carol burnett star trek parody

Carol Burnett has some cosmic and comic Star Trek connections

By mike poteet | may 3, 2023.

Carol Burnett has had some fun with Star Trek in her career.

TV viewers around the world know Carol Burnett, who turned 90 last month, as one of America’s funniest, most significant, and best-loved comedians. She was the first woman to host her own variety TV show , which ran for 11 seasons (1967-1978), winning 25 Emmy Awards (and 42 more nominations). It also won millions of fans, not only during its original run but also in years of syndicated reruns, which continue to this day—a phenomenon not unfamiliar to Star Trek fans, correct?

What Star Trek fans may not realize are Carol Burnett’s connections to our favorite franchise. No, she has not, yet, appeared as a guest star in Star Trek. (She’s still working, and Paramount is still producing Star Trek, so we can only hope!) But, for starters, Burnett was close friends with Lucille Ball . The two worked together numerous times. Ball was, of course, not only the trailblazing star of I Love Lucy but also co-founder and co-owner, with husband Desi Arnaz, of Desilu Studios, which took a chance on Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi drama .

But there’s an even closer connection. On December 4, 1967, the twelfth episode of The Carol Burnett Show included a quick sketch entitled “Mrs. Invisible Man.” Carol Burnett’s character in the sketch is married to, you guessed it, the Invisible Man. Her hard-to-see hubby goes offstage to drink a formula that will make him visible again. When he comes back, he is revealed as none other than Leonard Nimoy, in full costume as Mr. Spock.

MeTV called the moment “the most absurd we ever saw Spock.” I can only agree. But isn’t the bigger question: Is it canon?

In 1970, Nimoy appeared again on The Carol Burnett Show . This time, however, as Therese at Trekker Scrapbook notes , he appeared in a send-up of his other Desilu show, Mission: Impossible .

But Carol Burnett’s connections to Star Trek don’t stop with Mr. Spock.

Carol Burnett starred in two Star Trek parody sketches

In only the second episode of The Carol Burnett Show (September 18, 1967), Carol and the cast spoofed Star Trek—then only a year old—with an “episode” of a series called Star Trip . The sketch is titled “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Robot?”

In it, Harvey Korman plays Captain Quirk of the spaceship Intrepid (a storied Starfleet moniker, here four months before “The Immunity Syndrome” introduced it), which voiceover actor Lyle Waggoner says is “boldly trekking the vast regions of outer space in search of a higher TV rating.”

But the real stars of the sketch are guest star, comedy legend Sid Caesar as Lieutenant Commander Spook—whose hugely oversized, pointed ears give him super-sensitive hearing—and Carol Burnett as the robot of the title, who turns out to be a walking, talking bomb sent by enemies to destroy the ship. Burnett and Caesar play out a comedic take on a premise Star Trek first explored in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and would revisit many times later: the possibility or impossibility of love between a flesh-and-blood person and a robot.

When Spook asks Virginia Robot to say she loves him, she says, “I am not programmed to say that.” How can Star Trek fans help but hear echoes of the androids in “I, Mudd,” which would first air a few weeks later (November 3)? And when Virginia Robot sacrifices herself to save the Intrepid, she quotes A Tale of Two Cities , which Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan would evoke in a similar situation.

Star Trip is amusing enough, but it doesn’t approach the laugh-out-loud heights of the greatest bits on The Carol Burnett Show . As David Sheward noted in his blog The David Desk, it “reduc[es] sci-fi themes to pedestrian dating jokes.”

Twenty-four years later, on December 6, 1991, Carol Burnett starred in another Star Trek parody, during a short-lived revival of her series (first titled Carol and Company , then restored to The Carol Burnett Show ). In this sketch, the Enterprise ’s passage through the “Estrogena VII anomaly” turns all the men aboard into women, and vice versa.

The 1991 skit has higher production values than the 1967 one. It reflects Star Trek’s more prominent place in pop culture by using the actual names of the Enterprise and her crew, making the sets and costumes look more like those of the original series, and mocking some of its familiar tropes, such as Chekov’s accent and the “bridge lurch” when the ship is under attack. It also gets points for identifying the Klingon played by Richard Kind as Commander Koloth. (Now I want to see Richard Kind playing Trelane, as well!)

But on the whole, the skit’s a surprisingly sexist affair. Kirk and Spock play with each other’s breasts. Scotty talks about putting up paisley wallpaper in engineering. And Uhura (Rick Aviles) is the target of what plays, today, like a dismissal of Black women’s beauty and even humanity.

