CAROL + 2

March 22, 1966

Directed
by Marc Breaux

Written
by Nat Hiken and Charles Sherman

CAST

Carol
Burnett
(Herself)
got her first big break on “The Paul Winchell Show” in 1955. A
years later she was a regular on “The Garry Moore Show.” In 1959
she made her Broadway debut in Once
Upon a Mattress,
which she also appeared in on television three times. From 1960 to
1965 she did a number of TV specials, and often appeared with Julie
Andrews. Her second Broadway musical was Fade
Out – Fade In which
ran for more than 270 performances. From 1967 to 1978 she hosted her
own highly successful variety show, “The Carol Burnett Show.”
Lucille Ball made several appearances on “The Carol Burnett Show.”
Burnett guest starred in four episodes of “The Lucy Show” and
three episodes of “Here’s Lucy,” subsequently playing a
character named Carol Krausmeyer. After Lucille Ball’s passing,
Burnett was hailed as the natural heir to Lucy’s title of ‘The
Queen of TV Comedy.’ 

Lucille
Ball (Herself)
was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her
screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the
B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard
Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite
Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,”
a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her
real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was
phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was
once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960
(in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so
did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu
financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The
Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a
similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life
children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined
the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death
in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With
Lucy,” also with Gordon, which was not a success and was canceled
after just 13 episodes.

Zero
Mostel
(Himself) was
an actor,
singer
and
comedian
of
stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of comic characters
such as Tevye
on
stage in Fiddler
on the Roof,
Pseudolus on stage and on screen in A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,
and Max
Bialystock
in
the original film version of The
Producers.
He won three Tony Awards for his Broadway appearances. His film debut
was alongside Lucille Ball in 1943’s Du
Barry Was a Lady.
He died in 1977 at age 62.  

John
Harlan
(Announcer)  

---

This
is the
second of a multi-year series of television variety specials starring
Carol
Burnett. The first special was aired in 1962, featuring Burnett
and Julie
Andrews
“Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall.”

The
special was sponsored by American
Motors Corporation (AMC)
which was formed in 1954 by the merger
of
Nash-Kelvinator
and
Hudson
Motor Car.
At the time, it was the largest corporate merger in US history. After
periods of intermittent but unsustained success, the company was
ultimately acquired by Chrysler
and ceased operation in 1988. The first commercial in the hour-long
program stars Sid Melton, who had appeared in three episodes of “The
Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.”  Although the AMC commercials are not
included on the DVD release, some of the kinescope prints still
retain the filmed commercials. The DVD does include, however, Carol
Burnett’s intro to two of the commercials. 

The
inclusion of Lucille Ball was partly because CBS insisted on Burnett
having an established co-star for the special, and also because Ball
already had a contract with CBS for up to three specials (in addition
to “The
Lucy Show”)
for the 1966-67 season, of which she would only produce one, “Lucy
in London.”

The
show was such a critical and ratings success that CBS rebroadcast it
on January 15, 1967. It was released on DVD
on
May 17, 2016. In April 2016, MeTV
broadcast
the special for the first time in 50 years.

The
original airing straddled TV’s transition from black and white to
color. While “Carol + 2” was shot and aired in color, kinescope
prints exist in black and white as well. While “The Lucy Show”
was shot in color from Fall 1963, it wasn’t aired in color by CBS
until fall 1965.

The
day before this special aired, “Lucy, the Superwoman” (TLS
S4;E26) was broadcast for the first time.

Lucille
Ball and Carol Burnett first shared the small screen in 1960 on “The
Gary Moore Show,” where Carol was a regular and Lucy a guest. In
1966 and 1967 Burnett guest-starred in two two-part episodes of “The
Lucy Show.”  Both appearances were as Carol Bradford, who was at
first Lucy’s Los Angeles roommate. In their second teaming the two
attended flight attendant school together. In 1969 Burnett played
herself on “Here’s Lucy,” and in 1970 she played another Carol,
Carol Krausemeyer, a fellow secretary competing in a beauty contest
with Lucy. In return, Lucille Ball guest-starred on “The Carol
Burnett Show” during one episode of each of her first four seasons.

