LOS ANGELES, April 7 (UPI) — Carol Burnett said she wasn’t offended at the time when an executive told her she couldn’t have her own variety show in the 1960s because it’s “a man’s game.”
Burnett, in an interview with CBS News, said she hit a roadblock when she first tried to launch “The Carol Burnett Show,” which eventually ran for 11 seasons between 1967 and 1978.
“Variety is a man’s game. Gleason, Dean Martin. Milton Berle, Sid Caesar …” she said one network executive told her.
She said she wasn’t offended at the time.
“I am now, but that was then,” she said.
Burnett’s CBS News interview was in advance of the release of her book “Carrie and Me” this week.
The book chronicles her daughter Carrie’s battle with cancer. The 38-year-old died in 2001.
“We all went through disbelief, shock,” Burnett said. “Then you get angry, then scared. They were hoping that they might save one lung. But then it went up to her brain.”
“You never get over it, but I’ve learned to cope. You have no other choice,” she added.
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