Star Trek; Deep Space Nine fans may note with interest that Andrea Martin, who would play Moogie in that series, plays Spock in this sketch. But the piece doesn’t have much else to recommend it.

Neither of Carol Burnett’s Star Trek parodies is comedy gold. But they do show Burnett recognized Star Trek was worth parodying.

And neither detracts from the decades of laughter and joy this great entertainer has given. Thanks for the memories, Carol!

Next. Paramount was once desperate to get rid of Star Trek. dark

Gender Swap Star Trek Parody on The Carol Burnett Show

The Carol Burnett Show experienced a rather brief revival back in 1991, a mere two-month stint that left me puzzled then, as it does to this day. How such a legendary show like Burnett's could be cut short in such a swift manner remains a mystery. Was sketch comedy harder to pull off, or perhaps it needed a touch more edge to it?

However, even within this limited time frame, the revival managed to gift us with some true gems – one of them being a Gender Swap Star Trek Parody. This quirky piece of comedic brilliance cast Carol herself as Captain Kirk, with the talented Andrea Martin taking on the role of Spock. Meanwhile, Richard Kind stepped into the shoes of a Klingon, who found himself in the midst of a rather unexpected encounter with the mysterious Estrogenus 7 anomaly.

While the revival may have been brief, it certainly didn't lack in creativity or memorable moments. This particular Star Trek parody, for instance, serves as a testament to the show's ability to breathe new life into well-loved classics, twisting them into hilarious and unexpected forms. Even though the revival was a blink-and-you-miss-it experience, the impact of moments like this continue to resonate with fans, leaving a legacy that extends far beyond its short-lived run.

Enjoy the genius of Carol Burnett

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Published Oct 2, 2019

Infinite Jests in Infinite Combinations: Looking Back at Star Trek Parodies

We all know about SNL and "USS Callister," but did you know about the less famous 'Trek' parodies criss-cross the quadrant as well?

StarTrek.com

Star Trek parodies are almost as old as Trek itself and in all of its many iterations, the show has made easy fodder for standups and sketch shows. Spoofs like the Saturday Night Live sketches with John Belushi as Captain Kirk and William Shatner himself insisting fans “get a life!” are part of the cultural firmament, and new takes like Black Mirror ’s “ USS Callister ” give the tropes a 21st century spin.

But the well of Trek parody goes far deeper than those better-known examples, and as you’ll see below there are obscure, awkward and just plain weird takes on the U.S.S. Enterprise stretching across the decades.

In Living Color - “The Wrath of Farrakhan”

From the 1970s to the 90s a Star Trek parody was de rigeur for a sketch show, and In Living Color is no exception. “The Wrath of Farrakhan” was one of the first sketches made for the show, and the show's adept take on race is shown with Jim Carrey’s portrayal of a hapless Captain Kirk who doesn’t know what to do with himself once he gets knocked off his captain’s chair by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. It hasn’t aged perfectly (Sulu’s sexual desperation is tin-eared in 2019, and Louis Farrakahn is a complicated figure)  but the sketch is worth it just to see Uhura go off on Kirk and Spock point out that, despite being the most qualified person on the bridge, somehow Spock is only second in command.

Duckman - “Where No Duckman Has Gone Before”

The irreverent animated seiries Duckman was great when it first aired in the early 1990s. Jason Alexander has an effortless charm as the acerbic title character, Greggory Berger is perfect as Duckman’s deadpan foil Cornfed Pig, and the show’s view of modern society as a baffling fail-train still rings true decades later. Duckman’s empty swagger works perfectly for an ersatz, fourth-wall-breaking Kirk, Cornfed is a great Spock, and the choice of Gilbert Gottfried as a loudly unhinged not-McCoy is inspired. Plus there’s Fluffy and Uranus as redshirts, Tim Curry as Khan Chicken, a Marina Sirtis voice cameo and the immortal line “of all the soles I’ve tasted, his had the most..cumin.” It even ends with a live-action Leonard Nimoy cameo! Which leads us to...

The Carol Burnett Show - Mr. Spock’s Surprise Visit

Everything leading up to the reveal of Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock serves to remind us what a gift Carol Burnett was to comedy, hamming it up with an invisible baby and selling it for every second of the sketch. It was, perhaps, one of the best sendups of the name-sharing Mr. Spock and contemporaneous baby expert Dr. Spock we've seen to this day.