Coincidentally,
Lucy, Carol and Zero all played Broadway’s Alvin (now Neil Simon)
Theatre in new musicals: Carol in Once
Upon a Mattress
(1960), Lucy in Wildcat
(1961), and Zero in A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
(1962). Lucy and Zero were on Broadway at the same time in 1961; she
with Wildcat,
he with Rhinoceros.
Carol and Zero were on Broadway at the same time in 1964; she in
Fade
Out – Fade In,
and he in Fiddler
on the Roof.
Burnett’s understudy in Fade
Out – Fade In was
Mitzi Welch, who wrote music for “The Carol Burnett Show” and the
song “You’re My Reason” for this special.

“Carol
+ 2” is also available
as a bonus feature on the Time Life box set “Carol Burnett’s Lost
Episodes.” It is also available on a stand-alone DVD release by Time Life. Interestingly, Zero Mostel is not mentioned or pictured on the cover, which is subtitled “The Original Queens of Comedy.” 

---

In
the opening, Carol introduces Lucy and Zero, who laments that TV show
chatter is so artificial.

Carol:
“I
would like to present a woman who has dazzled the world with her
charm and talent, who has conquered every phase of show business, who
is the first lady of television, and who wrote this introduction.”

After a commercial, Lucy
comes out and starts to play “Swanee
River”
on the banjo, but is interrupted by Carol. A
running gag throughout the special is Mostel or Lucy wanting to do a
solo act, but being interrupted.
Lucille
Ball had a rudimentary knowledge of several musical instruments, but
banjo was not one of them. She was miming to a pre-recorded track. 

Two years later, she would once again mime playing the banjo, this
time with her daughter Lucie and Wayne Newton on a 1968 episode of
“Here’s Lucy.”

In
the first sketch, “10th Anniversary,”
Carol and Zero play a bitter couple named Florence and Fielding
Kissel who suddenly find out their marriage license is invalid. Whatever Florence says to him, he says “Shut up!” Whatever
Fielding says to her, she snaps “Drop dead!”  

After discovering that they’re single again, they find themselves madly attracted to
one another, but when a second phone call says it was all a mistake,
they revert to being miserable marrieds again.

During
the sketch Mostel croons a bit of “You
and the Night and the Music” by
Arthur
Schwartz
and Howard
Dietz.
The
song debuted in the Broadway show Revenge
with Music in
1934. He then launches into a bar of “The
Night Was Made For Love”
by Otto Harbach and Jerome Kern, written in 1931 for the Broadway
musical
The Cat and the Fiddle.
Finally, Mostel sings a verse of “Some
Enchanted Evening,”
written by Rodgers and Hammerstein for their 1949 Broadway musical
South
Pacific.

After
a commercial, the same characters return, but in a different mood. Florence is found gazing at her wedding photograph and
sings the ballad “You’re
My Reason” by
Mitzi Welch, while Fielding sleeps on the sofa. Welch composed all
the special material for “The Carol Burnett Show.”  At the end of the song Fielding wakes up and quietly says “Shut up” and
she lovingly says “Drop dead” as the scene fades.

After
a commercial break, Zero Mostel sits at a grand piano and starts ad
libbing a song with the odd lyrics “Millard
Fillmore is dead and nobody came to the funeral.”
Carol interrupts him and the scene transitions to the next sketch.

In
the sketch “Goodbye
Baby,”
Alice (Carol) is saying goodbye to her sister Rita (Lucy) at a bus
stop. Rita is about to leave on a two-week vacation to Miami but Alice won’t let her sister leave without first hearing her infant
baby say goodbye to his aunt. Alice’s insistence and Rita frustration about missing her
bus brings out the hidden animosity between the two sisters.

Alice:
(shouting)
“Jack
the Ripper! John Dillinger! Machine Gun Kelly!”  
Rita:
“How
did they get into this?”
Alice:
“Oh,
they’re just some of the others who were rejected by their aunts when
they were eight months old.”  

Lucy’s
Brooklyn accent starts off strong, but then quickly fades out
completely.

