Vicki Lawrence on InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse

unlike other people in show business Vicki Lawrence started at the top on network television with the Carol Burnett Show but add to that her own successful sitcom a gameshow talk show an autobiography and how about a number-one hit record hi i'm ernie manouse coming up next on interviews we'll take you backstage as Vicki Lawrence prepares for her one-woman show did you have any idea the Carol Burnett Show would be as successful as it was no I don't think anybody did the president CBS at the time had it on the schedule for six weeks and our Carol's husband went in to have a meeting with him and saw that it was it was on the board they hadn't slated it past six weeks so no nobody expected much of it when you had the reunion show in 2001 did that catch you by surprise how successful that was I didn't catch I don't think it no I think we all knew that it would be successful I think the the the sheer size of the surprise was overwhelming to us the demographic was overwhelming to us and it was I mean that was great it was it was very gratifying I I knew it was gonna do well though yeah I know what was it do you think about the chemistry of all of you that made the show so successful I don't know I just think that's an accidental thing that happens I mean you can count on you know a hand or two the shows that had that have had that chemistry we were just really lucky and it's you know she threw it together so haphazardly she found Lyle through the audition process they were sitting around butting heads going what are we gonna do about a leading man and somebody so we just we need a harvey korman type is what we need and Carol said has anybody thought to ask Harvey who was still you know in and out of the building at the time because he was just finishing the Danny Kaye show had just gone off the air and I believe she accosted him in the parking lot and and me I you know if everybody doesn't know my story I I tell it in my show every night because it's you know people know I sent her a fan letter people know that there was some sort of a contest involved but nobody ever has the details right so so I always have to tell that story yeah that's a great story yeah otherwise they would have auditioned you know they hadn't looked at a lot of young actresses and I think just Carroll thought it would be a novelty to have somebody that looked like her when you find out that you're gonna go do and start off in a network show you as an 17 18 year old girl what goes through your mind I mean was there really not much I was too stupid to know where I was I was too I mean at the time it was a huge decision for me to go do that audition because I was singing with a group called the young Americans at the time and they were putting together the summer tour and I had to go to the director and say I think I'm gonna drop out of the summer tour and go do this I've been asked to audition to play Carol Burnett sister and he said do you have I mean what are the odds that this is going to be an out do you've any idea what you're doing you're giving up this tour don't think when it doesn't pan out that I'm gonna let you just come back in in the middle of tour if you're out you're out and and really what are the odds thinking so at the time it was a was a major decision for me yeah and I just think I was much too naive to know where I had landed it was just so it was so much like an out-of-body experience had you been older do you think you might have screwed up the audition realizing what was at stake I don't imagine if somebody ever got their hands on my audition tape we would all be in our bands I mean I you know Harvey took me under his wing when I got the part and I think it was either teach me or kill me because he hated me he said you couldn't even forget stage right stage left you couldn't even find the toilet and even really took me under his why me Carol had a show to run so it was Harvey that took me under his wing yeah and taught me about dialects and timing and props and and all of that stuff yeah I'm eternally grateful to him and I think I was tutored by probably arguably the best sketch comedian in the business how much work was and how hard was it to do a show like that every week well when we when we did this special together we looked at each other at the end of the week and said how the hell did we do this everyone but I think you're just kind of on a roll and Carol and her husband who is now gone Joe Hamilton ran just an incredibly tight ship and the beautiful one of the beautiful one of the many beautiful things I learned from them is if you're going to be a good producer hire the right person and then let them do their job don't micromanage and nowadays showbiz is so micro managed by every soup from upstairs who wants to have an opinion about everything they just let everybody do their jobs beautifully and everybody was incredibly talented from from Peter Matz to Bob Mackie to all of our writers they were all just incredibly talented and and and Carol kept out of schedule she wanted to be she wanted to see the kids off in the morning she wanted to be home for dinner at night so the way that show ran did it make it harder than for you after that show to work in