Spitting Image

North America didn’t have a monopoly on Trek parodies. In the 1980s Spitting Image skewered British politicians and celebrities, including a peek into the neuroses of “Leo-Nard Neemoy,” as they call him in the clip.

Like most good ideas on UK television, there was soon a short-lived American version. The American version of Spitting Image produced a spoof called “The 1987 American Movie Awards” where an ersatz Oscars show hosted by David Frost is hijacked by Leonard Nimoy and a passel of also-ran actors indignant they weren’t included in the festivities. Despite its age, it’s still quite funny, though considerably less biting than its British predecessor. “Nimoy” also looks great sporting a Starfleet regulation smoking jacket.

The Care Bears - Various Episodes

No-one should be surprised the Care Bears spoofed Star Trek; by this point Trek was a known pop culture phenomenon and was low-hanging fruit for TV writers on every rung of the career ladder. But what is surprising is that they milked the concept in almost a dozen saccharine-filled toyetic segments without getting sued. If you can get through this playlist, you’re a better person than I, or at least have a higher pain tolerance.

SCTV - “Check Please”

It’s only a commercial for a non-existent sitcom starring Spock and McCoy running a diner called “Check Please,” but in the space of about a minute Dave Thomas delivers a credible imitation of Dr. McCoy and Harold Ramis nearly convinces audiences that Spock would make a decent waiter!

The Muppet Show - "Pigs In Space"

Ok, this is a bit of a stretch, but there’s no way Pigs In Space would exist without Star Trek . Besides, the parallels between Link Hogthrob and Kirk are obvious, as are those between McCoy and Dr. Julius Strangepork. The ship is even called the Swine Trek!

The Firm - "Star Trekkin’"

UK band The Firm released this novelty hit in 1987 and it forever became the anthem of dank Star Trek clubs shortly thereafter. In the time before the infinite choices of the internet, this tune simultaneously increased one’s nerd shame while validating dedication to all things Trek . The British public seemed to enjoy the song as it spent two weeks at the top of the charts. The creators of the song decided not to appear on Top of the Pops (a TRL -esque British show) and instead commissioned a charmingly cheap music video. The stop motion and DIY puppetry made for a potent mix paired with one of the nerdiest earworms made up to that time. Looked at from a 2019 perspective, one could call "Star Trekkin’" one of the original memes.

Warren Frey (he/him) is a journalist, video editor and Star Trek fan in Vancouver, BC. He’s also one of the co-hosts of Doctor Who: Radio Free Skaro. Find him on Twitter @freyburg.

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Saturday, march 27, 2021, reconstructing the carol burnett show: part 15: who's afraid of virginia robot, 4 comments:.

You probably found the clip I uploaded. I just happened to stumble on the episode on a channel called Z Classic on Dish TV one evening and was able to click record. I even bought a video capture device specifically just to extract that one sketch to upload. I've been a life long Trek & Carol Burnett fan, so to find this sketch I'd never seen (it originally aired about 6 weeks before I was born!) was awesome. The only bad thing is that it's my best performing video on YouTube unlike any original content I've uploaded. :)

Thanks so much for posting this rare clip. I have not been able to find it anywhere else. If you find any other rare clips from Carol Burnett, be sure to post them.

Where is the "Carol Sings Cabaret" clip located?

That episode with Sid Caesar and Liza Minnelli is at the Paley Center museum in NYC.

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Where No Parody Has Gone Before

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Butt-Head: Fire those retro rockets, shoot the fruit-on torpedoes, and like uhh, make us go that way. ( Butt-Head looks up at an imaginary Counselor Troi, standing next to him ) Uh, excuse me? I order you to undress and show me your thingies. Beavis (walking into frame): But Captain! That violates intergalactic law! ...or, or something. Hehehe... Butt-Head: Number One, I order you to take a number two. Beavis (saluting): Aye-aye, captain! Butt-Head: Uhh, hehe, this is cool . — Beavis and Butt-Head

...Actually, they have. Several times.

