TIM CONWAY is best known for his role on The Carol Burnett Show, an 11-year stint that garnered him five Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, major accolades from critics, and three generations of fans. Conway played the funny guy alongside Harvey Korman's straight man, often cracking up Korman midway through scenes. The spontaneous break in character became a hallmark to watch for in every episode.

Conway's often-improvised humor, razor-sharp timing and hilarious characters have made him one of the funniest and most authentic performers to grace the stage and studio in the last forty years. In 1989, Conway received his much deserved star on Hollywood's "Walk of Fame." In 2002, he and Korman were inducted into the Academy of Television Arts, & Sciences' Hall of Fame. In 2005, the duo joined the rest of the Carol Burnett cast in receiving TV Land's Legend Award.

Tim Conway is to appear as a Special Guest Star on NBC's "30 Rock" April 17th. Check out EZ's interview for more on that and his long running career in comedy, including the Carol Burnett Show!!

Interviewer:        I want to know if, you know, at such a sitcom, that were any of the 30 Rock cast intimidated by you when you walked on set?

Tim Conway:       I didn’t get a chance to meet any of them. My character was in a basement during the entire show so I didn’t really – I don’t even know if those people were there or not. No, they were wonderful. Alec is – I’ve known Alec for some time and so that was very comfortable. Tina I had never met; she’s probably the most talented lady outside of Carol Burnett that I’ve ever met. I mean, she writes, she reads, she walks, she talks, she does everything. And she was so nice it’s hard to believe that she’s in show business really. She just was marvelous. And the young fellow who was assigned to me, (Ken) or (Jack) was just delightful, you know, here is, you know, a young kid who has to haul this guy around and show him where things are and do things and he was just marvelous. I think we’re going to get an apartment together I’m not sure.

Interviewer:        And now, what have you seen change in sitcoms over the years and can 30 Rock or any of the sitcoms today hold up to the older ones?

Tim Conway:       Well I think that it’s gotten more relaxed; it’s funnier. It is, you know, they kind of – a lot of people do refer to it as the Seinfeld of tomorrow. But it’s the Seinfeld of today. I mean, it really is – it’s inside but it’s understandable, it is not complex, it is crazy. And it just seems to flow. The cast works so well together; everybody seems to like each other. And it’s just comfortable. And I think they’re getting into a groove now where also the audience understands them. I think at first probably the audience was confused by the show in that it wasn’t he says/she says type of thing and now it’s just very comfortable in the craziness that they do.

Interviewer:        Do you have any plans to take over Alec’s job on the show?

Tim Conway:       I don’t want to say that, you know, that’s really being kind of blunt, but yes.

Interviewer:        Hey. Who was it at 30 Rock that contacted you for this role? How did you hear about? And were you a fan of the show prior to getting this role?

Tim Conway:       I believe it was a janitor; I’m not sure. I don’t know if he actually still works there or not. But he had called and said he was leaving and wanted to know, there was an opening, and would I be interested. And I was. When I got there they said would you also like to act, so I thought that wasn’t that hard. I had seen a few of the first year’s and then some of the second year’s and I’ve seen all of next year’s so I’m pretty in tune with the show. I thought it was – to me it was actually kind of confusing in the beginning, it really was. I didn’t know quite where they were going. And of course without a laugh track, you know, to tell you where to laugh, which is very important in television nowadays, you didn’t know quite whether they were putting you on or not. But, no, I – once I got on to what they were doing and it took me two years, it – I just found it very, very entertaining and very subtle and very sharply written and I love the fact that it’s very subtle humor.

Interviewer:        Are you and your friend Harvey Korman doing anything in the near future together other than the, like, Dorf projects and other things that you, you know, (unintelligible)?

