The Carol Burnett Show
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50 free The Carol Burnett Show trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
For eleven seasons, The Carol Burnett Show packed an hour of television with movie spoofs, musical numbers and sketches that regularly fell apart because the cast could not stop laughing. Decades on, clips of Tim Conway ambushing Harvey Korman with an unscripted bit are still shared and quoted. This quiz covers the whole run: the recurring characters and famous sketches, including the wartime interrogation scene that undid Lyle Waggoner, the guest stars, the costumes, and how the series came to exist at all. There are also questions on what Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner did before and after the show. It is written for fans who grew up with the series and for anyone discovering it through reruns. The questions start gently and get harder, and every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is still attached to Starlett's green gown in Carol Burnett's "Went with the Wind!" sketch?
A curtain rod
A curtain rod stays threaded through the drapes Starlett turns into a dress. The costume designer swapped it in because he found the script's sagging-drapes gag unfunny.
Q 02Carol Burnett's ear tug at the close of each episode was a silent message to which relative?
Her grandmother
Her grandmother, who raised her, got the ear tug as a silent hello from the screen. Burnett kept the gesture going long after her grandmother died.
Q 03In a famed Carol Burnett Show sketch, Tim Conway's rookie in which job numbs himself by mistake?
Dentist
Dentist: fresh out of school, Conway's character jabs the Novocaine into his own hand, leg and head while Harvey Korman, the patient in the chair, cracks up.
Q 04After leaving The Carol Burnett Show, Lyle Waggoner played Steve Trevor in which superhero series?
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman cast Waggoner as Steve Trevor beside Lynda Carter. When the series jumped from the 1940s to the 1970s, he simply carried on as Steve Trevor Jr.
Q 05Which trademark sound, self-taught at nine, did Carol Burnett perform on request for studio crowds?
A Tarzan yell
A Tarzan yell was Burnett's party piece, and fans in the studio kept asking for it. She later realized the jungle call doubled as a vocal exercise for volume.
Q 06Vicki Lawrence's cranky Thelma Harper from The Carol Burnett Show later headlined which spin-off?
Mama's Family
Mama's Family ran from 1983 to 1990, first on NBC and then in syndication. Lawrence had first played the elderly widow in a sketch meant as a one-off.
Q 07How did Carol Burnett open most of her shows, a habit borrowed from an earlier variety host?
Audience questions
Audience questions came first: Burnett had the house lights raised and took unrehearsed queries for a few minutes. Her off-the-cuff answers became a favorite part of the hour.
Q 08During his Carol Burnett Show years, Harvey Korman played Hedley Lamarr in which Mel Brooks comedy?
Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles came out in 1974, midway through Korman's Burnett years. He went on to make three more comedies with Mel Brooks, starting with High Anxiety.
Q 09Which network aired The Carol Burnett Show for eleven seasons and four later reunion specials?
CBS
CBS carried the series from 1967 to 1978 and brought the cast back for reunion specials decades later. Its 2017 anniversary show still drew over 15 million viewers.
Q 10Which role did Carol Burnett play in John Huston's 1982 film of the Broadway musical Annie?
Miss Hannigan
Miss Hannigan, the hard-drinking boss of the orphanage, was Burnett's part. Bette Midler had been considered for the role before her.
Q 11Tim Conway grilled Lyle Waggoner with a hand puppet of which dictator on The Carol Burnett Show?
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler, in glove-puppet form, was Conway's surprise for Waggoner, who played a captured American airman. Waggoner fought to keep a straight face and lost.
Q 12Which dim secretary did Carol Burnett play opposite Tim Conway's exasperated boss Mr. Tudball?
Mrs. Wiggins
Mrs. Wiggins got her famous walk by accident: Burnett said the skirt bagged at the back, and the costume designer told her to stick her bottom out to fill it.
Q 13Before The Carol Burnett Show, Lyle Waggoner was a finalist to play which superhero on television?
Batman
Q 21Which daughter of Thelma Harper did Carol Burnett play, always in the same green floral dress?
Eunice
Eunice Higgins was written for a guest star, with Burnett as the mother, until Burnett asked to swap. She also chose the Southern accents, drawing on her own Texas roots.
Q 22Before The Carol Burnett Show, Tim Conway won fame as inept officer Charles Parker in which comedy?
McHale's Navy
McHale's Navy ran from 1962 to 1966 and earned Conway an Emmy nomination. Its star Ernest Borgnine became his mentor and good friend.