When writers of sitcoms, whether they are animated or live action, are creating an episode that will contain elements of Science Fiction and/or the culture that follows it, they will try to show that they are just like us by cramming in references to every known science fiction television show and movie, especially Star Trek (particularly Star Trek: The Original Series , the first and best-known part of the franchise ). When dealing with a parody of Star Trek , the elements most commonly found are:

• A Green-Skinned Space Babe , to add some sexual diversity.
• Technobabble
• The Bridge , a room controlling all the crucial aspects of the ship, with the Captain sitting in a great sofa in the middle and the other people in work stations around him.
• An obviously doomed (usually literal) Red Shirt who will always die
• A pointy-eared, emotionless, alien who warns about the situation being "illogical" .
• An extremely hammy captain who can only act on impulse and speak in long, drawn-out sentences .
• Very, Very, very bad visual effects .
• An uplifting musical intro, followed by the Captain's Log .
• A very surly, pessimistic medical officer , typically in his mid-forties or early fifties.
• A morbidly obese Scotsman with a sometimes incomprehensibly thick accent.
• A Teleporter Accident with hilarious results.
• A Proud Warrior Race with prominent brow ridges.
• A Villain Named Khan with a vendetta against the Captain.

Compare May the Farce Be with You , which is the same thing, but with Star Wars .

A subtrope of Stock Parodies .

