from 2007
TIM CONWAY
talks about "The Carol Burnett Show," Harvey Korman,
Don Knotts and his comedy inspirations

by Scott Wolf

I loved the great Disney films of the 1970s when I was growing up, and Tim Conway was in his fair share of them, including one of my favorites, "The Apple Dumpling Gang" with another comedy legend, Don Knotts. Whether you are most fond of his film work or his roles in "McHale's Navy" or "The Carol Burnett Show," Tim is sure to put a smile on your face.

When there's an entertainer that I truly admire, I always hope that they are a real, down to Earth person. You never know... but, Tim didn't disappoint and is as nice as they come. While he certainly had me laughing during our interview, it was equally as fun to learn about his life and his amazing career.

Still going strong, you can find out the latest at TimConway.com. It's my pleasure to bring you my interview with this Disney Legend.

SW: When you did "The Carol Burnett Show," were you having as much fun as it looked like?

TC: Oh yeah. That's as good as it gets. That was eleven years of just fun stuff. Carol is one of the more generous stars that you'll ever want to run into, and the comedy was just silly stuff. Carol never believed in getting into political discussions or racial or religious or anything like that so we weren't offending anybody. Just being silly. It just was a great place to do that silly kind of comedy.

SW: Did you intentionally try to break up Harvey Korman or did it just happen?

TC: Well, it came kind of easily because he's a very poor performer. (He laughs) No, we had kind of a George Burns/Jack Benny relationship so whenever I looked at him he went south on me. Then it got to be part of the show. Well, I was a writer on the show so I would write a sketch for us and then I would never do what I wrote for myself. I would do something else. So he never knew where we were going or what I was going to do or what I was going to say. So that's the reason for the confused look in his eye. He started glazing over.

SW: What about off set? You say you were like George Burns and Jack Benny... were you trying to break him up?

TC: Yeah, I think so. We had a great relationship and as a matter of fact, for the last eight years we were doing a show that I wrote, kind of like a traveling Burnett show. We did the characters from the show.

SW: "Together Again," right?

TC: Yeah. We made a DVD out of it, and it's going exceptionally well so I guess people are out there looking for good old down-home comedy. (Tim's DVD is available at http://timconway.com.)

SW: You're a real supporter of bringing back tasteful entertainment, right?

TC: Yeah. I'm not one of those, you know, "Let's burn these scripts," or even throwing stones... because I've got a lot of stones I can't throw, but yeah, I work for the Parents Television Council and they're just trying to get some of the gore and nudity off at an hour when kids can watch it. Although if you're looking for it, you can find it anywhere.

It was kind of pleasant to go back to those days. I'm sure you enjoyed those days when you got an opportunity to sit with your parents and watch a show like the Burnett show and it didn't offend anybody.

SW: I'm a firm believer that you can watch shows like that with your kids and that you don't just have to watch kids shows.

TC: That's basically what I do, too.

SW: Who were some of your heroes or inspirations as far as comedy goes?

TC: I started with Steve Allen. I thought Steve was as funny as it gets. In his position as a comic, guiding these nuts through an evening, but Don (Knotts) was my mentor. He just cracked me up because his entire life was on his face. You could just read everything and then when he went on to Mayberry (on "The Andy Griffith Show) it was just a perfect character for him. Don was like that a lot in real life. He just was such a kind, wonderful, gentle guy.

...and Tom Poston, Louis Nye, and Sid Caesar, and Gleason. They were all up there.

I came through that era of television when they were just experimenting with comedy. You give somebody a show like Steve... an hour and a half live every night, you had to do a little creative work just to fill the time. And Steve had a great eye for talent, the people he had... Steve & Eydie, Andy Williams, Jonathan Winters and Bill Dana, Pat Harrington. He just collected people that were extremely entertaining and talented.

SW: How would you describe yourself? What are you like offstage?

TC: I would say pretty happy. I can't really fault a lot of things that I've done because I've kind of picked the direction I wanted to go which was family comedy and to be just nuts and to have a good time doing it. I never really took the business seriously. I think if they've said anything anything along the way about getting out of the business I would have walked away from it and said, "Gee, that was fun." I don't think I ever would have worked in a theatre for five dollars a week until somebody discovered me. That wasn't my attitude about the business. I just enjoyed doing funny things.

SW: Do you have any particular favorite memories that stand out for you from your whole career?

TC: I think there are combinations of memories. The awards are nice, but that wasn't what I was gunning for. I think the evenings when you know you've done a pretty decent performance, you know that's you've entertained an audience. You know that a lot of people aren't going to complain about what the material was... that you've done your job. You've tried to be a good family man, you've tried to be an example for the kids, you try to be an example even for the young comics coming up, but it can be fun, it can be clean. I'm not pushing clean, but it just is such an easy way to do it. You don't have to apologize for anything. I've enjoyed it very much. There's not really an evening I can target. I would say holding up Emmy's wasn't really one of those because that's the end result. That's just the topping. But, the work along the way to get to that place is what's the fun.