Tim Conway:       Well when the show went off – Carol Burnett Show went off I got custody of Harvey. So I kind of, you know, I just take him for walks and things of that nature. But, you know, we have been doing the Carol Burnett Show for the last, I guess, 11 years; we go down every Friday, Carol’s there, Vicky, myself, Harvey and we do the show. Now they haven’t been taping it unfortunately so they’ve lost, I would say about 20-25 years of shows there. But we’re still hoping so we go down there every Friday and – actually Harvey and I went out for eight years on our own, just out in the yard. No, we went around the country with a show called Together Again, Harvey, myself and a girl called Louise DuArt, well, she’s not only called Louise DuArt, she’s named Louise DuArt and She was on (Catskill) and Broadway. And we did an hour and a half show, we did about, gee, I don’t know, we were doing 150 shows a year for eight years. And it was such a delight because the Burnett audience is such a great audience. I mean, they were in to family humor at the time and all our bizarreness and we did a – what amounted to a traveling Burnett show. And it was a pleasure to do. And now, you know, we’re – it’s hard now with the travel and everything to get anywhere on time. And Harvey – Harvey’s, you know, getting up there; I’m getting up there. And so we’re kind of slowing down a little bit. But we’re putting it together again and we’ll walk around again, I guess.

Interviewer:        Bucky Bright, boy, he can sure spin some yarns.

Tim Conway:       Who’s that?

Interviewer:        Bucky Bright.

Tim Conway:       Oh yes. I’m sorry, I thought you said something else. Yes he does. Yeah, it was kind of a strange part because I said, “Do you want me to do the old man or do you want me to…?“ “No, just come in and do – just do what you do. Just walk around and recall these memories.” And it seemed to work at least for them and me.

Interviewer:        Yeah but memories are one thing but, you know, this portrait of show business depravity that, you know…he revels in.

Tim Conway:       Yeah, yeah, I know that – and it doesn’t sound like me. I think that’s the twist in the show that they gather people whom you wouldn’t think would be doing what they’re doing and they do it. It’s one of those shows that can get you to do things.

Interviewer:        Yeah and so now you get to complain, Tim Conway experienced all this too, right?

Tim Conway:       Now are you broadcasting from a TB Ward or is that – I’m just picking up the operator coughing?

Interviewer:        So is it fairly possible that the world that you lived in, the show business world you lived in, had even a fraction of the horrible, horrible stories that this character was experiencing?

Tim Conway:       Not only fractions but wholes. Yes, we had the whole story there. I think, you know, in our day, in a sense, you got away with a lot more than you do nowadays; nowadays it becomes headline stories. I did things in – when we were in the old days that would probably, you know, I should be in a penitentiary somewhere. For instance, I was standing in a clothing store one time, just standing next to the men’s counter waiting – my wife was buying some stuff in the other part. And a lady came up to me and said, “Where is your underwear?” And I said – I showed her. And she called the security and said, “This man exposed himself.” Now I really wasn’t because the security guard said, “What did you do?” And I said, “She asked me where my underwear was and I showed her. And what she really meant was, “Where’s the store’s underwear,” obviously. But, you know, these things happen. So I think, you know, we did nutty things in those days totally harmless. I don’t think we did, in those days, what happens nowadays. The paparazzi is, you know, in a sense to blame for a lot, I mean, you can see if 50 cars are out in front of your house that there’s going to be trouble that morning. Fortunately, they’re not in front of our house. I do stand out in front of my house everyday but nobody ever stops. So it’s changed considerably. But I think in the days that I came through, first of all, television wasn’t as offensive as it is nowadays. So you really weren’t – I guess people didn’t picture you as anything but what they saw on television. And nowadays, with all the, you know, the news and things that happens instantaneously, people get into your personal life a little bit more than they did in the other days.

Interviewer:        Okay. You’re famous, and Harvey’s famous – you’re famous for being able to break Harvey up in the middle of the…routine all the time. Does anybody have the power to do that to you, make you laugh mid performance?

Tim Conway:       Don Knotts used to. Yeah, Don and I were very good friends. And he is just – was such a wonderful character and such a marvelous character actor. I mean, he could just – you could just look at him and that crazy face. And he didn’t try to do anything, you know, to break you up but it was just his mannerisms and what he did with a little piece of material and blew it into large balloons and just was such a joy to an audience. I know being on the road a lot of times you turn on the TV later at night after a show and there’s, you know, Mayberry and Andy and Don. And the stuff he did was just exceptional to me. So I – he was one of my professors really. And he could make me laugh at a moments notice because he just, not trying either, just doing what he does naturally.

Interviewer:        Cool. Speaking of Don, when it comes to my favorite Westerns it’s The Searchers, The Apple Dumpling Gang…The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Tim Conway:       Great, what a lineup – they’re all – yeah. They’re all the same, yeah.

