This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection
Carol Burnett, 2010
Crown Publishing
267 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780307461186
Summary
This Time Together is 100 percent Carol Burnett—funny, irreverent, and irresistible.
Carol Burnett is one of the most beloved and revered actresses and performers in America. The Carol Burnett Show was seen each week by millions of adoring fans and won twenty-five Emmys in its remarkable eleven-year run. Now, in This Time Together, Carol really lets her hair down and tells one funny or touching or memorable story after another—reading it feels like sitting down with an old friend who has wonderful tales to tell.
In engaging anecdotes, Carol discusses her remarkable friendships with stars such at Jimmy Stewart, Lucille Ball, Cary Grant, and Julie Andrews; the background behind famous scenes, like the moment she swept down the stairs in her curtain-rod dress in the legendary “Went With the Wind” skit; and things that would happen only to Carol—the prank with Julie Andrews that went wrong in front of the First Lady; the famous Tarzan Yell that saved her during a mugging; and the time she faked a wooden leg to get served in a famous ice cream emporium. This poignant look back allows us to cry with the actress during her sorrows, rejoice in her successes, and finally, always, to laugh. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—April 26, 1933
• Where—San Antonio, Texas
• Education—University of California, Los Angeles
• Awards—Six-time Emmy Award winner
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedienne, singer, dancer and writer.
Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she debuted on television. After successful appearances on The Garry Moore Show, Carol moved to Los Angeles and began an eleven-year run on the The Carol Burnett Show which was aired on CBS television from 1967 to 1978.
With roots in vaudeville, The Carol Burnett Show was a variety show combining comedy sketches, song, and dance. The comedy sketches ranged from film parodies to character pieces which featured the many talents of Burnett herself who created and played several well-known and distinctive characters. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
These short memories, of the people Burnett met and interviewed over the years, on- and off-camera, bring it back—the golden age of variety shows.... Burnett has a writer's eye for the moment, the detail, the slip that reveals character. She's never mean and always grateful.
Los Angeles Times
A disappointment.... Burnett, 76, is a consummate storyteller, and there are enough gems amid the dross in This Time Together to keep a tolerant reader interested.... Fans will probably love Burnett’s new book. But if you really want to know about her, read One More Time.
St. Petersburg Times
In short, there’s a lot of humor in this book, and many of the funny stories are told at the teller’s own expense. What you won’t find here is very much beneath the surface about the heartaches Burnett had to deal with in her life.... In the end, the memoir gives us what we want most of all: another chance to spend just a little time with a woman who still makes us laugh.
San Francisco Chronicle
Fans of both the show and the actress will enjoy this mostly lighthearted though sometimes poignant look back at Burnett’s career.
Booklist
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for This Time Together:
1. Has your opinion of Carol Burnett changed after reading This Time Together—or has it confirmed your prior opinion of Carol. What kind of person is she...how does she come across in this book? Is she someone you would like to have dinner with?
2. What was the overall tone of this book—humorous and lighthearted as you would expect in a Carol Burnett memoir? Or sadder, more poignant than expected? What do you make of the fact that Burnett rarely, if ever, takes aim at others, that she speaks well of almost everyone? (Okay, be honest — were you hoping for more Hollywood gossip?)
3. Burnett maintains a bewildered attitude toward her fame, going so far as to claim that her success is due, in large part, to luck. Would you say she's too modest, even hard on herself? Is her success due to talent, hard work, and perseverance? Or would you agree that her success is, in fact, a matter of luck?
4. Many of the stories related in the book are funny, some laugh-out-loud hilarious—especially the ones with Lucille Ball. What other anecdotes made you laugh? Do you have any favorites in the book?
5. This is Burnett's second memoir. If you've read her 1986 memoir One More Time—about her years growing up in Texas and her start in show biz—how the two compare? Is there enough new information to fill out a second memoir? If you haven't read her first one, does This Time Together inspire you to do so?
6. Are you surprised about the clashes offstage with Harvey Korman? Is there anything else in the book that surprises you?
7. You could describe Carol Burnett as earthy, loud, and rambunctious. Does her friendship with Julie Andrews, whose public personae might be called "prim"—surprise you? The two seem such opposites.
8. What does it reveal about Burnett that she was over-awed, even intimidated, upon meeting Cary Grant—even though, by then, she herself was a star? What accounts for her tendency to become awestruck?
9. How does Carol describe her marriage to Brian Miller? What makes her marriage work, especially with a husband 20 years her junior? (So, like, could that even happen outside Hollywood?)
10.One reviewer said This Time Together is "anything but a tell-all book. In fact, it's barely a 'tell-some' book." Do you agree? Are important stories skimmed over—especially, perhaps, the death of her daughter Carrie and how Carol marshaled the strength to cope with her grief? Why do you suppose readers learn of Carrie's death through a reprint of her New York Times obituary? What more would you have liked to have learned? Or is the book revealing enough as is?
11. In the era of off-color television sitcoms and YouTube videos, would The Carol Burnett Show be successful on prime time today? Or is it a cultural relic from one of TV's golden eras?
12. What were some of your favorite Carol Burnett shows? Which skits stick in your mind? (How about the one with Tim Conway as an incompetent dentist...and Harvey Korman as the patient. Catch it on YouTube—it's worth seeing...over and over...!)
(Questions issued by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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