In the last week of the fifth year of her CBS contract, Carol Burnett picked up the phone and called New York. She’d been waiting almost five years to make this call, and she’d nearly run out of time. She got a CBS vice president on the line. “I want to push the button,” she said. There was a pause. “What button?”
They’d completely forgotten she had it. When Carol Burnett left The Garry Moore Show in 1962, she’d signed a 10-year contract with CBS. The deal required her to do one special a year and a couple of guest appearances. Standard stuff. But her agent had slipped something else into the contract. A clause that said within the first five years, if Burnett decided she wanted to do a comedy variety show, CBS would have to put it on the air for 30 one-hour episodes. Pay or play. Whether they wanted to or not. For years she hadn’t been sure she’d ever use it. Then in the very last week of year five she called.
He called back the next day after getting the lawyers out of their Christmas parties to check if it was real. “Carol,” he said, “it’s a man’s game. Variety is a man’s game. It’s Gleason. It’s Dean Martin. It’s Sid Caesar. Women.” Then he offered her the alternative CBS had planned: a sitcom called “Here’s Agnes.” “I don’t want to be Agnes,” Burnett said. She told him what she wanted: 30 hours of comedy variety with music and sketches and a rep company and guest stars. She also told them she wanted to open every show with a live Q&A with the studio audience. CBS tried to cut that too. She said no. The contract said they had to put the show on. They did. The show that ran 11 seasons almost didn’t happen because CBS wanted her playing someone named Agnes.
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Harvey Korman came on as a regular. So did Vicki Lawrence, who was barely 19 and virtually unknown. Tim Conway joined and immediately made it his personal mission to destroy Harvey Korman’s composure mid-scene. Conway would improvise mid-sketch until Korman shook, trying not to laugh on camera. In the Dentist sketch, Korman laughed so hard he wet his pants on stage. The clips are still some of the most-watched on YouTube.
In Season 10, Burnett wore a dress made from curtains with the curtain rod still attached — costume designer Bob Mackie’s idea — in a parody of Gone With the Wind. It became the most celebrated sketch in the show’s history. The dress is now in the Smithsonian. CBS had expected the show to die quietly after one season.
The Button She Almost Didn’t Push
Eleven seasons. 279 episodes. 25 Emmy Awards. CBS wanted a 12th season. Burnett said no — she felt the show had run its course and ended it herself. Then here’s the part CBS definitely didn’t see coming: her production company Whacko Inc. owns every episode ever made. Every rerun on MeTV, every stream on Tubi, every DVD box set puts money directly in her pocket. The Golden Globes named their television achievement award after her. Carol Burnett is 93 years old in 2026 and most recently starred in Palm Royale on Apple TV+. The clause is still in her contract. The masters are still in her company. She still owns all of it.
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