Interviewer:        No they really were fun movies that…

Tim Conway:       Yes, you’re right.

Interviewer:        …I don’t think it’s between those two but it’s okay. That’s okay.

Interviewer:        Hey, did it take a while to get used to not being called Tom?

Tim Conway:       Well a little bit. My real name was Betty, we had some trouble with that at first. And then – actually I’m Romanian my mother was Romania. And so my real name is Toma, T-O-M-A. And so that became Tom. And then when I came out here you couldn’t have two people with the same name in the union and there was already a Tom Conway who was George Saunders brother, who is The Falcon. And the reason is because you get each other’s checks then because when things come back in residuals and everything. And actually he was doing so much better than I was I never really reported it for a while. And then they finally said stop cashing his checks. And I had to change my name to Tim. Actually I didn’t, Steve Allen changed it for me. I said – because I was on his show at the time – I said I’ve got to change my name. And he said, well, why don’t you just dot the O. So I became Tim.

Interviewer:        Now when you think of your career you – at least I do – think of people that you’ve worked with like Ernie Anderson and of course Harvey Korman, what is the advantage to you, do you think, of being – having someone to work with versus you being on the stage by yourself?

Tim Conway:       I never cared for being on stage – of heading a show, which my track record shows. I think I probably had about seven or eight shows; all of were canceled in various ways. One show I was doing for CBS was to go on in October and I said, “I want my first show to be my Christmas show.” Because I said, “I don’t think this show will be on by Christmas and I do want to get a Christmas show in with the kids and everything.” So we came on in October and did a Christmas show, which was confusing to people I would imagine. And sure enough we were canceled by Christmas. So I’m glad I got that in. But I’m so much more comfortable just coming in and working with people like Carol, who’s probably the most generous star you’re ever going to want to meet because she said, “Whatever you do that you think is funny, just do it.” And then Harvey, as I say, a poor performer, was laughing at me all the time so that was an easy hit. Vicky was wonderful; she was a great sketch artist. And Lyle and I, you know, dated the same girls so we were compared a lot there. And it just – it was such an easier spot to be. You know, if the show was canceled it wasn’t my fault, you know, I just came in Monday through Friday. And it’s just more comfortable to do that.

Interviewer:        Now were you teamed up with Harvey pretty early on in the Carol Burnett Show?

Tim Conway:       Right away, yes, yes. As a matter of fact, I think I wrote the first sketch that I did on the Burnett Show and because in those days you actually really brought in your own material. And I did a sketch with him and something happened that made him laugh and we went from there. And I wasn’t – I guess I – well, first of all I was a writer on the show so I could write one thing and then when we did the sketch I would do something totally different. And I never did it until they were actually taping the air show. And so Harvey never really knew where we were going. And he, you know, being weak of mind just collapsed a lot of times on that show. It’s a shame.

Interviewer:        Was that – I mean, it was very funny to watch but was it…

Tim Conway:       Real?

Interviewer:        Was it irritating as a performer to have to…

Tim Conway:       To look at a man laughing at you?

Interviewer:        Yes, yes.

Tim Conway:       No. What was irritating to Harvey was the fact that I never laughed back - once in a great while. I think when we did the Dentist sketch was the first time that I really went sideways too because he’s being – he was so out of control laughing in that chair that you couldn’t stand there and look at him much longer without doing something about it. So I just – I just naturally laughed at him. But, yeah, we cracked each other up a lot. And it became part of the show because Carol said, “Look, I want this show to appear almost live.” So we only did the show twice; you did a dress rehearsal, which they seldom kept and then it was the air show. And that’s the one they kept. And they very seldom edited anything out of it. So it appeared to be – you saw what we were actually doing. And the audience indicated in those days, because we didn’t have a laugh machine or anything – if you didn’t get a laugh you heard the air conditioner. So whatever was going on, that was truly the reaction of the audience. So it was wonderful to work in that condition. And especially when you’re working with somebody like Carol who’s that relaxed that she would let it go like that.

Interviewer:        Now that’s a show that you can watch today and it’s still as funny as when it was on…years ago.