the business because you had like the ideal existence idea of the first 11 years I did well omits family I was fortunate enough to take much of that staff with me of course of course for half-hour sitcom it's a much smaller staff but they were all exper netters and that that just ran like a little generator I mean by the last year of production we had Mama's family down to a four-day work week and we literally would just laugh and say my god we were getting paid for playing dress-up yeah so yes it spoiled me in that I think I know how a show should run the hardest problem I ever had was when I got my talk show and I did it for a company that did not think a show should run that way they thought that show biz meant chaos and stress and screaming and yelling and it was it was a mind-boggling experience for me to hit that wall in by 40's you know to go wait a minute you guys are doing this wrong well that's the thing though that's funny to me and I think the audience has no idea how this happens here the show's nominated for Emmys you have your Emmy nomination oh that and yet they're tinkering with the show the whole time why why weren't they saying hey words they weren't so many well I don't know I think that's a lot the way showbiz is now though suits need to feel like they're in control of everything and I think the problem with that show is that the suits did not feel like they were in control and Johnny Carson I think said it many many years ago he said it's about the person who's sitting behind desk and everybody has to come together for that person yeah otherwise it's not gonna work because it's a lot of work we did 195 shows a year yeah that's a lot of work we did sometimes three a day hmm so we could get a week off once in a while yeah brutal I mean it's brutal so your friend on the street the next day and she'll think we thought yesterday you much do hard question I have no idea but you say that was your favorite fit you best of everything you didn't showbiz home oh I don't know it was fun it was great fun yeah and I mean the show part was hysterically fun to do to throw together an hour show and as much as you plot and plan a talk show you never know when somebody's gonna get off on the wrong freeway and you're gone you know you're on a detour and you just got to kind of go with it and it's I mean it's so much fun to be one of the pointer sisters or to to sing with Bing Crosby er to sing with between Dionne Warwick and Chaka Khan or to interview Doris Day or I mean that was those were just they were really fun it was just the backstage stuff that was very successful there well do you ever miss it do you ever miss doing a tochka I don't miss anything really I believe in missing things well then my next question is I can make a whole lot of sense then okay first single out you have a huge hit night the lights went out in Georgia mm-hmm did that make it hard did you wish maybe it hadn't been so big so maybe you wouldn't have such big shoes to fill if you continued singing or was it just oh I don't know and I tell this story in my show too because it's kind of a hysterical story that I was married to the guy that wrote it for about 10 minutes and it was really the only good thing that came out of the whole marriage it was just a disaster other than that record and so was I mean it was kind of an axe I knew it was a hit as far as I was concerned it wasn't an accident but it was you know my accidental hit and then it was the ultimate demise of an already doomed marriage so you know it was a very bittersweet sort of you now have to come in and you owe us an album and it was just kind of a tough it was a very tough period right so it's not something I ever got to capitalize on I think a lot of people still don't know that was me well hopefully some more no no yeah let me ask you this then you had a very successful have a very successful marriage and you also had one that was as you said 10 minutes long basically what do you think is the key to having a successful marriage when you're in show business why did one work so well and the other not do you think well my I don't know if it's showbiz or not I just I married my best friend the the right time yeah yeah because I think in any relationship the love is the romance is gonna AB and you're gonna have tough times you're gonna have difficult times when you need your best friend there hopefully the romance will come back again but it you know it goes in waves and after 30 years we've been you know we've surfed a lot and to have your best friend there and somebody that we make each other laugh I mean we laugh at each other yeah and I honestly think that has been good for us and I think when two people can work together very closely on the same project it works so beautifully it doesn't work it doesn't work but when a husband and wife are devoted to the same thing and it works it's a beautiful thing why do you think so many people don't figure this out I don't know that's I mean you know you can you can wish this for people it doesn't necessarily happen yeah necessarily who you choose to fall in love with maybe are you happy at this point in your life I am very happy why I've had a lot of nice things happen to me and I'm healthy I have a beautiful family I'm going home tomorrow