Can Soaps Left For Dead See New Life Resurrected In A New Era Of Internet TV?

The humble soap opera (a.k.a. "soaps"), which got their name from the original dramatic serials' broadcast on radio which soap manufacturers, including Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Dial Corp. (now owned by Germany's Henkel AG) and Unilever, once sponsored.  Soaps as a genre of television programming are (or were), by definition, ongoing, episodic works of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming.  Its also worth noting that a number of actors and actresses (and a few musicians) began their careers on soaps.

For decades, soaps were a staple of daytime radio, which migrated to TV, yet this particular genre of television content faced extinction when the new millennium began.  Indeed, in recent years, ratings for most soaps fell in the U.S.  As a result, many of America's longest-running soaps ended between 2009 to 2012.

Wikipedia reports that the longest-running drama in television and radio history, "Guiding Light", barely reached 2.1 million daily viewers in 2009 when it ended after 72 years.  As a point of comparison, Luke and Laura's wedding on ABC's "General Hospital" soap in 1981 attracted 30 million viewers (a peek for soaps).  But the decline for soaps in more recent years was true for many other once-lucrative soap operas.  “The Guiding Light” was hardly alone.  “World Turns" aired its final episode in 2010 after a 54 year run, and it was the last of 20 soap operas still produced by Procter & Gamble.  "All My Children" and "One Life to Live", each having an over four-decade run, were both cancelled in 2011, with "All My Children" airing its finale in September 2011 and "One Life to Live" last airing in January 2012.

Behind Soaps' Decline

A confluence of factors contributed to the decline of soaps.

Until the 1970s, advertisers of consumer products (like soap) made by companies like P&G and Colgate-Palmolive could reliably advertise to (and reach) the female homemakers who typically buy such products for their households.  But starting in the 1970s, as more and more women worked outside of the home, daytime TV viewership declined.  Add to that the fact that new generations of potential viewers weren't raised watching soap operas with their mothers, which left the shows' long and complex storylines unknown to younger audiences.  Beyond the shift in roles for women who largely work outside the home today, the trend was accelerated by technology in the new millennium.

Technology: The Final Nail in Soaps' Coffin, Or The Genre’s Resurrection?

We saw digital television multiply the number of channels available to viewers (whether via traditional broadcast or on cable/satellite).  At the dawn of the new Millennium, it looked as if that might be a potential savior for the soap opera format.  For example, on January 20, 2000, Disney's Soapnet (stylized as SOAPnet) started broadcasting current (and perhaps even more old reruns) of soap operas and prime time dramas (note that Disney also owns the television network ABC).  However, Soapnet's success in attracting viewers proved elusive.  Indeed, plans for a rival network from Sony Pictures Entertainment to be dubbed SoapCity (also showing soap content) were abandoned early in 2000 after Sony failed to acquire cable carriage.

Soapnet itself, in spite of already being carried on some systems, was discontinued on a number of cable and satellite providers starting in March 2012, with Disney Junior replacing it in its channel space.  Although Soapnet continues for providers who have not yet made carriage agreements for Disney Junior (such as Dish Network) and for those providers who have kept Soapnet in their lineup and have either taken on Disney Junior as an additional channel or opted not to carry Disney Junior (e.g. DirecTV, etc), it's future is unclear as to whether Soapnet will might cease operations on all cable and satellite providers.

That put us in a situation where the soap opera category of television programming appeared doomed to extinction, perhaps taught as an example of historical marketing by consumer products manufacturers and distributors, or used by network programming executives on how a genre of programming which had endured from radio into broadcast television would ultimately succumb in the new Millennium, caused by failing economics and new technological advances.

As I've blogged about in the past, the day of internet-delivered video content (what we now collectively call "television") has emerged, and with seemingly unlimited capacity to stream original (or old) programming content to digital televisions or on various computers (PCs, laptops and tablets), often providing programming at times far better suited for viewers since it is all on-demand, which means soaps may yet continue their story, complete with the twists and turns soap plots were known for.

On April 25, 2013, the Associated Press ran an article entitled "Back from the dead! 'All My Children,' 'One Life to Live' revived on Web", with news that two long-running (but recently cancelled) soaps would be resurrected on the web.

In his article, Associated Press Television Writer Frazier Moore wrote:

"Taped to a wall at the entrance to the Connecticut Film Center in Stamford is this greeting: 'Welcome (back) to Pine Valley.'  (Author P.S.:  I cover the Connecticut Film Center in another post, see http://goo.gl/B73dP for that particular post).