Tim Conway:       Well Carol made a point of never really trying to offend anybody or, you know, point to anybody who made a mistake in their personal life and punch it up, now which they do and, you know, they just keep going until you’re in a hospital somewhere. So it was gentle, it didn’t have anything political, it didn’t have any religious. We didn’t make any statement that is going to conflict with anybody else’s statement. So it really was a show for any audience at all as was most of early television as was most of early television. You look back at all the early television and they weren’t, you know, politically inclined or religiously inclined. And it just was more relaxing for the whole family to watch. So a lot of people say that that’s the only time that the family ever got together is when shows like The Burnett Show were on and the family sat around the TV and you started zooming in on that test pattern about 4 o’clock in the afternoon and got that Indian just right so that by the time the show came on it was perfect black and white and away you went for the evening.

Interviewer:        One more question, this is about someone you worked with years ago, (Pat Paulsen).

Tim Conway:       Yes.

Interviewer:        He – his family has him running for President again.

Tim Conway:       I see, okay.

Interviewer:        One of the slogans is Resurrect and Elect. And I’m just wondering, you know, that was a standing joke that he did – something he was known for just the way you were known for the Tudball sketch and – what was he – would you vote for him I guess is the question I’m trying to ask.

Tim Conway:       Would I today? Sure.

Interviewer:        Yeah.

Tim Conway:       Yeah. Because I’m beginning to believe it doesn’t really matter. We should have maybe 10 or an even dozen Presidents. And then just keep them all in the White House and whoever comes up with the best idea; I think we go in that direction because it’s getting very confusing now. You can’t say anything that doesn’t cause somebody to get angry somewhere, so. He would have been perfect for now.

Interviewer:        Hi. I was wondering, how old are you supposed to be in this show that you did with 30 Rock? They said that you were – in the material I have it said that you’re 40 or 50 years old.

Tim Conway:       Really.

Interviewer:        Not that you’re that age.

Tim Conway:       I am.

Interviewer:        But you are famous for that.

Tim Conway:       Much, much older than that. No, I’m 72. I don’t know how old this guy was supposed to be. I guess if you look back on television he would be probably my age because I didn’t come into television until the 60s. And when I came into television I was 33 years old.

Interviewer:        Thirty-three?

Tim Conway:       Yeah.

Interviewer:        Well on the show they say that you were a TV star from the 40s and 50s and I’m saying to myself, how the heck old is he supposed to be?

Tim Conway:       Yeah, I don’t understand that.

Interviewer:        Well maybe it’s because of those sketches you did.

Tim Conway:       Right.

Interviewer:        Tell me, are any of your boys or any of your children show any comedic talents?

Tim Conway:       My son has been on radio out here for 10 years…

Interviewer:        Which son is that?

Tim Conway:       …comedic – Tim Conway Junior. And my daughter, Kelly Conway, does a lot of costuming for commercials out here. She does all of the Jack in the Box stuff out here plus a lot of others. And they usually end up on the Super Bowl so she’s doing very, very well. I have another daughter – step daughter who is an actress and she does commercials. And then I have four other boys who just come by and they drive up to – we have an ATM window at the house now so they don’t have to come in. So they just, you know, put the card in, they get the $20 and leave. I don’t see much of them unless the machine breaks down.

Interviewer:        I – and nobody has followed in your footsteps…

Tim Conway:       Not…

Interviewer:        …as far as being – as for as comedy goes?

Tim Conway:       Oh they all have a great sense of humor; there’s no question about that. But, no, not into it professionally, no.

Interviewer:        Now you’ve been known as the second banana in show business and I’ve read that many times over. What’s a first banana and does it bother you to be a second banana?

Tim Conway:       No, I don’t think second bananas get those brown spots on them; I think that’s the only difference. I think that the head banana will from time to time. Yeah, but I don’t think – no, as I say, it’s so much more comfortable being the second banana or any kind of banana actually. It just, you don’t have the responsibility of the show, that’s somebody else’s problem; all those bills and all of those you shoulds and here’s what you have to do and you can’t do this and you can’t do that. That all, you know, that all falls on the shoulders of the star. And you just come in and get in your parking space and wait until somebody says, “We’re ready.” And you do what you do and go home. So you don’t have to worry about all of that; that’s the wonderful part of it.

