Spock on Carol Burnett
- Thread starter ItsGreen
- Start date
Anyone see this episode/clip? Any more info on this?
Spock/Star Trek were on NBC
Carol Burnett was on CBS
I don't think this happened?
There's no reason why a comedy show on one network can't do a sketch based on another network's show. For instance, in 2006, Matthew Fox did a sketch about Lost (an ABC show) on Saturday Night Live (an NBC show). Similarly, the famous Shatner SNL episode that featured the "Get a life!" sketch and "The Restaurant Enterprise" also featured a sketch based on T. J. Hooker, which was on both ABC and CBS but never NBC. It's parody, after all, so copyright infringement isn't an issue.
It's already been pretty well established that yes, it happened, yes, the picture is legit.
Good Lord, when did everyone get so frelling suspicious?
Good Lord, when did everyone get so frelling suspicious?
To my knowledge, there are no black and white episodes of the Carol Burnett Show; it was in color from the get-go. In fact, I'm pretty sure that by 1967, there were no more black & white shows in production, certainly not at the network level.
Publicity stills, however, were commonly done in b&W at this time.
This page contains screen images from that '67 season, which never made it to syndication, and shows that it was, indeed, black & white.
And this youtube clip is also in B&W.
^Well, just because that kinescope footage is in B&W doesn't mean the original broadcast wasn't in color. I mean, if you were watching a color broadcast on a black & white set, you'd see it in black & white. And there is precedent for kinescopes of color shows being made on B&W film -- for instance, some of the color Doctor Who episodes were made available overseas in B&W form, so that some of the recovered "lost episodes" from the Third Doctor era were only available in B&W even though the originals were in color.
That's what they WANT you to think.
Anyone see this episode/clip? Any more info on this?
"The Carol Burnett Show" pic is featured in Paula M Block & Terry J Erdmann's new book, "Star Trek 365: The Original Series" (Abrams Publishing; no connection to JJ) and they mention that the still is from 1967. Paula's book comes out soon (an Australian bookshop already has it!) The pic is on page 228, and explains that Burnett is holding a baby and mistaking Leonard Nimoy's Spock as the famous baby expert, Doctor Benjamin Spock.
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=126385
This is NOT photoshopped, it is completely, 100% VALID.
I found your BBS doing a google search for the clip of Spock on Carol Burnett. I'm an old lady who remembers TOS from when it originally aired in 1967, and I was a huge fan of Carol Burnett. I remember actually seeing the episode on Carol Burnett, and the sketch where she had married the Invisible Man. I nearly DIED from laughter when Mister Spock walked through the door, and the reaction of Carol Burnett was priceless. I doubt she even knew that somehow they found Spock in full Trek regalia to appear.
Yes, it is true, Carol Burnett was on CBS, and Star Trek was an NBC show. I never saw an explanation for this ANYWHERE, and that makes me think it was entirely unsanctioned. I have never seen a rerun, either.
But take it from an old lady who KNOWS. It actually happened!
~VOW
(edited to add: it had nothing whatsoever to do with Dr Spock)
I found your BBS doing a google search for the clip of Spock on Carol Burnett. I'm an old lady who remembers TOS from when it originally aired in 1967, and I was a huge fan of Carol Burnett. I remember actually seeing the episode on Carol Burnett, and the sketch where she had married the Invisible Man. I nearly DIED from laughter when Mister Spock walked through the door, and the reaction of Carol Burnett was priceless. I doubt she even knew that somehow they found Spock in full Trek regalia to appear.
Yes, it is true, Carol Burnett was on CBS, and Star Trek was an NBC show. I never saw an explanation for this ANYWHERE, and that makes me think it was entirely unsanctioned. I have never seen a rerun, either.
But take it from an old lady who KNOWS. It actually happened!
~VOW
(edited to add: it had nothing whatsoever to do with Dr Spock)
I can't find any reference to Star Trek and The Carol Burnett Show having a common studio or corporate ownership either, but Wikipedia lists Leonard Nimoy as a Season 1 (1967) guest on her show.
To appear as Spock, Nimoy must have had the consent of William Ware Theiss for the costume. Also, make-up man Fred Phillips must have accompanied Nimoy to Carol Burnett to get his ears and eyebrows on.
And I'd say Carol Burnett had to know he was appearing, because you can't sit in her make-up department for two hours becoming a Vulcan without her noticing.
Agreed. The big three networks went to color in 1966, so there shouldn't have been any b&w season of Carol Burnett, as broadcast. Somebody just made a b&w kinescope of the broadcast. The network's original color videotapes of that first season might have been wiped for the same reasons of economy that led NBC to wipe the early episodes of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Even Super Bowl 1 wasn't saved.
Similar threads