Zero takes
the stage and starts to sing “The Road to Mandalay”, a song by
Oley Speaks based on the poem by Rudyard Kipling. It was made famous
by Frank Sinatra in 1958. Instead, Lucy
and Carol slyly convince him to sing “If
I Were A Rich Man,” a song he introduced in the 1964 Broadway musical Fiddler
on the Roof
by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. Although Mostel had left the cast
of the musical by this time, the original cast album was still very
popular. 

In
the sketch “What’s
Wrong with My Brother,”
Miss Cleaver (Carol) confides to her psychiatrist (Zero), that her
brother thinks he’s a frog.  

To Miss Cleaver’s chagrin, the psychiatrist seems more concerned
about the symbolism behind her scratching her itchy nose, which causes her
to go to great (comic) lengths to avoid doing so.

Once
again, Lucy comes out and starts to play “Swanee
River”
on the banjo, but this time she is interrupted by Zero.

In
the sketch “Bunny Club,” Carol plays Nellie, the wardrobe
mistress at the Bunny Club. Zero plays Eddie, the club’s bartender
who Nellie is sweet on. After he abruptly leaves, she dejectedly sings a
slow-tempo version of “Wait
‘Till the Sun Shines Nellie”
by  Harry
Von Tilzer
and
Andrew
B. Sterling (1905). 

For
much of the song, Carol sings to her own reflection in a mirror. In the
brief dialogue set-up, the word “Playboy” is never spoken,
although clearly that is the inference.

Zero
takes the stage alone in a spotlight to lush orchestral music and
starts to sing in Italian. Naturally he is interrupted – this time by both
Carol and Lucy.

In
the final sketch, Carol and Lucy play Evelyn and Emily, cleaning
ladies who work nights at a New York City Talent Agency. The pair vicariously live the lives of show business producers. The establishing shot of the front door tells us that it is the William Morris
Talent Agency on the 34th floor of a skyscraper. The two charwomen are arguing over whether ‘they’ can afford
Cary Grant for an upcoming picture.

Emily:
“They
expect to make this picture for three million. They’re shooting in
Panavision. They’ve got a six week shooting schedule. Two weeks on
location in Utah.  If they bring this picture in for a penny less
than five million four then I know nothing about show business!”

Evelyn
says they’re trying to talk Warner Brothers into making Joan of
Arc with Jayne Mansfield.

Emily:
“Jayne Mansfield as Joan of Arc! Man, would she take long to burn!”

Evelyn
wonders if Cary Grant could do the picture if they offered him a
capital gains deal like Emily came up with for Marlon Brando in Mutiny
on the Bounty.

Evelyn: “It’s a lucky thing we work at night. If anyone here ever heard us talking about our big deals they’d drop a net on us and cart us away to the palace for peculiars.”

There is a photograph of Vivian Vance hanging on the wall of the office. Vance made her last regular appearance on “The Lucy Show” in April 1965 in order to spend more time at home on the East Coast, although she would return for two guest appearances in 1967 and 1968. Vance did no acting at all in 1966, only making two quiz show appearances as herself.  

Emily:
“Are
you still going around with that doorman from the Paramount?”
Evelyn:
“Ralph
and I are engaged.”  
Emily:
“Oh, brother!”
Evelyn:
“I
know you don’t approve of him.”
Emily:
“It’s
not him, Evelyn. But you know how I feel about show business
marriages.  Just don’t come crying to me when your careers clash.”

Both
Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett were in show business marriages that
failed: Lucy to musician Desi Arnaz and Carol to producer Joe
Hamilton. The Hamiltons divorced in 1984 and the Arnazes in 1960.
This show was also written in the days when cinemas like the
Paramount had uniformed doormen to admit patrons.  

The sketch ends with the
two charwomen doing a rousing song and dance number called “Chutzpah!”

Carol
ends the show by calling out
Zero and Lucy for a bow. Lucy and Carol are dressed in bright pink,
an indication that color television was trying to make an impression.
After a brief spot recognizing sponsor AMC, the trio sing “Bye
Bye.”  

The
DVD has a quick outtake of Carol saying goodnight to the studio
audience asking them to watch when the show airs to “up the
ratings.” 

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This
Date in Lucy History
–  March 22

“Ricky’s
Hawaiian Vacation”
(ILL S3;E22) – March 22, 1954

“Lucy
and the Beauty Doctor”
(TLS S3;E24) – March 22, 1965