Interviewer:        That’s the wonderful part. Well tell me, is there anything that you haven’t done that you’d like to do?

Tim Conway:       You know, surprisingly, not a great deal. You know, I started out in this business as a jockey; I was galloping horses in Cleveland. So I was going in that direction, which has nothing to do with show business. Then I went into the Army for two years – our Army actually. And I had a few extra weeks for a couple of court-martials along the way because they had no sense of humor at all.

Interviewer:        That did it.

Tim Conway:       And so I’ve kind of done a lot of things. I was going to try boxing for a while until I found out that people can actually knock you out by hitting you really hard. And so there are a lot of things – I wasn’t really gunning for show business. I just – being small you either had a sense of humor or you got beat up. So I guess I just turned to sense of humor and started entertaining people.

Interviewer:        It came naturally and how tall are you?

Tim Conway:       I appear to be around 6’3” but actually I’m 5’6”.

In response to asking if there was enough time for more questions:

Tim Conway:       The only thing I have to do, I have a dental appointment in early May and that’s a cleaning so I can…

Interviewer:        Did you like playing the Dentist, which was my favorite – my favorite sketch of all time?

Tim Conway:       Yes. That sketch – that is one of those – and the reason Harvey was laughing was, you know, was he kept saying – because I hadn’t – I didn’t show him the Novocain part of it…I only showed him, you know, the first part of the sketch, which wasn’t that good. And he kept saying, you know, “This really stinks. This isn’t going to work,” you know, “They’re just going to drop this sketch.” So it wasn’t until actually on air that I did the whole thing with the Novocain. And so he went south on that and I said, “You’re right Harvey, this sketch stinks. I think they’ll probably take it out.”

Interviewer:        Do you have anything on the docket? Anything coming up?

Tim Conway:       As I say I think I have a filling in May but I don’t know. You know. And other than that – well, yes, as a matter of fact there’s going to be something announced – and I’m not putting you on but…probably in the next couple of weeks that…I think will get folks attention. But I’m not supposed to say anything.

Interviewer:        Not too bad. I was wondering, since Bucky shares a lot of old Hollywood stories with Kenneth, what’s one of your favorite memories from the early days?

Tim Conway:       Well in early television I think things that screwed up were, I think, quite worth digging up again. There was – when you did, you know, if you had a show, well for instance we had a show in the morning on Channel 8 in Cleveland and we were supposed to show a movie and Ernie Anderson, who was the voice of ABC on The Love Boat, that guy, was the talent. And I was the director, he had very little talent and I had never directed. And when we came out – we just talked this guy into doing a show at that place. And when we came on the first morning we didn’t have a guest because nobody had seen the show yet and they didn’t want to be on it because they didn’t know what it was about. And having never directed television I didn’t know how to back time a movie so that it would end at 10 o’clock. So for the first week we had no endings of movies, I mean, we would just show this movie and then it would just kind of fade away and they’d go into the news or whatever. And people would call up and say, “Hey, where’s the end of the movie?” And I would say, “Come on, it was Citizen Kane; it was a sled, leave us alone. We’re in enough trouble here trying to just do this show.” And it got to be kind of an inside thing. And so that’s actually what got me to the first Steve Allen show because Rose Marie from the Dick Van Dyke Show was coming through town kind of publicizing The Dick Van Dyke Show. And she saw it and she said, “This is hysterical.” And I said, “Well we’re actually really just fighting for our lives here.” And took me out to Steve and the next thing you know I’m on McHale’s Navy and onward it went. So I’d never had any acting lessons or anything. I wasn’t looking to be in this business for some reason. But I always ended up doing something related to it.

Interviewer:        Oh, well good. Who are easier to entertain, Republicans or Democrats?

Tim Conway:       Wow, you know, I’ve never been in an entire room of just one of them; I’ve been in combinations. I think, you know, humor is funny. I think when you get them away from that microphone and that television eye that they become more relaxed and you can just sit down and you’re, you know, some guys who are really vicious in front of that podium, you sit down and talk with them and they’re, you know, they’re wonderful. It’s – they’re, you know, just regular folks. And so they’re equally as charming really when you get them alone. Not that they’re bad men by themselves.

