The Carol Burnett Showinspired her career in comedy.
Now Kristen Wiig is starring in a TV show with her hero.
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Both throw themselves into their characters with a laser-focused intensity thats funny in part because its so unnerving.
Shes unlike anybody in the history of comedy.
Originally, he wrote Mrs. Wiggins to be this doting old lady.
Lets make her into this bimbo with a push-up rump, somebody the IQ fairy never visited.
I said, Bob, Im flat back there.
Youre going to have to take that in.
And he said, No stick your butt into it.
And that gave me Mrs. Wigginss walk.
It was the only way I could walk because the skirt was tied at the knees!
What was the writing process on your show?
Id go to the writer, they would write the sketch, and wed do it three weeks later.
I would help write because I remembered the movie.
Nobody was like, No, you cant change my line!
CB:Well, three weeks when I would suggest something.
Tim didnt take three weeks.
He just had the idea, wrote it, and we read it and did it.
KW:Sometimes I would go to a writer and say, I have a character.
Sometimes a writer would come to me.
Most of the time, you make an appointment with a writer and you hang out in their office.
You dont have an idea, and an hour later youre laughing about something like, Lets write that.
Your brain is always trying to think of new characters.
Youre watching people on the subway, trying to get ideas.
Its a nonstop machine.
Kristen, how do you work out a character physically?KW:Sometimes its a voice.
Sometimes its the way you stand.
Sometimes its a catchphrase or even a look.
James Anderson and I wrote most of my stuff together.
That character started out being hunched over.
The body language came first, then we just kept saying, Dont make me sing.
KW:Did they think thats what you wanted at the time?
I wanted to be on Broadway.
We put a down payment on a house.
I already had one baby.
And we looked at the contract and said, Maybe we should push that button.
I dont want to do this character anymore?KW:They have a shelf life, for sure.
CB:There was one character I stopped doing after a while.Zelda was an awful wifeof Harveys.
Sometimes he was a toreador and I was the bull.
After a while, she was so annoying, I said, She makes me angry.
I dont want to do her anymore.
you should probably find that weird balance.
CB:Thats what I love.
When we did the family Eunice and Mama and Ed that could get pretty heavy.
But Eunice spoke to me because my mother wanted her dreams and they never happened.
She was always angry, but underneath, pitiful.
So I said,I want to play Eunice.
We were going to hire an older actress to do Mama.
I loved those sketches because there wasnt a joke in them.
It was all character-driven.
One of the really heavy ones was when Eunice got to perform onThe Gong Show.
Eunice thought she was going to be a movie star.
When the sketch ended, people cried.
Kristen, whats your favoriteCarol Burnett Showsketch?KW:I do love Mrs. Wiggins.
I love when you did the movie parodies.
CB:The one everyone talks about the most isGone With the Wind.
Went With the Wind, we called it.
That was about 25 minutes long.
Does that exist somewhere, the 25-minute version?
Five minutes would have been a long time.
Theyd written that I would come down the staircase with just the draperies hanging on me.
Bob Mackie said, Thats not that funny.
What can I do to improve that?
KW:I love that he had so much input!
In 11 years, Bob designed 17,000 costumes.
When I went into the fitting for Went With the Wind, the dress was on the curtain rod.
I fell on the floor.
The laughter in the audience was so much that we had to cut it down.
Carol, where did theCharwomancome from?
I pictured a housewife ironing or sweeping while listening to that on the radio.
Theres a single lightbulb over her head.
The only thing she takes off is a sweater, but she does a whole striptease thing.
Has either of you based a character on somebody you knew?CB:My mom.
The writers were from the Midwest and they all hated their mothers.
When I read Eunice for the first time, I started [exaggerated drawl] tawkin lahk THEE-us.
I put that spin on it to say, Theyre from the Southwest: Texas, Arkansas.
Then Vicky picked up on it, and Harvey.
When we did a run-through for the first time, the writers were so angry.
You cant do this.
Thats not the way we wrote it.
Youll alienate the entire South.
But we did it and people took to it.
KW:Target Lady kind of sounded a little bit like someone that worked at Target.
I just completely exaggerated it.
I also did a character named Penelope who was a one-upper.
That was definitely based on someone, but the character is a very familiar throw in in life.
CB:It was not only the accent, but the way you moved.
It took over your character.
You were always pushing for something, and you walked quickly.
You were going somewhere.
You could have played her as overtly manipulative.
You could have played her as a bull in a china shop punch in.
What is she missing?Shes always going.
Those are the kinds of people where its like,When you stop, whats going to come up?
CB:I love when you slap yourself, saying, Stop!
I want to go on record about something.
Its a master class of acting.
KW:Thank you for saying that, Carol.
It means a lot.
CB:Its the truth.
Everybody there was just crying.
We were all gobsmacked.
I didnt have experience acting.
I didnt know how I was going to do anything.
I saw a show at the Groundlings, and obviously I was obsessed with watching Carol andSaturday Night Live.
And to now work with Carol, and to have been onSaturday Night Live, I feel really lucky.
His father was Ernie Anderson, who was a partner at one time in Cleveland with Tim Conway.
They came out to Hollywood together.
Ernie became the voice of ABC.
[In deep voice] TheLooooveBoat.
Thats Paul Thomas Andersons father.
When Lyle left our show, Ernie became our announcer.
So I knew Ernie and Edwina, his wife.
Ernie gave Paulie an 8-mm.
camera when he was about 4 or 5 or 6, and he started doing movies even then.
Some of the best scenes in my movies have been written by the actors.
Have you ever heard of another director saying that?
It was like experimental theater.
I could just listen to you all day.
Kristen, when are you going to direct?KW:I really want to.
Ive half-started writing a few things, and I really want to direct them.
Once this is all done, Ill have a little more space in my brain.