my plane landed on time my plane landed that's now so many people also don't like to be recognized for a particular character they kind of try and distance themselves from their successes you see it happen all the time you've been able to embrace mama how does that all work yeah well she's mama you know nobody's seen mama since momma's family she's been in a closet and maybe for you but in syndication she's on TV I know but we knew when we put the show together that it would be the most fun to bring her out of the closet and in people's faces live yeah and people love her and she's such a wonderful character to play and and all the things that I wish I could say that I would never say that are politically incorrect mama can get away with them so I can have this person onstage too that can say I can say whatever I want you know and she's she's like your own grandmother that you go in the bathroom on Thanksgiving Day and go my god can you believe she just said that you know she's that person she's right you know tell me a little bit about the evolution of the character because the character it's onstage tonight is not the same one that debuted on The Carol Burnett Show no I sort of think that this mama is it's definitely not a kids show because what how do people show up with their children you know and we had good friends show up in Vegas last time that were there and that sail with us and al said you can't be just I can't they were like eight and ten and he said they love mama and he said but this is not this is mama unplugged this is not the mama that they you know and once in a while there'll be a little kid in the audience I signed an autograph after a show not too long ago the little kid was maybe I don't know five six loves Mama's family and syndication I said oh my god I'm so sorry and she said are you kidding it went right over his head and right under his feet he didn't he missed most of it I saw an interview with your son where he was talking about how funny it was that after the run of Mama's family and then you'd put mama away and people saw you they're like wait a minute that's not your mom she's an old woman you know how people so easily believed the character without makeup without just the way you presented it well and a lot it's been on the air long enough now that a lot of young really young kids have grown up watching Mama's family and for them to run into me in person they never saw The Carol Burnett Show so there's this generation that has grown up on Mama's family but not the Carol Burnett Show and they have no idea who Vicki is my favorite is if a mom will bring a little kid up to me and say this is mama for mamas family they look at a look at me you know look at her mom like what are you nuts gasps this is her this is her I love that because you sign their autograph and then this is as they're walking away thinking their mom is nuts you say get the hell out of here you're driving me nuts and they you know they hear that voice and they it freaks them out it's kind of fun I talked about meeting people you up when you were doing the Carol Burnett Show all the celebrities you came in contact everyone wanted to do that show what was that like for you it was cool I mean if I feel I don't feel that old but to have touched the Golden Age of Hollywood is is very very cool and I don't think a lot of people my age ever had that opportunity to meet Lana Turner Rita Hayworth or Bing Crosby Gloria Swanson God John Wayne I mean just you know all of the I mean its history its history and I don't feel that old but to have touched that you know I was a kid I was right on the edge and and under any normal circumstances I wouldn't have met any of those people but you know Carroll grew up idolizing that Golden Age of Hollywood and all those like the MGM musicals and and Mickey Rooney and all of those people and so she couldn't wait to have those people on her show which was probably not a normal choice for most of the shows that were on at the time so to get to meet those people and spend any time around the Lucille Ball just it was amazing did you keep any member Stewart no I certainly should have Carole of course has her autograph books right which she started for which my god think what those are worth now today I am no I never I never collected to me that would have been intrusive right to to bother people that you're working with like a kid like a donkey can't like someone asking for your autograph right before they start an interview with you like that kind yeah okay no I just you know when somebody's on a set all week and you you want to feel comfortable it just would never dawned on me it was just part of my job and I never like looking down the line and like my husband's been in makeup for nine gazillion years and he never all of the incredibly famous people he made up never got pictures or autographs and because he said it just wasn't you just didn't do it it was the workplace she just didn't gush and ask for an autograph in the workplace so take me back a little bit and tell me were there problems with the Carol Burnett Show bringing it together creating that kind of atmosphere that was kind of characters those kind of skits was there any I don't know the right words to say any kind of resistance to it did television