Interviewer:        I just have one more quick thing. What was your sense of humor like in the Army? I was reading – did you really pull a light bulb on a guy?

Tim Conway:       Yeah, yeah, well that’s what I mean they had no sense of humor. Yeah, I was guard duty one night and I had fallen asleep in the back of a truck and I realized that it was 2 o’clock in the morning and that the Lieutenant would be coming around to check to see if I was on duty. And so I jumped out of the truck and I went around to the front of the building. It was a service club and it was peace time and it was Arkansas so I didn’t think it was really all that necessary to go through all the regiment of, you know, stopping people and saying, “Halt. Advance. Be Recognized.” But – and I realized when I got there that I had left my rifle in the truck. And the Army is so touchy about having your rifle with you on guard duty. And the Lieutenant came around the corner and I said, “Halt. Advance. Be recognized.” And in the meantime I had gone to this trash bin and gotten out a long neon light tube. And I was holding that instead of my rifle. And I said, “Halt.” And he came forward. And he said, “What is that?” And I said, “It’s a light bulb and if you come any closer I’ll turn it on.” So with his sense of humor he allowed me to paint rocks for a week – paint them white and then wash them off and then paint them again and then wash them off and then paint them again. So I had a little bit of extra time added on to my duty. But it was worth it, I think.

Interviewer:        So that was your first court martial, correct?

Tim Conway:       Yeah, just – it wasn’t the big one where, you know, they go, “You can’t handle the truth,” just a three guy thing, “Stop doing that and don’t be a smart guy and carry your rifle.” You know, so it was small – just extra time, as we say.

Interviewer:        Well you had mentioned kind of earlier about the family shows like The Carol Burnett era and everything. Do you feel like audiences want to kind of return to that? I mean, we have Dancing with the Stars and things, you know.

Tim Conway:       Yeah. I think what’s happened is that it started out, you know, I don’t know where it started, probably with Clark Gable going, “Frankly Scarlett, I don’t give a damn.” Somebody say, “Hey, we got ‘damn’ in there, let’s try for a few more.” And now it’s gotten to the point where I can’t even watch television with my kids and they’re in their 30s and 40s. And it’s not necessarily always the program, it’s what you pass to get to that program. You know, and it just – I was brought up that way, language of that nature wasn’t part of my childhood; it is now, you know, but it wasn’t when we were growing up. I came from a very small town and sheltered in a lot of things. But it just – it just seems as though there’s a place for it and if you want to watch it fine. It’s like Playboy, you know, everybody’s going to hide that magazine somewhere and get an opportunity to look at it. But you don’t need to put it out on the front porch for everybody to see. And I think with kids nowadays, you know, I listen to little kids at roller rinks and things of that nature using language like that and it just is – it’s a shame because there’s so much more to life and enjoying it than being, you know, a smart guy. Now I am certainly by no means a guy who can throw stones. I couldn’t even go near the rock pile, believe me. But it just – I don’t know, I guess the older you get the more offensive it gets. And you just want – especially kids to enjoy themselves and enjoy life and somehow that kind of detracts from it.

Interviewer:        Okay. So – you kind of also mentioned that 30 Rock is kind of, you know, this generation’s answer to Seinfeld, I guess? But what kind of drew you besides that, you know, new brand of comedy that’s kind of coming through with…

Tim Conway:       Well I like Alec. I had never seen Tina in this form before or other cast members that are on that show. And they are all in tune with what the show is aimed at as far as the kind of comedy that it’s doing. For instance Everybody Loves Raymond, I mean, that cast is as solid as you can get, I mean, they’re like the Burnett cast. Everybody knows what the other person is going to do, say or react to. And it’s the same with 30 Rock. And they’re doing off beat humor, I mean, it’s hard to stand up sometimes and do those lines because in effect you’re doing really funny inside lines with a very straight approach to it and they pull it off perfectly. It just is, you know, they’ve become so cohesive and so – such a nice little unit that you want to stick around and see what they’re doing this week.

Interviewer:        Do you ever get a chance to come back home to Chagrin Falls at all?