• In the anime adapatation of I Couldn't Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job , there is a perverted old man character (a very handsy perv) that is a blatant expy of Picard. He's even bald and wears a red shirt. At the end of the anime, when the main characters set off to rescue Fino, the old man picks them up in his ride: a dragon pulling a shameless rip of the Enterprise 1701 (pre-refit). It was hilariously mis-labeled as the Enterprise-D
• The Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama " Bang-Bang-A-Boom! " is a rare parody of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with the main location being the space station Dark Space 8 .
• Bobby Pickett and Peter Fererra's Star Drek loads not only parody but also Medium Awareness : Capt. Jerk: Into the elevator, Mr. Schlock. Let's beam down to the planet's surface so I can find an alien to fall in love with before the program's over. Schlock: You usually do. Capt. Jerk: ( chuckles ) Ain't I somethin'?
• Mickey Mouse Comic Universe : Mickey Mouse italian magazine has a multiple story-arc parody of Star Trek named "Star-Top" ("topo" in the Italian word for mouse) starring characters from the Mouse universe.
• The Fandom Rivalry between Star Trek and Doctor Who came up again in the Titan crossover event Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension , in which the alternate-universe Ogron Confederation of Planets in the Fourth Doctor special have ship designs and uniforms that look suspiciously similar to the Federation in Star Trek: The Original Series , but turn out to be violent imperialists under a humanitarian mask. The Doctor describes them as "plain thuggery hiding behind rules and regulations to justify itself".
• Galaxy Quest , an Affectionate Parody of everything Trek that borders on Take That! and Deconstructive Parody .
• The Scott Baio comedy film Zapped! (1982) had a short Star Trek: The Original Series parody while the main character Barney uses his powers to make his model spaceship fly around his bedroom. Ironically, the saucer section of the model ship looks a lot like a backwards Millenium Falcon .
• The Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Blue Angel , by Paul Magrs, includes an extended parody of Star Trek: The Original Series involving the Federation starship Nepotist . It should be noted that the two franchises have a long history of Fandom Rivalry .
• Willful Child by Steven Erikson, who is better known for his sprawling fantasy epic . Turns out, he also is a life long Star Trek: The Original Series fan, and Willful Child is an affectionate parody of the same, which ticks off pretty much all the points. Towards the end, the book even parodies the "Where no one has gone before" thing by the ship approaching the border of the known universe, crossing it and thus approaching it again after it's moved, and again, and again... Until Captain Hadrian Sawback tells the navigation officer to cut it out already.
• The Star Wreck novel series by Leah Rewolinski are based around a rivalry between the two starship Endocrines, which are somehow around at the same time. Later books added space station Geek Space Nine.
• In "The Codpiece Topology" Sheldon attends a Renaissance fair as Spock exploring a planet based on Earth in the 1600s.
• Sheldon and Leonard occasionally play three-dimensional chess.
• The gang dress as the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation in "The Bakersfield Expedition". They are on their way to the Bakersfield Comic-Con when they decide to stop over at Kirk's Rock , and are stranded when their car is stolen.
• In "The Transporter Malfunction", Sheldon dreams that a Mr. Spock action figure (voiced by Leonard Nimoy) asks him to play with it. Later, Sheldon has another dream in which he and the action figure are on another planet, wherein Sheldon is attacked by a Gorn.
• Black Mirror : " U.S.S. Callister " is about Robert Daly, who made a mod of his fictional game Infinity based on the suspiciously familiar Space Fleet franchise, with him putting on a Kirk-esque persona in-game and the crew wearing blue, yellow and red uniforms. Unfortunately, Daly quickly proves himself to be no Kirk...
• El Chapulín Colorado is full of reference to kaiju and tokusatsu movies and shows, especially Ultraman , also has some sci-fi episodes with aliens, robots and astronauts.
• Community , aside from having a semi-regular parody of Doctor Who , also has a number of Star Trek shout-outs. Pierce dressed as Captain Kirk for the second Halloween Episode note  Sadly the show resisted the opportunity for an Actor Allusion by dressing him as Spock, which would have evoked Chevy Chase's role in the earlier Star Trek parody "The Last Voyage of the Enterprise " on Saturday Night Live , and Troy and Abed's Dreamatorium is basically a low-tech Holosuite. Troy is also known to be a long-standing admirer of LeVar Burton , albeit more for Reading Rainbow .
• The Doom Patrol (2019) episode " Nostalgia Patrol " has the heroes trapped inside Rita Farr's movies. One of these is a sci-fi flick and blatant Star Trek send-up titled Spartacus 452 , which Cliff funnily enough confuses with the actual Star Trek .
• In addition to the "Get a Life!" sketch the episode is well known for, the William Shatner episode of SNL also features a straight Star Trek parody ( Star Trek V: The Restaurant Enterprise ) with Shatner as Kirk, Kevin Nealon as Spock, Phil Hartman as McCoy, and Dana Carvey as Khan (who tries to get the restaurant shut down by a health inspector). Features a nice subversion of a classic Trek trope: Kirk : *indicating a choking customer* Dr. McCoy, this man needs medical attention! McCoy : Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a — oh, sure! *proceeds to administer the Heimlich*
• Patrick Stewart hosted an episode in 1994 that featured a sketch called "Love Boat: The Next Generation" (not to be confused with the show that was actually called that on UPN about five years later). Stewart reprised the role of Picard/Captain Stubing, and featured Chris Farley as Riker, Tim Meadows as Geordi/Isaac, Rob Schneider as Data and Julia Sweeney as Troi. The "Princessprise" was literally the Love Boat mounted on the leading edge of the saucer section. The "A" plot involved a Ferengi who had been dumped by Charo trying to win her back on Valentine's Day (which he does with a well timed red alert). The "B" plot was Data trying to understand the emotion of love (he later presents Picard with a chocolate-covered human heart in an attempt to do Valentine's Day properly)
