Carol Burnett
From 1967 to 1978 Carol Burnett hosted one of the most popular shows on television, The Carol Burnett Show. A "variety hour" that was mostly comedy, the show featured the redheaded and rubber-faced Burnett in slapstick skits and movie parodies with regular cast members Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner and (later) Tim Conway. Burnett was a comedy veteran and top-notch singer who had starred on Broadway (as Princess Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress in 1959) before moving to an Emmy-winning job as a regular on The Garry Moore Show in the early 1960s. In the 1970s and beyond Burnett also appeared in the movies including Pete 'n' Tillie (1972) and Annie (1982, with Burnett as the nasty Miss Hannigan). Burnett revived her variety show under the titles Carol & Company and The Carol Burnett Show in 1990-91. She published the memoir One More Time in 1986.
Extra credit: Burnett tugged her ear at the end of every episode of The Carol Burnett Show; the gesture started as a silent greeting to her grandmother, then became famous among fans... The 1980s TV series Mama's Family was a spin-off from skits on The Carol Burnett Show, with Lawrence reprising her role as Mama.
Blog posts mentioning Carol Burnett:
Harvey Korman, 1927-2008