Carol Burnett

For 11 consecutive seasons, 30 million Americans sat down every week to watch The Carol Burnett Show. In sketch after sketch, the star poked fun at her favorite films, punctured the pretensions of the famous, and drew forgiving humor from the embarrassments and misunderstandings that arise in every family. The most honored comic actress of our times, Carol Burnett was raised by her grandmother in a small studio apartment in Hollywood. A starring role in the Broadway musical Once Upon a Mattress led to regular appearances on network television. In 1967, she inaugurated her weekly comedy-variety program. In its original run on CBS, The Carol Burnett Show amassed 25 Emmy Awards. Since then, Burnett has written three bestsellers, as well as a Broadway play, Hollywood Arms, based on her childhood experiences. She starred on television in two subsequent comedy series, as well as the dramatic film Friendly Fire, and continues to make guest appearances on popular programs including Glee and Law and Order: SVU. She returned to Broadway in shows such as Stephen Sondheim's Putting It Together and has acted in numerous feature films, working with directors Robert Altman, John Huston and Billy Wilder. In addition to her Emmy Awards, Golden Globes, and Kennedy Center Honors, Carol Burnett has received the Mark Twain Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor that America bestows upon its citizens. In this podcast, recorded at the 2014 International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, Burnett recounts her escape from childhood poverty to achieve success in the theater and television and the institutional sexism she had to overcome to host her own television program in the 1960s and ‘70s.