Tim Conway:       You know, I used to come home every summer for probably the first 15 or 20 years that I was even out here. I just wanted the kids to see what normal folks were. So I’d bring them back, show them a cow, grass and stuff like that and we’d stay for three months in the summer. But I had the best times, I think, in my life in Cleveland. It just was, you know, the old gang and the old hangouts and guys who just – I don’t know, were so down to earth and funny. I think all the basis of my humor is from Cleveland. And we were always being picked on, as you know…and I don’t know why just because our river caught on fire and then burned for three days. That was probably…

Interviewer:        It could happen anywhere; it’s an accident, you know.

Tim Conway:       You’re right, you’re right. What I enjoyed was the fire department tried to put water on it to put it out, you know.  And, it’s one of the last little villages left in that area. So, yeah, they – it, as I say, it was a great place that, you know, if you – and you learned so much. If you broke somebody’s window in a house, the old man would come out and he’d…smack you, then you’d go home, they would call you dad, he’d smack you and then you’d go to school and the coach would smack you so…eventually learned don’t break those windows. You know, and that was the lessons of the day.

Interviewer:        Good lesson. You know, let me ask you something about looking back at The Burnett Show. I do not believe – I was just sitting here trying to think, discounting SNL and Mad TV late night things, but I mean sketch comedy shows really ended with that show. I mean, there’ve been a few people, Dana Carvey and others I could think of that tried it since that time. Is it just, you know, it’s an invention that no longer can work or what could make it work or why – I mean, look back Gary Moore, even…

Tim Conway:       Yeah.

Interviewer:        …you know, even guy like Perry Como, Dean Martin, everyone had sketches and (unintelligible)…but now it’s…just a dead art.

Tim Conway:       Yeah, I don’t – yeah, it is. And I – well as I say, we were the New York Yankees of sketch comedy in the day. I mean, we just were such a cohesive unit, everybody knew what everybody else was thinking. And not only did we know what they were thinking but we knew what the audience was going to laugh at and what they thought was funny. You know, you take a simple thing like these childproof bottles that you have for pills nowadays, you know, so that a child – actually a child can open them but a grownup can’t. So, you know, and many people die with the medication in their hand because they can’t get the top off. And you take that subject and present it to people, simple little thing…and they’re going to enjoy it because all of our topics and all of our takeoffs and people, as I say, really weren’t conflicting with anything that people were thinking politically or religious. And it just – it just had a flow to it.

Interviewer:        Does that – are there shows that you still watch though, since, like situation comedy and everything has changed so much, is there something that you see that you really enjoy?

Tim Conway:       Yeah, it’s pretty predictable, that’s the problem. And so it makes you feel kind of stupid that they think that you don’t get this so I’m going to…explain it to you. But I liked Everybody Loves Raymond. I like 30 Rock, those kind of shows where, I mean, it’s just simple little things that happen one after another and you look at these people and say, gosh, are they dumb but I’m sitting here laughing at them, you know.

Interviewer:        Right, right. One other thing, with Ernest getting his nominations and everything, you know, you still going to be acting like him at 91?

Tim Conway:       Yeah, I’m afraid – he’s unbelievable. He lives not too far from us. And I also do a Sponge Bob with him and we do a couple of voiceovers on it. And he’ll, you know, he comes running down the hall like a 12 year old, he grabs me, he gives me a hug, breaks a couple of ribs and I see him again in a couple of weeks. But he just is – it’s wonderful, he’s what 90 now and he just gets in his tractor – or a tractor – his trailer and drives around the country. He’ll stop someplace for a week and just sit out in front of a store and talk to people. He loves people; he loves just, you know…being himself. And what a talent, I mean, to go from, you know, a (Marty) and an Oscar winner…to Fatso Judson when that character, I mean, that’s the alpha omega of acting. And he’s just – he’s wonderful, he really is.

Interviewer:        What about you, when will you buy the trailer and just start going traveling around the country and stopping?

Tim Conway:       As soon as I learn to drive, I’m out.

Interviewer:        Why was it so easy to work with Harvey Korman?

