The working premise was that in editing, they'd look at both versions and decide which to air. It usually meant Harvey would be reduced to helpless tears of laughter. Afterwards, Conway would check with the director and ask, "Did you get it?" If the director affirmed he had an airable "straight" version of the sketch, Conway was permitted to screw around during the final taping, adding in things Harvey didn't expect. Since Korman knew what was coming and it had been rehearsed that way before, he rarely broke up or broke character. At the dress rehearsal, which had a live audience present and was taped, Conway and the others would adhere to the script. Those sketches on the Burnett show were controversial within the TV community and especially on the staff of that show. I got to talking with Tim and it struck me that he was trying real hard not to be funny and not to call attention to himself at a ceremony that was only about Chuck and his family.Īnd that was clearly hard for Tim Conway…which struck me as funny. Laughing out loud was not forbidden but it sure would have seemed indecorous. The room was full of comedians but you wouldn't have known it from the mood, which was understandably funereal. One of our last encounters was at a wake for Chuck McCann's son Sean. That was just the way he was, the way he talked. The few occasions when I spent any amount of time with him, I was laughing and he wasn't even trying. In a way, it's both unfair and appropriate that so many people think of him mainly as "That guy who made Harvey Korman break up laughing on The Carol Burnett Show." It's unfair because those were cheap, easy laughs and Conway was hilarious in so many other ways.īut it's also appropriate because he made just about everyone around him break up laughing, myself included. I've met a lot of funny people in my life but I can't think of one who was more naturally-funny than Tim Conway. I didn't have anything to say about Doris Day that everyone else wasn't saying but I may have just enough to justify a post here about Tim Conway.
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