• In Living Color! had a Star Trek parody sketch called "The Wrath of Farrakhan", with Jim Carrey as Kirk and David Alan Grier as Spock.
• The first "mini-myths" episode of MythBusters featured a myth from the Original Series episode "Arena", where Kirk improvised a cannon from raw materials found around the area. There were several points where they parodied elements of the series, generally at Tory 's expense—Tory's communicator never got reception , and Tory also got "teleported" without some of his clothes at one point. Tory: Gosh dang it! That's the third time this week! Grant: He needs to get a new service provider.
• The "Pigs in Space" segments on The Muppet Show are mainly generic Space Opera parodies, but elements of Star Trek are present, including the name of the spaceship (Swinetrek) and the theme music. The Muppets Tonight update, "Deep Dish Nine, The Next Generation of Pigs In Space" is more overt in referencing Star Trek .
• The character of ship's android Kryten is played, very deliberately, as a parody of Data in "Next Generation". This was so marked that Patrick Stewart himself, on a visit home to Britain and tuning into what he thought from the newspaper TV listings was a straight space-based sci-fi, honestly thought he was watching a cheap knock-off of his own TV show. Until he realised the truth and started laughing at the gags.
• Similarly, Sesame Street had "Spaceship Surprise", in which a spacefaring crew crash land on a series of planets themed around multi-consonant sounds ("sh", "ch", and "tr"). It got a very brief revival in the form of a single "Spaceship Surprise: The Next Generation" sketch where a new crew (modeled after Picard, Worf, Data, and Crusher) lands on Planet H. Perhaps in keeping with the source material's tendency towards cheap special effects, the spaceship is an obviously-flat cutout (as is the train they encounter on Planet "TR"), something that would normally be beneath the show's standards.
• Bonus points for the casting of George Takei in the segment as London's great-great-great, etc., grandson.
• The Wonder Years had a parody of the original series (specifically riffing on the episode "Spock's Brain") where Kevin and three other boys dressed as Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty deal with girls that manipulate them with their wrist controls, as the narrator's way of explaining that he didn't understand girls.
• CSI had an episode ("A Space Oddity") where the Body of the Week belonged to a director who tried to create a Darker and Edgier reboot (think of the 2000s version of Battlestar Galactica ) of a science-fiction TV series from the 60s called Astro Quest .
• Stargate SG-1 : In the episode "200", numerous other shows (mainly sci-fi) are spoofed when the SGC hires someone to produce the Show Within a Show "Wormhole X-Treme !" to maintain plausible deniability for the Stargate Program. One of the pitches he makes is for a blatant Star Trek rip-off (featuring the main actors in an Imagine Spot ) that his audience complains is mostly Techno Babble .
• Doctor Who has two Star Trek parodies in series 6. " A Christmas Carol " features the spaceship Thrasymachus with a Starfleet-style bridge, complete with a black man wearing robotic eyewear. " Let's Kill Hitler " features another Starfleet-style bridge in the Teselecta .
• Subverted by The Orville . It was originally marketed as a straightforward spoof of the Star Trek -style of Space Opera , but while there's some humor here and there, it's more of a Dramedy homage. It channels Star Trek: The Next Generation with Isaac being Data (a robot), Bortus and Alara Kitan being Worf (strong aliens with strict cultures), John LaMarr being Geordi La Forge (a black man promoted to chief engineer), and Claire Finn being Beverly Crusher (the ship's doctor and a single mother). Additionally, the Environmental Simulator is the Holodeck in everything but name.
• One case on Night Court is between two groups of Trekkies. It ends with one group beaming out of the courtroom.
• The Imaginatively Titled Punt and Dennis Show ended every episode with a skit parodying a nineties TV show. One was Star Trek: The Next Generation , with the main joke being that all the planets looked like the same area of parkland .
• MAD continued doing parodies of all 6 original cast movies, the Star Trek musical, and sequel series.
• Cracked also did a parody of Star Trek: Generations .
• The Firm's novelty song "Star Trekkin", which reached number one in the British singles chart.
• Nanowar of Steel : The lead-in track to their song "Uranus" is a spoof of Star Trek 's opening narration titled "Bum Voyage", which opens with the lines "Space... between the cheeks" and pretty much goes downhill from there .
• The BBC sketch comedy show Star Terk (sic) would, as its name suggests, open each week with a sketch parodying Star Trek .
• Space Quest usually throws a handful of Star Trek jokes into a game, but Space Quest Five sent up nearly every Trope in the classic show's playbook.
• To Boldly Flee involves many reviewers from Channel Awesome traveling aboard the USS Exit Strategy and takes plot elements from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock .
• FreedomToons : After Donald Trump announced the establishment of a space force as an official new branch of the U.S. military, there's "Trump Trek", parodying the original Star Trek , with Trump himself as Kirk, Mike Pence as Spock, Kim Jong-Un as Sulu, and SJWs as the Klingons.
• Adventures in Odyssey In Star Quest , the eponymous Show Within a Show is clearly a riff on Star Trek: The Original Series . It concerns a captain surnamed Quirk, who travels through space in the starship Synergize with a stoic scientist and a Scottish engineer. The show even copies Classic Trek's low-budget special effects.
• Another example comes from the episode " Where No Fan Has Gone Before ". In that episode, the fanbase for Star Trek had grown into a full-blown religion, getting to the point where Germany recreated the planet of the Nazis. In the end, all the episodes and movies, along with all mention of the phrase "Star Trek", were banned to a distant planet.