Pine Valley, of course, is the mythical setting of 'All My Children,' a daytime drama that ran on ABC for nearly 41 years until it was snuffed in 2011.

But now, in one of those plot twists so common to soap operas but so rare in the real world, 'All My Children' has been raised from the dead.

Was its cancellation just a bad dream, from which the show is now awakening? In any case, 'AMC' will be back starting Monday [April 29, 2013] with much of its august cast intact (including David Canary, Julia Barr, Jill Larson, Debbi Morgan and Cady McClain, and perhaps even Susan Lucci eventually returning to the fold), along with shiny new actors to add more pizazz."

Check out the video commercial for the resurrection of "All My Children" resurrection on Hulu below, or by visiting http://youtu.be/od1LeaCDK5E:

It added:

"So will 'One Life to Live,' another venerable soap cut down by ABC after 44 seasons. It, too, will spring back to life on Monday. (Welcome back to Llanview, everybody!) Returning fan favorites include Erika Slezak, Robert S. Woods, Robin Strasser and Hillary B. Smith, each of whom has logged decades on the show."

For what its worth, the two shows had been on TV a combined total of 84 years.  Variety, long an entertainment business go-to trade publication, featured an entertaining if descriptive headline for the news (see http://variety.com/2013/tv/news/inside-the-online-revival-of-all-my-children-one-life-to-live-1200412961/):

"The Bold and the Digital: Production and distribution getting a radical rethink"

That's an obvious play on the name for another soap known as "The Bold and the Beautiful".  But the headline suggests, the day for content we once passively turned our television receivers on to watch has finally seen major technological changes in how that entertainment content is delivered, which has disrupted other types of entertainment such as music.

The two venerable soap operas noted will come back to life, but will be distributed online.  Each serial will unveil four daily half-hours per week, plus a recap/behind-the-scenes episode on Fridays, with 42 weeks of original programming promised for the first year.

NPR recently addressed this online resurrection of these two soaps.  You may listen below, or by visiting http://n.pr/13DKI4y:



Marketplace talked about the soaps migration to the online platform, which can be listened to below, or by visiting http://bit.ly/16bqWl4:



The resurrected shows will be available for streaming on computers on the Hulu website (http://www.hulu.com/). Subscribers to Hulu Plus can watch on a variety of other devices. And the episodes will be available for purchase on iTunes.

This resurrection could reverse the doomsday scenario that has plagued soaps in recent decades as viewership withered and numbers sank (there are now only four soaps left on the broadcast networks; there were a dozen in 1991).

The details of this soap resurrection online are as follows:

Starting Monday, April 29, 2013, brand new 30-minute episodes of both "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" will appear each Monday through Thursday on the free Hulu.com website and the paid monthly subscription service Hulu Plus.  Fans can also buy episodes in Apple's iTunes store.

Reuters reported "The producers, former Walt Disney TV chairman Rich Frank and talent management veteran Jeff Kwatinetz, hope to ride a wave of interest in first-run series online, highlighted by the recent buzz for Netflix original drama 'House of Cards' and its coming revival of the former Fox comedy 'Arrested Development'".

Commercial Success for Soaps Delivered Online Not A Sure Thing

As I already noted, internet-delivered "TV" programming does something networks like Soapnet did not (could not or would not): provide on-demand, anytime, anywhere entertainment programming to a number of computerized electronic devices connected to the internet, whether its a traditional television set (possibly with an add-on device like Roku), or on a tablet computer that someone can watch at their desk during their lunch break at work.

In fact, "All My Children" star Jill Larson (known Opal Cortlandt to soap fans) had this to say: "It's no longer daytime -- it's anytime now."

Will Older Viewers Tune Into Soaps Online?

There is still some skepticism that such an older-skewing audience will necessarily tune-in.  For example, one subsegment of traditional soap viewers, notably elderly women, may feel technologically challenged to even find the show, although that does sell their skill sets short, and newer, smarter televisions may yet turn it into a plug and play even if the technology isn't there today.

TVs sold today have so many wires and connections that its a bit of a hassle to set up, and even worse to move within your home.  Many observers thought that Apple, which made computer operating systems user-friendly with the Mac, or made an entire library of digital music (and retail store) accessible via the iPod is a logical choice to bring ease-of-use back into the digital television.  So far, however, Apple TV is significantly more expensive and certainly no easier to set up, yet is more restrictive in terms of content than rivals from Roku, therefore Apple has not quite enlightened or created a new market ... yet.

