Carol +2 - The Original Queens Of Comedy

The red-headed renaissance continues with "Carol + 2: The Original Queens of Comedy," featuring Burnett in a 1966 CBS special a year before her iconic "The Carol Burnett Show" began its run, as well as the 1972 TV movie of "Once Upon A Mattress," and her first Charwoman sketch.

The three segments are briefly introduced by modern Carol interstitials, giving the background of how each project came to be.

The first feature is Carol's reprisal of her 1959 Tony-nominated Broadway debut as Princess Winnifred "Fred" the Woebegone, alongside her frequent later show co-stars, including Ken Berry as her Prince Dauntless and Lyle Waggoner as Sir Studley, as well as other series visitors including Bernadette Peters as Lady Larken and Jack Gilford at the cursed mute King Sextimus.

The silly, thin musical, based on "The Princess and the Pea" fairy tale, was a showcase for bright, exaggerated costumes, plus Burnett's physicality and broad humor, notably in the song "Shy," which she belts at full blast.

The show retains its original commercials, almost more fascinating with their time capsule-snapshot products, including Lady Grecian hair formula, Pam spray, Chiffon margarine ("It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!"), Anacin, Dristan, Lanacane anti-itch, Uniroyal tires, Wisk ("ring around the collar"), Borden breakfast drink and Cremora, Yardley English Lavender soap, Eight O'clock coffee, Toastmaster toasters, Alka-Seltzer, Sure antiperspirant spray, and "Get Smart's" Barbara Feldon stumping as a Pepsodent "toothpaste girl."

The hour-long "Carol + 2" comedy special - in front of wobbly Al Hirschfeld drawings of the stars (by him, or inspired by him), sponsored by American Motors, "quality built in, not added in" (I think Don Draper needs to punch up that tagline) - allowed Carol to work with her hero, Lucille Ball, as well as "Fiddler of the Roof" Broadway legend Zero Mostel, sporting a nasty, greasy comb-over that would embarrass Donald Trump.

Burnett and Mostel did a sketch about a 10th wedding anniversary, while the two redheads played a pair of sisters unable to part over a baby's lack of speech.

The pair also perform as "Charwomen of the Board," maids cleaning after hours at the William Morris agency, while strategizing show business moves (at which both performer/producers were supremely adept in real life), ending with a rousing duet about confidence, charisma and pizzazz called "Chutzpah."

The first appearance of Carol's Charwoman character, wearing a mob cap and army boots, is shown in a black and white, with her at a burlesque club, bumping and grinding while cleaning ("maid meets Gypsy Rose Lee," says Carol), from a 1963 episode of her "Carol & Company" show.

I'm so glad we had this time together (earlobe tug).

"Carol +2: The Original Queens of Comedy"
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