• Recurring character Captain Zapp Brannigan has been described by David X Cohen as "half Captain Kirk, half actual William Shatner ." The character makes several references to Captain Kirk , including a Captain's Log (just him dictating his experiences to his second in command Kif).
• In the episode "Road To Rupert" Stewie's teddy bear is accidentally sold at a yard sale, prompting him and Brian to go retrieve it. At one point Stewie thinks that his bear is dead and imagines his funeral being similar to that of Spock's at the end of The Wrath of Khan , complete with Stewie and Brian playing " Amazing Freaking Grace " on the bagpipes.
• Animaniacs has an episode parodying Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan .
• The Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Duck Trek" features Plucky as Captain Kirk and Furrball (in his only speaking role ) as Dr. McCoy.
• Littlest Pet Shop (1995) and Littlest Pet Shop (2012) have both done Trek parodies.
• One episode of The Chipmunks at the Movies parodied the Star Trek movies.
• The VeggieTales short "The Gourds Must Be Crazy", which introduces Jimmy and Jerry the Gourd twins, and Scooter the Scottish carrot.
• The Garfield and Friends episode " Swine Trek ".
• This trope is abused to hell and back in The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange , particularly whenever the main cast travels between planets. Their uniforms have a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of Star Trek: The Next Generation 's Starfleet insignia on their uniforms, which also share the same color scheme. Squash inexplicably gains a hairstyle that makes him look like Spock. And, to top it all off, they travel in a spaceship that is basically a souped-up U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701 model).
• Eek! The Cat episode "Star TrEek," complete with a Green-Skinned Space Babe and Red Shirt bashing.
• In Codename: Kids Next Door , Numbah Two's little brother Tommy is stuck in a giant bathtub in "Operation: D.U.C.K.Y." There he then finds himself with the crew of a ship that are expies of characters from Star Trek: The Original Series . The episode "Operation: S.A.T.U.R.N." is a blatant parody/interpretation of The Motion Picture. (A couple of other episodes have Sector V using a spaceship called the S.T.A.R.W.R.E.C.K., while made out of their standard 2X4 tech, heavily resembles the Enterprise.)
• In the Trapped in TV Land episode of Kim Possible , the main heroine finds herself in a show like Star Trek. She even lampshades how she in a red shirt.
• The episode "Star Check Unconventional" of Dexter's Laboratory , which focuses on Dexter and his group of friends attending a convention of the universe's Show Within a Show parody, "Star Check". It even opens with a one-and-a-half-minute fantasy sequence of the titular character and his friends in full expy roles of the characters from the original series.
• ReBoot often had many references to Star Trek , but the episode "Where No Sprite Has Gone Before" really took the cake. Written by original Star Trek writer D.C. Fontana and mixing in superheroes, several characters were patterned after original series characters: Rob Cursor for Kirk, Pixel for Spock, Gigagirl for McCoy, and Booty for Scotty. Also featured several lines and allusions to other Trek lore, such as "AndrAIa's log" or " the next generation ."
• Duckman 's penultimate episode was "Where No Duckman Has Gone Before." Main characters made up the Enterprise crew (except for Mambo, who Duckman calls "Sulu"), as they faced off against Khan Chicken. References were made to everything from Red Shirts to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . James Doohan and Marina Sirtis also did voice work for the episode, and Leonard Nimoy appeared As Himself in a live-action segment.
• The Simpsons had a parody of the Star Trek movies in the form of Star Trek XII: So Very Tired , which features the original cast as elderly men and women.
• Space Heroes , a recurring Show Within a Show on the 2012 version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , is a parody of Star Trek: The Animated Series .
• The Johnny Bravo episode "Galaxy Boy" includes a parody of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Savage Curtain" that involves Johnny being mistaken for the Enterprise Crew expies' Captain Kirk counterpart and having to combat an alien warworld who looks and sounds like Carl (and is implied to be Carl's ancestor). As well as Bridge Bunnies for Johnny to drool over.
• The DuckTales (1987) episode " Where No Duck Has Gone Before " features the boys and Launchpad being launched into space with an actor who plays The Captain on a show that is a thinly disguised parody of Star Trek: The Original Series .
• The episode "Ain't NASA-Sarily So" of The Real Ghostbusters has lots of references to Star Trek, including the obvious association between Egon and Spock and the fact that they both share the same Catchphrase .
• Care Bears (1980s) had Star Trek parody episodes with the bears aboard a spaceship called the "S.S Friendship".
• Beavis And Butthead spoof Star Trek pretty much directly with Butthead in the Kirk role: Butthead: Number One, go do a number two!
• The Owl House has Cosmic Frontier , a Zeerust book series written in the 1990s that Luz's parents were both fans of ( though her mother tries to hide it in the present day ). It's also a rare example of a Deep Space Nine parody, with a brief snippet of the theme playing and characters called Captain Avery and Chief Engineer O'Bailey.
• The Magic School Bus : In the episode " Out of This World ," the bus turns into the Enterprise , Ms. Frizzle has a "teacher's ledger" (parody of the captain's log), and Liz is dressed like Mr. Spock. There's some Star Wars mixed in as well, with Ms. Frizzle sporting Princess Leia's hairstyle.
• Seven Little Monsters : The episode "Doctor, Doctor" begins with the seven monsters imagining that they're in a Star Trek pastiche, with One playing the part of Captain James T. Kirk in addition to Three and Four respectively channeling Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy and Montgomery "Scotty" Scott.