In my mind, at least, new technology may actually help ventures like managing an ever-growing body of entertainment delivered via the internet.  After all, imagine if you could use a TV remote control and enter a particular channel number to retrieve online-distributed content from all over the internet?  That may lure in a bunch of viewers who simply want the ease that television once represented: turn it on, change the channel and watch.  No one wants to spend several hours programming all that stuff to help us navigate, connecting different wires (or entering wifi and network passwords).  Roku, while decent, still limits itself to just a few providers (YouTube is not among those, although I believe Hulu is).

Smaller Still Works With Online Delivery

Technology aside, the resurrection is credited to a man named Mr. Kwatinetz, the former head of a Hollywood talent agency, and Mr. Frank, a former president of Walt Disney Studios, who now own a production company known as Prospect Park, which snapped up the rights to the two soaps shortly after ABC canceled them in 2011.  The New York Times reports (see http://nyti.ms/11vq70A) they don't necessarily need every single one of the three million viewers who watched "All My Children" or "One Life to Live" on ABC to watch online to make the economics work.

The New York Times, reported "By some estimates they need only about one-sixth the viewers, or 500,000, to break even. That's because the episodes cost far less to produce than they used to; ads on Hulu can be much more targeted than ads on television; and some viewers will pay out-of-pocket, either through iTunes, where episodes will retail for $0.99 each, or through the $8-a-month Hulu Plus service. (The most recent episodes will be available through the free version of Hulu, while the whole library will be on only Hulu Plus.)"

Mr. Kwatinetz also told the New York Times he expected the audience to come from two camps: longtime fans and "younger people who are already watching most of their TV online." (To entice the latter group, the new shows are faster-paced and racier than the ABC versions.) Still, Ms. De Kosnik said, some former viewers could be "confused by the thought of trying to find TV shows online."

Unlike in the past, these days, the options of WHAT viewers can watch seem to be expanding) and those entertainment options are now being delivered in innovative ways - online.  Right now, Hulu is the channel for this, but rival Netflix has inked deals with a few others to resurrect shows like "Arrested Development".  This will be a test to see whether grannies in nursing homes with iPads in hand will tune in to some old favorites.

Author P.S. (September 9, 2013):  NPR reports that after an arguably very successful reboot on Hulu, the long-running soap "One Life to Live" is now facing new, legal challenges.  A legal dispute has shut down production all together, which has fans worried the show's days may be numbered in spite of a successful reboot online.  See "How Many Lives Does 'One Life To Live' Have?", and have a listen at http://n.pr/17QhQFK.

New Tribute to John Denver Is Reminiscent of "If I Were A Carpenter"

Back in 1994, Generation X entertainers, for the first time in history, really dominated American pop culture.  Prior to that, Americans were fed a steady diet of entertainment aimed mainly at Baby Boomers.  Gen X represented a fresh new generation of young adults (Time magazine's cover story from a few years earlier was entitled "Twentysomething", see http://ti.me/5gQ3tM) in reference to a TV show about young Baby Boomers which aired a few years earlier on network television known as "Thirtysomething", though the article noted that Gen X was not the next chapter of the Baby Boom, rather they grew up as latch-key kids who weren't crazy about some Baby Boomer values, such as putting themselves and their careers over their kids) and Gen X was all over TV, movies and music.  So-called "alternative" rock music emerged from various fringe rock genres including the Seattle grunge scene dominated Billboard's top singles at the time.

"If I Were A Carpenter" album cover

Out of that unlikely environment was what would be the first (but certainly not the last) tribute album consisting of modern artists covering a collection of throwback music from their youth.  Indeed, at the time, songs from The Carpenters rarely played on the radio anymore, even on soft rock and oldies stations.  Yet the tribute album "If I Were A Carpenter" was released in 1994 and the CD cover featured a cartoon image of Richard and Karen Carpenter listening to vinyl record albums.  While The Carpenters' first album was released in 1969, it really got some serious airplay in the following years.  Brother Richard Carpenter is still alive and well, but his sister Karen (whose voice helped define the sound, while Richard was really known for the music [as a pianist], arrangements and some song-writing, too) dominated most recent memories of the brother-sister duo.   Karen Carpenter's death in 1983 from complications of anorexia nervosa dominated most recent pop culture memories, therefore the tribute album really struck a chord for a generation whose early music memories included them, and arguably helped re-create memories of the duo minus the baggage of Karen's untimely passing.