just accept what you were doing and that's how it worked or was there some challenge to that kind of program well I don't know if there was I wasn't really privy to it because I was a child I'm sure Carol and Joe and the writers had battles I know they battled with the censors but I wasn't I mean I was a child I would sit over in the corner and read a book or needlepoint you know and Carol would say we need to rewrite page 12 Vicki needs a better joke on page 20 and I go I do and she goes shush now yes and I kind of did what they told me to do and just sat there quietly and learned yeah really and I and I've often said I feel like I went to the Harvard School of comedy in front of America he just you'd have to get a lot of that just by osmosis just spending time listening to those people you know yeah and when ma distressful no not for me but Mama's family was first cancelled by the network and then went into syndication I remember correctly - that was one of the first syndicated first-run series that was out there yeah how did you guys know to go that route how did you know it would work or didn't well too close for comfort was doing quite well in first-run syndication and it was the company that picked us up it was Lorimar television I'm Warner I think but at the time Lorimar and until pictures had just merged and they got to looking at our demographics and saying you know NBC missed the boat on this this is a huge opportunity so they put us in first-run syndication which pause you right there and just ask when NBC canceled you did you know they had missed an opportunity and your heart did you think they were making them well we just felt nobody at NBC at the time thought a rural comedy would fly the only person that believed you know in us was grant tinker and grant tinker gave that show the greenlight despite all of his little younger henchman saying we don't like the show and we just kept getting moved from time slot to time if we would do well in this timeslot they'd put us opposite Love Boat you do well episode love love but we're gonna throw you opposite magnum p.i I mean it was just we just kept they kept making complete I'm we go look how well we're doing it's a yeah we're moving into Saturday night and you know so it was one of those where they finally had the ammunition to say the numbers aren't that good we're canceling you but Lorimar saw the potential of the show and it was actually all the young guns at Telepictures who were they were very very smart syndicators back then and they put it into first-run syndication and it remained in the number one slot in first-run syndication for the entire whatever five six years that it was on it did really well and they were so wonderful to work for they would send over the check they send us a tape stayed out and everything send us a tape of the show here's your money yeah and it was just a wonderful I mean I wish we were still doing it it was so much fun while Mama's film is going were you doing win lose or draw or were they towards the tail end of Mama's family I did win lose or draw actually al said go do it honey because it'll be a chance to be you you know before you're not are you still you well you know I got it gets hard after about five years being the youngest person in the cast almost the youngest person in the cast dressing up to be the oldest person in the cast and and literally no makeup and you know like go get ugly we're gonna tape hard I don't want to be cute once in a while so I went and did win lose or draw which was kind of fun because I was one of the first female game show hosts so it was kind of in a Burt Reynolds and Bert Convy or my bosses and that's kind of fun that was actually where I learned that I liked being me on camera yeah because prior to that I'd always been a character yeah I mean just think thing when you went did the talk show then too you were going against the trend that was happening a talk shows at the time you weren't during trailer-park murders or she slept with my best friend's wife Thanks couldn't and then again was out ideas I think you should host a talk show and I said I hate daytime talk absolutely have no patience for it I mean I think people that are watching that stuff need to get a life so I bought myself a life cycle when he just actually got to the finish line before I did so I bought a life cycle I started watching all this daytime TV and I said I can't is so it's depressing to me I said I want celebrities I want fun I don't mind giving information but I want to have a good time I want to entertain so yeah I think we were kind of Rosie before Rosie but yeah just get it for the wrong company do you watch TV today now and say Who I think that it should be this way or that but what's missing out there no no I don't watch a lot really yeah what do you make time to watch oh gosh I don't whole movies the History Channel the Discovery Channel bad isn't it yeah no not bad at all PBS that's very good yeah I it's bad if I was watching the movie channel with you would we keep seeing people that you knew from The Carol Burnett Show say oh I remember when they were on the show suffer do you just kind of keep that to yourself no it's you know I have old movie favorites that probably nobody on The Carol Burnett Show even