Why Carol Burnett wanted to end sketch show, retirement plans

Carol Burnett, 91, is finally thinking about retiring. 

In a recent interview with Variety, when the comedy icon was asked if her recent Apple TV+ show “Palm Royale” would be her final on-camera job, Burnett said, “Probably. Unless there’s a cameo or something fun!”

She also opened up about her choice to end “The Carol Burnett Show,” which ran for 11 seasons on CBS from 1967 to 1978, with nine more episodes in 1991. 

The variety sketch series has a staggering 279 episodes, and it was a key part of Burnett’s career, which has been going strong since the 1950s. During its run, the show drew in 30 million viewers a week — and won 25 Emmys.

“I called it quits because I thought we had done just about everything we could do, and we had started to repeat ourselves in sketches,” Burnett explained.

“I said, ‘I want to leave before the network starts flicking the lights on and off and saying, “Goodbye. Don’t do this anymore.”’ I wanted to say goodbye.”

The star, who reunited with her longtime friend Dick Van Dyke, 98, in June when she had her handprints cemented at Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre, also looked back on her early years.

In the 1950s, she was paying $18 a week to live at the Rehearsal Club in New York, housing accommodations for women who were looking for a showbiz career. 

In casting meetings, agents would ask her to notify them “when you’re in something,” but, in a catch-22, it was nearly impossible to land a role without an agent. 

“So I called a meeting,” she recalled.

“There were 25 girls, and I said, ‘Let’s put on a show.’ We wrote it, and everybody wanted to do their own thing … We sent penny postcards to every agent, director and writer in town saying, ‘You’re always saying, “Let us know when you’re in something.” We’re in something. This postcard is your ticket. Please come.’ And we put on a show.” 

Burnett’s been in a lot of meetings about equal pay over the years. 

“At one point, I was calling fellow celebrities. I won’t say who, but I got this one man, a very big star, rattling on about it. He said, ‘I don’t want to do that, because that means all the women are going to be smoking cigars.’ ‘OK? They could smoke cigars now! We’re not stopping them, if they want to light up.’ Is that the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard? What about equal pay for equal work?”

In her early years, Burnett said that when she lost a role to another woman, “what kept me from being disappointed or dejected was a wonderful thought: It wasn’t my turn; it was her turn. That saved me from being sad.”

Burnett also said that she’s made a deliberate choice to stay out of politics, as she has never publicly endorsed a candidate. 

“It sounds corny, but I want people to be happy again, to love and be joyful, and that’s what I’m seeing as a possibility.”