The tribute album was very successful, merging then-current top artists covering the music that dominated the airwaves when the artists themselves were just kids.  Although Sonic Youth's cover of Superstar was a pretty big hit in 1994, Sonic Youth was hardly alone, as other artists including The Cranberries, Sheryle Crowe, and Matthew Sweet did covers of The Carpenters' songs.

Today, nineteen years later, Gen X artists (although the collaboration isn't exclusively X'ers) are again mining the music business' trash heap to reclaim a part of their own cultural history - good or bad), and maybe sell some music, too.  Last week, a tribute album dedicated to John Denver entitled "The Music Is You: A Tribute To John Denver".  Among the artists collaborating on this particular initiative include Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter to name just a few.  Tracks include Rocky Mountain High, Take Me Home Country Roads, and Sunshine On My Shoulders as well as 13 others made famous by John Denver, who died in a plane crash in 1997.

Even the album artwork (before MP3s, known as album covers) is reminiscent of "If I Were A Carpenter" with a cartoon-esque image of the late John Denver.

"The Music Is You: A Tribute to John Denver"album cover

NPR Music noted "He [John Denver] was often mocked by edgier musicians for being a kind of musically soft, spongy Wonderbread of a singer-songwriter. But his songs have endured — and influenced more than one generation."  NPR Music also spoke to Dave Matthews about his collaboration on this initiative and his cover of one of John Denver's songs, which can be listened to below, or by visiting http://n.pr/XxQmEq:

In the end, I think Dave Matthews and his collaborators have done the late singer appropriate justice, much as the "If I Were A Carpenter" collaborators did for that group.  As a tribute album, it not only brings the original artist's music to a potentially new audience, but also keeps the original artist's creations in mind.  If you'd like to buy "The Music Is You: A Tribute To John Denver", visit http://amzn.to/10iMwD7.

New Digital Copyright Challenges Decided in the Courts - Consumers Lose One, Win Another

I believe U.S. Copyright laws provide far more legal rights to copyright owners than the copyright laws in most other developed countries actually do.  Until very recently, that mainly benefited well-established media giants (music record labels, for example, or book publishers), rather than the individuals who created the content in the first place.  However, as I reported (see the post at http://goo.gl/fu4fc) at the beginning of 2013, thanks to legislation that was passed in the mid-1970s, content creators such as authors and songwriters can now reclaim the rights to the content they actually created.  They can now legally reclaim the rights to their published works from the companies who claimed ownership of the copyrights, enabling them to license the use of that content however THEY, rather than the record label or publisher, sees fit.  This opens the possibility that we may see music from countless other content creators in things like films and TV shows.  Book content, especially from older books, are more likely to be cited in the public domain.  In effect, it opens the possibilities that didn't exist when the anointed gatekeepers of that content called the shots exclusively for themselves, which I think is a good thing.

I also commented on how archived audio recordings of music risked being lost permanently because of the United States' convoluted laws which are supposed to protect copyright ownership, but I likened it to trying to do a title search on a home but without the public records being accessible in a local, state or Federal ownership registry, making it almost impossible to identify the true owners in many cases (see my post on that http://goo.gl/3pggn).  Thanks to a recent Government initiative, that content will not necessarily be lost, and they've even encouraged some big content owners such as Sony Music to participate, which is terrific.

Much of the reason for the messy U.S. copyright situation is because of the powerful lobbying influence that giant U.S. media and publishing companies had in legislating and getting many of the things that content owners in say, Sweden are not entitled to.  This has created a situation where the profits are much, much bigger in the U.S. than they are elsewhere.  Because there are so many restrictions on content in the U.S., it has also created an environment where compliance, often without malicious intent, is difficult for consumers of that content, and legal challenges are widespread and frequent.  This is apparently what happens when a fox guards the henhouse.

However, Public Radio International ("PRI") has a fascinating story about two very recent U.S. federal court cases which were forced to apply 1976 law to modern digital innovations. PRI reports that With respect to two new digital services, the judges took two different paths, ruling one was compliant with federal copyright law, while another was not.  Much of these decisions were based on past legal precedent, the basis upon which much of U.S. law is based.

