BOOK REVIEW: This Time Together - Laughter and Reflection

Carol Burnett is either what she seems to be or she is a much better actress than she has received credit for. THIS TIME TOGETHER--Laughter and Reflection is the story of her rise in show business and the people that she met along the way.

Up until Ms. Burnett the job as host of a variety show had belonged exclusively to men. The Carol Burnett Show lasted eleven seasons and won twenty-five Emmy Awards. The same talent that made that show a success, makes THIS TIME TOGETHER a delightful read.

The chapters are very short and most of them are reflections on the people that Carol has met. Her long time love affair with the movie stars is evident in the respect that she shows when writing about them. She writes about Jimmy Stewart, Marlon Brando, Cary Grant, and other stars in a refreshing, honest way.

Carol’s sharp eye and self-deprecating humor make you forget that she ended up meeting these superstars as an equal.  (I could identify with getting tongue tied if I had had a chance to meet Gary Grant.)  It is easy to forget that the author of this book has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Kennedy Center Honors. She never seems to see herself as a “big thing”, although she does tell the story of her great talent for doing a Tarzan yell scaring off a mugger in New York City late one night.

I enjoyed the chapters on each of the regular cast members of her show.  (It is a little known fact that the only celebrity to appear in an erotic dream of mine was Harvey Korman, a fact that my daughter finds extremely funny.)  The scenes between Harvey Korman and Tim Conway have to be some of the funniest bits on television. Just think “Dentist Office”.

Carol gives credit to Bob Mackie for making some of the sketches even funnier. For example, he designed the dress for their spoof of Gone With the Wind.  (Remember the green dress with the curtain rods still attached--the one that she saw in the window and just had to have?) That dress is now in the Smithsonian.

If you are a Carol Burnett fan or if you enjoy reading an insider’s story of show business, you will enjoy this book. It is a fast read, filled with anecdotes both hilarious and touching. I wish that the pictures had been more clear, but that is a minor point when the book was so enjoyable.