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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