Like so many of us, comedy impresario Carol Burnett has her favorite soap. But unlike the vast majority, it wasn’t a representative of the “older generation” (say a grandparent or parent) that engendered her fandom.
Carol Burnett On Love For All My Children
“It started with my kids,” relayed the carrot-top legend to Live With Kelly and Mark cohosts, and real-life marrieds, Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos (both, not-so-coincidentally, AMC vets themselves). “They would watch, you know, at noon. I said, ‘What are you guys doing?’ I sat down and I started to watch and I got hooked!”
Burnett took her newly adopted viewing habit seriously. How seriously you ask? Serious enough that when she and her then-husband planned a family trip to Europe she ensured that she’d be kept up to date on the goings on.
Explained the actress: “I had a friend of mine send me a telegram to every hotel on Friday, to the concierge, to bring me up to date on what was going on.”
All went to plan in London and Rome, but upon the entourage’s arrival in Lake Como, a detailed missive failed to materialize. “We went to bed, there was a knock at the door around 2 o’clock in the morning,” picked up Burnett.
“We opened the door and it was the manager of the hotel and he was shaking. He had this telegram. I wrote down what the telegram said: ‘Erica is still in a coma. Mark slipped again and ran away from rehab. Mona has to have exploratory surgery — doesn’t look good. Chuck has learned that Donna, who’s carrying his baby, was once a hooker. Hope you’re having a great trip!”
After a good hearty laugh, Burnett set about reassuring the gentleman that all was well and he’d merely been provided a synopsis of a week’s worth of All My Children. Phew!
Burnett would, of course, go on to parlay her love of the soap into a recurring guest spot. Her Verla Grubs, whom Ripa described as “extraordinary in every way,” made appearances in 1983, 1995, 2005, and 2011.
Now that you pressed play on the video above and seen and heard Carol Burnett’s hilarious story in her own words, be sure to head to our comments section and leave us your favorite memories of the ABC sudser.
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