I would recommend having a listen to that story because they cover it very well, giving good insight into what these decisions actually mean and their implications for the future.  Incidentally, my astute readers might notice that the opening track in that broadcast was the 1971 song "I've Seen All Good People" by the British band Yes.

The story is available for listening at http://www.wnyc.org/story/279519-want-to-sell-your-mp3s-tell-it-to-the-judge:



PRI summed up the outcome of these two trials as follows:
TV viewers 1, iTunes users 0.

Reselling Music Bought on iTunes Violates Copyright Law Even if You Delete It

In effect, the courts ruled that users were not able to sell music downloaded from iTunes involving a court case related to ReDigi, which is a platform that let you resell digital songs you bought from iTunes (or from Amazon, Google Play or any other digital music seller) or but when you decided you don't want that music on your computer any more - a bit like like taking your old CDs to the secondhand store.  The company describes itself as follows:

"ReDigi is a free cloud service that allows you to sell your legally purchased digital music.  An online marketplace where you can buy pre-owned digital music for as low as $0.49.  Keep your music collection fresh and light by storing your unused music in your cloud and streaming it to any device.  Discover a new way to enjoy your digital music today."

Record companies argued that because the technology requires that a copy be made, ReDigi's service infringes on their copyrights. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Sullivan agreed.  To some extent, I'm starting to think my large (but not massive) CD collection might be more valuable today than it was when I bought it the first time around since owning those discs enables me to get the MP3's on iTunes very easily (free), but I actually own the discs and don't have to worry about yet-to-be-decided licensing with the content owners.  It's mine, and I can resell it on sites like SecondSpin.com anytime I like.  In fact, I've continued to buy CDs (often used) rather than buy the songs from iTunes (usually because its a lot cheaper to buy music that way).

Barry Diller Is Right (So Far), Aereo TV Is Legal

The other case, involving TV content involves a new digital streaming service called Aereo (a startup which is backed by media mogul Barry Diller), which captures broadcast TV signals and then routes them over the Internet to users who pay a fee. Network broadcasters took Aereo to court, but in Judges Christopher Droney and John Gleeson from the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals refused to issue an injunction against Aereo.

Big broadcasters including Newscorp's Fox unit, Disney's ABC business, Viacom's CBS broadcasting unit, and Comcast's NBC/Universal unit and various others had sued, saying Aereo copied and retransmitted their programs as they are first aired without permission.  But the case relied heavily upon earlier legal precedents.

Specifically, the appeals court relied (in part) on an earlier court case in which judges found that Cablevision System's digital video recorder did not violate copyright law by copying and storing programs for each customer's use.  The majority said that a ruling against Aereo would conflict with its earlier decision in the Cablevision case.

Broadcasters said in court documents that allowing Aereo to proceed without paying for licenses threatens the ability of broadcasters to produce marquee sports or awards show events (that's a bullshit argument, quite frankly), including the Academy Awards and the Grammys. They also say cable and satellite operators may decide to adopt Aereo's technology or cause revenues from those paying licensing fees to decline because the content is devalued (probably true, but the question is whether copyright infringement has taken place?).  They also claim Aereo's success will hurt their ability to license content on an on-demand basis over the Internet, although they aren't exactly rushing to do themselves because of the big fees they get from packaged deals with cable companies.  Note that I blogged about a lawsuit cable giant Cablevision (which was noted above) is now suing Viacom over bundled pricing, catch that post by visiting http://goo.gl/C5qqE.  The outcome for that case hasn't happened yet, but many are watching to see what happens.

I should note that the ruling came on the Aereo case in a preliminary stage of the case in federal court.  More evidence must still be presented to a lower court judge before she issues a final decision.  Other legal challenges have been filed elsewhere against a budding industry that stands to challenge the dominance of cable or satellite companies that offer their licensed programming to consumers, which are often very costly although much of it can still be attained over the airwaves for free.

I haven't studied the legal precedents which were cited in these cases, but the issues raised in both cases are very interesting.  The story notes that Congress really needs to update the copyright laws which they haven't done in more than 35 years.  The copyright laws now governing digital content was developed in an era before digital ownership and delivery was even imagined (the Copyright Act was passed into law in 1976).