Tim Conway:       Because he is all the wonderful things that you want if you want to pick on somebody, he’s obsessive, he thinks that Bin Laden is after him. He is – he doesn’t go to sleep until about 4:00 in the morning because he’s up and locking doors and things of that nature. He just – he can be – he’s bright as anybody I’ve ever met, he can do the New York Times crossword puzzle in 10 minutes with a pen but he can’t tie his own shoes. So I – being the dumbest guy in show business, got along with him very well because I would put him on, on everything. We had to land one time for gas coming back from the east coast, we were running into headwinds and we were in a small plane. And they stopped for gas, we got gas and when the plane took off I said to Harvey, “You know, Harvey, I was watching them put that gas in and I don’t think they put the gas cap back on.” And he went to the pilot and was going to make him turn around and land again to put the gas cap on until the pilot finally convinced him that we don’t have a gas cap on this plane. But he just, you know, and then one time I hired a guy in Tahoe to come out, it was snowing, and I hired a guy to come out to the plane. I said to the pilot, “Don’t start it until this guy comes out.” And the guy came out with jumper cables. And he took the jumper cables and put it on the wing, buckled it to the wing, there’s no battery or anything, and gave it a little spark and they started up the plane. And the pilot came back and said, “You know, these things are kind of hard to get going but once we get them going, boy, they go so like you won’t believe.” So little things like that. And our entire tour for eight years was like that with Harvey. I mean, you just could – there wasn’t a thing that he wouldn’t buy. So that was part of it, the kookiness, a lot of times he would actually get mad at me and, you know, would spend months not talking to me because of something I did.

Interviewer:        Now do you recall what the first sketch you wrote for the two of you was?

Tim Conway:       I think I was a bullfighter and a drunk bullfighter and he was just interviewing me. It was quite as elaborate as the sketches we did later on Burnett. But I was just standing there in this bull-fighting outfit and he was interviewing me and I was drunk. And it just kind of started from there that he couldn’t believe that a bullfighter would be going into an arena with a man killer drunk. But I said, “That’s the only way I can go out there; have you ever seen one of those bulls? That’s murder.” So it started there and just never quit.

Tim Conway:       Where is The Entertainment Zone now? I keep forgetting, yeah.

Interviewer:        In the twilight zone.

Tim Conway:       There you go.

Interviewer:        I was just wondering, do you have any present day favorite comedians whether it’s on the show or standup or anything?

Tim Conway:       Well I’m still a big lawsuit with Laurel and Hardy, they stole so much stuff from me and we’re coming pretty close to a conclusion now because that’s just not right. Gosh, who do I, you know, I mentioned Everybody Loves Raymond, the entire cast appeals to me. And, you know, I keep talking about television and trying to make it what it was in the old days but that’s never going to come again. But Richard Pryor was probably one of the funnier guys that ever walked the face of this earth. He – and I know that the language, you know, doesn’t appeal to a lot of people but it was Richard’s language because he was brought up in a house of prostitution so, you know, you don’t hear please and thank you there a lot. And he used those characters and those characterizations of people he knew in real life and brought them to life in what he did and hysterical, you know. And, you know, there’s a lot of them that are, you know, funny folks nowadays, you just don’t see enough of them, there’s not really, you know, a place for them. They all have either specials, which you only see once in a while and then you see them every night because they re-run it so it – it’s hard to zero in on one particular person. Johnny Carson was obviously a big favorite of mine because I don’t think anybody does it the way Johnny does it – did it.

Interviewer:        No, definitely not. And I don’t think there’s TV like there was back then. I mean, I can still watch Carol Burnett and just lose it…

Tim Conway:       Thank you.

Interviewer:        …completely lose it. Tudball – and I think it’s a cross between Tudball and the Scarlett sketch those have got to be my favorites.

Tim Conway:       (in the Mr. Tudball voice) Oh god bless you, I’ll tell you, that’s a wonderful thing.

Interviewer:        Thank you for doing that. I needed that – I needed a Tudball.

Tim Conway:       And Carol, you know, and in effect, Carol never heard that voice too, that was another thing, until we were doing the first sketch. And I looked at her and, “Well you come right here, to right here Mrs. Wiggin.” And she looked at me like, what is he doing now? And away it went.

Interviewer:        Well it worked.

Tim Conway:       Yeah, afraid so.

Interviewer:        As I’m sure you knew it would.

Tim Conway:       Yeah.

Coordinator:        At this time there are no further questions.

Tim Conway:       Oh, okay. Well I’ll just wait for some – I’ll go out in the front yard and see if anybody has some.