knows about I mean when I was growing up my my in formative years were Gidget three coins in it family I was in a town speaking not too long ago and I guess the gals the gals were staying in a hotel that we're also gonna come at the speaking engagement the next day and they knew I was in the hotel so they knocked on my door and I was in my jammies and they said we knew you were in the hotel we want to know if you'd come and have our slumber party with us and I said well thank you so much but I had my room service and three coins in the fountain was on and I was just in hog heaven see we're going don't bother me yeah yeah talk about the speaking engagements which in a sense I feel kind of created the show that you're doing now the one woman to woman show came out of the speaking engagements I would think a little bit the Vicky half of the show yeah sort of got fine-tuned by speaking to I started speaking by accident last year of the talk show when somebody had they were opening a state-of-the-art Breast Center in South Bend Indiana and they had hired a woman who had breast cancer to come and speak to everybody and she dropped out on him 48 hours before the event and they all went into a panic one of the nurses said you know Vicki did a talk show a few weeks ago on breast cancer cancer awareness because it was like breast cancer month or whatever the heck it was and she said why don't we call her and see if she would come and do it just on awareness as opposed to prevention or you know recovery and so that's how I got my first speaking engagement that's how I got my first speaking agent age and it was totally back ass word it was like gee did a really good job do you think maybe I could handle you and I started speaking and sometimes people want a specific subject most of the time people want to hear anecdotes about my career a lot of time they'll say can you speak for thirty minutes and then could we have questions and answers and what I learned was when there are questions and answers they were always a lot of the same questions so I decided when we put this show together we should just incorporate those into the show so that people get caught up and know the real story and and because I've had time to fine-tune them and think about them now and and they're fun stories they're great stories so the Vicki half of the show I I felt was pretty much it was pretty close to being ready to go aside from the fact that I wanted to roll in a few stories about things that bother me or things that I just am interested in in life and maybe a little bit of comedy but she was she was essentially pretty much written and then the mama half was it was just fun to put together I have a writing partner we've been writing together since the talk show and you know we bad ideas back and forth her al will come up with an idea and say you need to do a joke about something or such-and-such and he's it's hysterical because he is a Jew from the valley so he'll write a joke and he'll hand it to me and then I have to translate it into mama ease because he doesn't speak mama he's a tall you know so by the time it gets translated it's actually really funny and you would never know that this guy wrote it and so it's a it's a great little partnership and it works well together and we'll call each other back and forth you know I'm yeah okay tell me what is the story with the toilets that flush three times at the airport before you can even get your pants down Lonnie what's up with those he said I don't think that doesn't think that happens in the men's room I said what happens the ladies room we need to talk about it you know so we go we just and anytime there's something politically incorrect they Vicki would never dare say anything about we always say we've got to give we've got it mama's got to do something about this and I like I said to the guys because we literally put the show together we pushed the furniture back said let's let's do a show in our living room and I said to my musical director and tamati I said I want mama to do a wrap and they both looked at me like I have lost my flippin - do you know what she is nothing if not with it she is a very with it gal yeah I mean I think back on honest family there was nothing she didn't do she ran for mayor she did dirty dancing she's I mean she's a wicked gal so she should be rapping she raps damn it and you know opening night in Las Vegas the end of the show both those guys went my god did you hear the response at the end of this tour well mom would be put away for long do you think oh my gosh I don't know cuz I don't really see the end of this tour right now because we're already booking they're starting to book the year after next so this won't be like cher the mama farewell tour though I don't know I don't know well I just want to thank you for giving us so many years of laughter and joy both on television and often thank you very much thank you Vicki Lawrence

Channel: HoustonPBS

Views: 34,871

Rating: 4.8628573 out of 5

Keywords: vicki, lawrence, on, innerviews, with, ernie, manouse, interview, pbs, houston, channel, the, carol, burnett, show, mama's, family, night, lights, went, out, in, georgia

Id: XA6L7h1k5DM

Length: 26min 49sec (1609 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 09 2011