"The Copyright Act needs to take account of where we are now and not in 1976," Adam Liptak, who covers law and the Supreme Court for the New York Times, said to PRI.  He doubts that will come to pass. "The correct answer is that it should be Congress, and the likely real-world answer is it'll be the courts" that continue ruling on digital rights.

PRI added: "The fact that these cases are decided based on a law that predates the digital era by decades makes a lot of work for lawyers and judges.  It's [now] up to Congress do the real heavy lifting of changing the laws for the digital era."

Carol Burnett's New Book Tribute to Her Daughter Carrie

Wow, there's so much pop culture news today, unfortunately, not all of it is happy.  For example, Baby Boomer icon (and perhaps the best-known original Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer) Annette Funicello passed away today (see the Los Angeles Times obituary at http://lat.ms/XzIJj7) at age 70.  For the record, I grew up during the first remake of "The Mickey Mouse Club" and the best known alumnus from that era is perhaps Lisa Whelchel (catch my post that covers her at http://goo.gl/koOhe), the Britney Spears/ Christina Aguilera/ Justin Timberlake was the third and final rendition of that show.  Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died today, too (see http://nyti.ms/YbwY1H for New York Times coverage), although her death is perhaps less shocking given her age (she was 87) and her health issues were well-known, notably from Alzheimer's Disease which was recently depicted by actress Meryl Streep in last year's successful film "Iron Lady").  The latter not really being pop culture news, as Ms. Thatcher was more of a political leader (and Ronald Reagan's ideological soul-mate from the UK).

But today's post is a slightly happier theme, although it too is rooted in tragedy.

Comedy's Leading Lady With Troubles At Home

During the 1970s, comedienne Carol Burnett (who is nearly 80 years old as I write this) made news not only for what she was doing on the TV screen, but also because of the struggles she was having at home with a teenage daughter (Carrie) who was abusing drugs and alcohol starting at age age 13.  Her daughter's well-publicized struggles with addiction were fodder for tabloid articles, and also contributed to the demise of Ms. Burnett's marriage at the time.

Indeed, Ms. Burnett's struggles with her daughter Carrie, along with her disclosure of those to the public, helped push a new first lady named Nancy Reagan to adopt the cause of drug abuse as her signature campaign known as "Just Say No" following Ronald Reagan's election in 1980.

To Carol's credit, her willingness to be public about her struggles with Carrie also helped many parents realize they weren't alone in the struggle in dealing with kids that were addicted to drugs.  However, to some extent, much of Generation X was treated as one that needed to be saved from drug abuse when not all kids even had those struggles.  Not all kids of that era were abusing drugs, yet Gen X kids were kind of treated as if we all were a bunch of aimless potheads regardless, often by parents who had a stash of marijuana of their own.

Carol Burnett and her daughter Carrie Hamilton

In the years that followed, Carol's daughter Carrie Hamilton had become a model of a post-addiction child and remained extremely close with her mother (perhaps because of her intervention during her wild childhood),  but as the poster-child for kids (many kids of Hollywood celebs) gone bad, her struggles were much more public than ordinary kids elsewhere in America.  Indeed, Carrie herself said that was a big reason she started using drugs in the first place, to get out of her famous mother's shadow.

That's why when Carol Burnett's daughter Carrie, who had successfully rebuilt her life and relationships later passed away from lung cancer in 2002 (see http://bit.ly/10NwwTo for the People magazine coverage of Carrie's passing, although there's a nicer version which features full-color scans of the original at http://goo.gl/kgrg4), it was kind of a sad postscript not only for Carol, but also a sign that not every Hollywood story has a happy ending.

This week, CBS' Sunday Morning news show featured a nice interview with Carol Burnett, who perhaps not coincidentally, happens to have a new book coming out on April 9, 2013.  Her new book, unlike her biography, is in honor of her daughter Carrie entitled "Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story" (which can be found at http://amzn.to/16IGjPw).  Although the interview barely addresses the new tribute to her daughter, we do see Carol touring the old CBS studio where "The Carol Burnett Show" was filmed back in the day (today, the gameshow "The Price Is Right" is recorded there), and we get to see a few vintage clips from her show.  You may watch the CBS Sunday Morning inteview with Carol Burnett by visiting http://cbsn.ws/10LZnd2.