Q 23Which real-life ruler did Carol Burnett regularly spoof, with Harvey Korman as her consort?
Queen Elizabeth II
Batman went to Adam West instead. Waggoner joined Burnett's cast when her show began in 1967, often playing the handsome man her characters fawned over.
Q 14Fresh from a short-lived variety series, who replaced Harvey Korman on The Carol Burnett Show?
Dick Van Dyke
Dick Van Dyke stayed only three months before both sides agreed the fit was wrong. Guest regulars Steve Lawrence and Ken Berry helped fill the gap for the rest of the final season.
Q 15Carol Burnett's sketch "As the Stomach Turns", set in Canoga Falls, spoofed which TV genre?
Soap operas
Soap operas were the target, with a title twisting the long-running As the World Turns. Burnett played heroine Marian Clayton, forever parking a baby in her umbrella stand.
Q 16Which SpongeBob character did Carol Burnett Show star Tim Conway voice opposite Ernest Borgnine?
Barnacle Boy
Barnacle Boy was Conway's part, sidekick to Borgnine's Mermaid Man. The cartoon's creators, fans of the pair's 1960s work together, had the two actors in mind from the start.
Q 17Which designer, famed for dressing Cher, created every costume worn on The Carol Burnett Show?
Bob Mackie
Bob Mackie designed the lot, from evening gowns to character outfits. Burnett credited his visual gags with rescuing some of the weaker sketches.
Q 18How did teenager Vicki Lawrence first catch Carol Burnett's eye before joining her show at 18?
A fan letter
A fan letter did it: Lawrence enclosed a newspaper clipping noting how much she looked like Burnett. The star found her father in the phone book and came to watch her in a local contest.
Q 19Which Tim Conway character on The Carol Burnett Show turned up as a fireman, a butcher and a galley slave?
The Oldest Man
The Oldest Man, sometimes named Duane Toddleberry, shuffled through jobs that demanded speed. Conway said the character began on air, when his slow walk across the set made Harvey Korman fall apart.
Q 20Calling variety a man's genre, executives first offered Carol Burnett what kind of series instead?
A sitcom
A sitcom called Here's Agnes was the network's counter-offer. Burnett refused, and a clause in her contract obliged it to give her the variety hour she wanted.
Queen Elizabeth II was the model for Burnett's monarch, who first turned up in a celebrity-interview sketch. Later scripts quietly moved her throne to a made-up Freedonia.
Q 24Carol Burnett Show star Vicki Lawrence had a 1973 number one about lights going out in which state?
Georgia
Georgia was the setting of The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, which sold over two million copies. Burnett surprised Lawrence with its gold record on the air.
Q 25Joe Hamilton, who wrote The Carol Burnett Show's closing theme, was related to its star in what way?
Her husband
Her husband Joe Hamilton was also the executive producer, and the couple had three daughters. Their 1984 divorce later kept Burnett off most of the Thelma Harper spin-off he owned.
Q 26Which institution now holds the green dress from Carol Burnett's "Went with the Wind!" sketch?
The Smithsonian
The Smithsonian received the outfit in 2009, donated by Burnett and its designer. When she first wore it down the staircase, the studio laughter ran so long it had to be trimmed for broadcast.
Q 27Besides acting in sketches, which other job did Lyle Waggoner hold on The Carol Burnett Show?
Announcer
Announcer was Waggoner's second hat, a double duty modeled on Durward Kirby's on an earlier variety hour. Ernie Anderson took over the microphone when he left.
Q 28Tim Conway's rambling ad-lib about which circus animal broke up the Carol Burnett Show cast in 1977?
An elephant
An elephant, or rather Siamese twins joined at the trunk, starred in the tale Conway made up on the spot. The uncut outtake reached viewers only years later in blooper specials.
Q 29Which TV comedy legend mentored Carol Burnett and sent her flowers on every birthday until 1989?
Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball died on Burnett's 56th birthday, and the flowers still arrived that afternoon with a note calling her Kid. The two had been friends since 1959.
Q 30Before The Carol Burnett Show, Harvey Korman voiced the alien Great Gazoo on which cartoon?
The Flintstones
The Flintstones introduced Gazoo in its final network season, 1965 to 1966, with Korman supplying the voice. He returned to Bedrock decades later as the Dictabird in the 1994 live-action film.