her struggles, her success, I remember how much I have learned from Carol. I have learned the power of forgiveness, the importance of truth, the reason for passion. Throughout my career, I have been repeatedly asked who my "favorite" interview has been, which famous person is "the same off screen as on." It's Carol. Always was. Always will be. She's so warm . . . so inviting . . . so approachable . . . so real. I ask her about her longevity as a performer. Why do audiences love her so? "I have been very lucky," she says. "I have always been grateful. I never take anything for granted." I toss out the one word her fans feel they are---"friends"---and she agrees. "Totally. My fans and I have this tremendous friendship. I could never remotely be perceived as a diva." Carol has written a new book, This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection (Harmony, $25), in which she serves up some delight recollections on her life and career, especially her Emmy-winning 11-year run on The Carol Burnett Show. She calls the book "not the end, but the end of a chapter. It started out as a funny, anecdotal book about the famous and not-so-famous. But then I found as I got into it, there were some things I would never talk about in the Q & As, becau

I've been a lifelong fan of Carol. My first rebellion against my mother was pleading to be allowed to stay up to watch her variety show in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Possibly I was a peculiar child but I rather think that my finding the show so entertaining when I was so little speaks to Carol's talent, quality and class. She is one of those rare comedians that can articulate human foibles well enough to appeal to people of all ages and places. Many skits from that show are funny on the first viewing and equally funny on the hundredth viewing. This book is a series of stories and anecdotes about the people that she worked with over three decades of actively working in the industry on her television show and specials, plus a few movies. There is nothing shocking or offensive here, just a bit of teasing together with warm regard and high praise. She views her costars and her former husband and family as integral to her success and portrays them accordingly. She's refreshingly humble about her failures, albeit there aren't many of them! Readers too young to remember Carol as a regular television fixture will still enjoy reading about this period in entertainment. Carol befriended and worked with an impressive list of entertainment icons including Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant and Lucille Ball among others. Television still had vaudevillian elements then although shows were rarely broadcast live. The space for improvisation and responding to audiences has since been completely engineered out, and these stories about working more spontaneously are really funny. There is the added benefit of exposure to an elegant, refined, gracious, talented and genuinely kind lady. Carol Burnett is truly a star.

If they ever do a poll on 'Best Loved Entertainer,' odds are Carol Burnett would top the list or be in the top five. Ditto for 'Funniest Comedienne.' For decades, this intelligent, witty and endlessly appealing funny lady has brought laughter and joy to people around the world. In her equally appealing book THIS TIME TOGETHER, Burnett shares some of the most meaningful - and usually hilarious - moments in her long career. I haven't enjoyed a book this much in years! For many of us baby boomers, our first exposure to Burnett's talent was on the 'Garry Moore Show' or 'Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall.' She certainly made us laugh with that limber body and rubbery face not to mention a fine singing voice. Yet what impressed most was her sweetness and naturalness. What you saw was what you got: a talented singer-comedienne who didn't take herself seriously. That impression was only reinforced when she hosted her own show, which I think was the finest, funniest variety show ever. Those same qualities are everywhere evident in THIS TIME TOGETHER. In short chapters she takes the reader through her life and the many people she met along the way. She recalls friends and colleagues with obvious delight and affection. She gives unstinting credit to so many people who helped her personally or professionally over the years. And there's scarcely an unkind word or trace of self-pity in sight. THIS TIME TOGETHER has to be one of the 'nicest' show biz books written. It's just a pleasure to read. Some of the most revealing stories are the ones Burnett tells on herself. For instance, the first time Burnett met Cary Grant, she was so petrified, so in awe of him that she tried to bolt from the party. As a young girl she had stared up at Grant on movie screens. Even though she was a bonafide TV star, she felt so inadequate she tried to run. Turns out he was a big fan of hers! Some time later, on a flight to New York, she was dismayed when the movie being shown turned out to be 'The Front Page,' one of Burnett's lesser acting performances. When the movie was done, she asked the stewardess for the P.A. microphone and apologized to the other passengers for her bad acting! THIS TIME TOGETHER will certainly please all Carol Burnett fans. The book just confirms what many of us thought all along - she's funny, bright, down-to-earth, honest and a sweetheart. If you want to share some memorable moments with a real class act, pick up a copy. You won't regret it!

In THIS TIME TOGETHER, funny lady Carol Burnett gives readers a delicious flavor of her various escapades and adventures. Starting with her debut on television (which happened simultaneously with her appearing on Broadway) and covering her life over the next few decades, Ms. Burnett takes the readers on a wild, but enjoyable, ride. Told in small vignettes, she uses her chapters to give an oversight into various factors and people who she worked with over the years. Lucille Ball, Cary Grant, Beverly Sills, Rock Hudson, Julie Andrews and, of course, the ensemble cast from her historic Carol Burnett Show are all here. Instead of giving us a long-winded account, Ms. Burnett chose to give short stories covering one or two memorable events that, although brief and quite bare-bones, manage to convey to the reader the nature of her subject. Some tales are funny but, when she covers the loss of her daughter, Carol Burnett opens up and you see the heartbreak while admiring the woman's courage. THIS TIME TOGETHER is short and the only negative comment one can make is that you often wish she would confide in us even more of her funny and touching tales about the people who were lucky enough to work with her over the years.

About a week ago, I read an article in the New York Times about a new book coming out this week penned by the incomparable Carol Burnett. Needless to say, being quite intrigued (having read One More Time at least twice), I decided to take the plunge on this one blind (which I do not recommend you do unless you're a fan like me). Am I ever glad I did! Carol Burnett is 100% class. Most people, when given the opportunity to write an anecdotal book like this, would have a mean word to say about someone. However, in this case, Carol Burnett does not seem to have a mean word to say about anyone in this book. We can all learn from her example. Carol Burnett has the kind of class that eclipses 99.9% of Hollywood these days. In the era of 24-hour news, TMZ, and negativity of all sorts, Carol Burnett is the breath of fresh air that we desperately needed, at a time that we needed it the most. Some of the stories in here are very sad, especially the times that Carol talks about the events leading up to the premiere of Hollywood Arms a few years back. However, most of the stories (a lot of which I've never heard or seen before) have the signature razor-sharp wit that Carol and company were (and are) well-known for. Two particular items of note are the stories she shares about Lucille Ball (which were laugh-out-loud funny) and the story about how she snagged Harvey Korman to be on The Carol Burnett Show. In summary, if you want negativity, meanness, and other such things that are oh so common these days, this book isn't going to satisfy that in the least. However, if you want something that is all too rare these days, such as class, sweetness, humor when it's necessary, and something 100% genuine, then this book is for you.