In the end, as Carol told CBS News, as a parent, one never really gets over the loss of a child, but she says you learn to cope with it because she says she and other parents like her have no other choice.  Her new book is meant to be Carol's tribute to her late daughter Carrie.  She wrote it to be a funny yet moving memoir about raising Carrie through the struggles and triumphs of her life.  Carol shares her personal diary entries, photos, correspondence, and traces the journey she and Carrie took through some of life's toughest challenges and sweetest miracles.

Although I haven't read the book myself (it won't be released until tomorrow), coming from one of comedy's greatest legends, I did read Carol's own autobiography "This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection" which I enjoyed, as I thought it was written in a very readible way yet was also entertaining, much like Carol Burnett herself.

These days, reruns of "The Carol Burnett Show" aren't widely seen on television even on networks known for reruns including TV Land, Me-TV, Antenna TV or RTV-Retro Television.  As a consolation, Carol had sold a limited set of episodes direct-to-consumers on videocassette and later on DVD from the direct marketing firm Guthy-Renker until that company left the entertainment distribution business to focus on beauty products.  Since then, collections of "The Carol Burnett Show" have been sold by Time Life at http://carolburnettdvdstore.com/ (although they can also be ordered on Amazon.com).

Variety Shows

"The Carol Burnett Show" was perhaps one of the longest-running television variety shows (which as a genre, really no longer exists today).  "The Sonny and Cher Show" preceded Carol Burnett on CBS, but didn’t manage to survive the stars of that show’s own marriage ending in divorce.  However, the variety show genre continued through the early 1980s, we saw that genre continue with several variety shows produced by Sid and Marty Krofft (better known for their psychodelic puppet show "H.R. Pufnstuf" which I never really enjoyed, perhaps because I wasn't taking drugs as a kid) including the ill-fated "Brady Bunch Variety Hour" (which even the some of the cast members, including Susan Olsen who played Cindy Brady, ridiculed in a book entitled "Love to Love You Bradys: The Bizarre Story of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour"), "The Osmonds" which aired a few years later, and perhaps what was of the Krofft's last major network variety shows (and arguably the last of the major network variety show genre) "Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters" which ran for a few years (from 1980-1982) on NBC, with that one being more country music-themed than the predecessors (see my post of country cross-over artists at http://goo.gl/9Lstp.

Carol Burnett Show Spinoffs

"The Carol Burnett Show" also gave birth to syndicated spinoffs such as "Mama's Family" (which starred Vicki Lawrence which began as a recurring skit on "The Carol Burnett Show" called "The Family".  That spinoff which ran for one and a half seasons on NBC (from 1983-1984) also featured actress Rue McClanahan as Mama's uptight spinster sister Fran Harper, who was a journalist for a local newspaper.  Of course, Rue McClanahan left the show to join a show which would be a far bigger hit for her personally, as well as for NBC, specifically, "The Golden Girls" which ran for an impressive eight seasons on Saturday evenings, doing well in the ratings the entire time.  After a series of time-changes for "Mama's Family" on NBC, the show stopped but was subsequently retooled by removing the character Fran and adding Eunice and Ed Higgins' delinquent son Bubba (played by Allan Kayser) and a prissy neighbor Iola Boylin best known for making various cozies for various household appliances.

Although the syndicated version "Mama's Family" was entertaining and generally well-done, "The Family" skits on Carol Burnett were much funnier, often with a very biting humor that the spinoff kind of lacked.  Of course, Carol herself starred Eunice (nee Harper) Higgins, who was only in four of the original spinoff's episodes, while Carol appeared in just one episode on the second iteration of "Mama's Family" which ran in syndication from 1997 to August 2006 after being dropped by NBC.

Without getting too far off topic (at one time, I thought about writing about variety shows, but there wasn't much more to say about them than I've written here), Carol Burnett's interview on CBS Sunday morning offers a great overview of "The Carol Burnett Show" as well as a glimpse into Carol Burnett's personal struggle raising her daughter Carrie and also provides a good description for her motivation behind writing her latest book "Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story".  Although I can envision an entire post on "The Carol Burnett Show", the challenges she had raising her daughter Carrie was really how I started this post, and I think it helps portray that era.  I was lucky enough to have caught that clip on CBS Sunday Morning, saving me from having to create much of that on my own.  I hope my readers will consider that perspective and possibly read Carol Burnett's new book with that perspective in mind.

Author P.S., May 20, 2014: The surviving cast [Carol, Tim, Lyle, Vicki, and show costume designer Bob Mackie] of "The Carol Burnett Show" were reunited on "The Queen Latifa Show".