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Monsters in outer space.

"Doctor, Doctor" begins with the seven monsters imagining that they're in a send-up to Star Trek. Their spaceship bears some resemblance to the Enterprise, One plays the part of Captain James T. Kirk and it is blatant that Three and Four are imitating Dr. McCoy and Scotty.

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Sid Caesar and Liza Minelli

• Episode aired Sep 18, 1967

Highlights include: a "V.I.P." interview sketch satirizing Luci Baines Johnson; Carol and Vicki do a "Sleeping Beauty" skit; guest Sid Caesar as a father awaiting the birth of his child; Car... Read all Highlights include: a "V.I.P." interview sketch satirizing Luci Baines Johnson; Carol and Vicki do a "Sleeping Beauty" skit; guest Sid Caesar as a father awaiting the birth of his child; Carol and Lyle do a "How Tall Is Your Announcer" segment; a parody of "Star Trek"; guest Liza... Read all Highlights include: a "V.I.P." interview sketch satirizing Luci Baines Johnson; Carol and Vicki do a "Sleeping Beauty" skit; guest Sid Caesar as a father awaiting the birth of his child; Carol and Lyle do a "How Tall Is Your Announcer" segment; a parody of "Star Trek"; guest Liza Minnelli performs "The Debutante's Ball", and duets with Carol on a medley of songs inclu... Read all

• Clark Jones
• Arnie Rosen
• Mike Marmer
• Carol Burnett
• Harvey Korman
• Vicki Lawrence
• 2 User reviews
• 1 Critic review

• Self - Host …

• Various Characters

• Various Characters …

• Self - Guest
• (uncredited)

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia Modern-day viewers are surprised to see that it's Carol Burnett, and not guest star Liza Minnelli, who performs the song "Cabaret." At the time this episode was filmed, "Cabaret" was a hit tune from the Broadway musical of the same name. Liza Minnelli had been in the running for the part of Sally Bowles on stage, but she lost out to Jill Haworth, largely because she could not muster a British accent. It would be another five years before Minnelli would have the opportunity to put her stamp on the role in Bob Fosse's 1972 film version, which portrayed Bowles as an American.
• Connections Spoofs Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
• Soundtracks The Debutante's Ball Written by Randy Newman Performed by Liza Minnelli

User reviews 2

• Jul 13, 2022
• September 18, 1967 (United States)
• Studio 33, CBS Television City - 7800 Beverly Boulevard, Fairfax, Los Angeles, California, USA
• Bob Banner Associates
• CBS Television Network
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

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• Runtime 1 hour

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Star Trek Parody on The Carol Burnett Show (1991)

• December 27, 2012

In the fourth version of the The Carol Burnett Show , which aired only in 1991, Burnett and a nearly all-female cast (including Andrea Martin ) star in this Star Trek parody skit .

via Geek Culture , Miss Cellania

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The 10 Best Movie Spoofs from ‘The Carol Burnett Show’

5 – 1.

She got her start as the “funny dame” on the old Gary Moore variety show. She had major success on Broadway in Once Upon a Mattress . Befriended by Julie Andrews and Lucille Ball, she rose rapidly, soon seeing herself cast in sitcoms and touring the talk show circuit. But it wasn’t until 1967 that Carol Burnett became a true household name. Surrounding herself with a cast that included Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Lyle Waggoner, and Vicki Lawrence, the groundbreaking sketch comedy show lasted 11 years on CBS, garnering 23 Emmy Awards and a permanent place in the memory banks of millions of devoted fans. Few can forget her perky personality, the moments of misguided “laughter,” or characters such as Mrs. Wiggins, Eunice and the rest of her firebrand family, or the kind hearted cleaning lady. Today, she is a comic legend. Then, she was major league must-see TV.

With Time Life offering a new mammoth 22-disc, 50-episode collection handpicked by Burnett herself, perhaps it’s time to go back and pick the best moments from this memorable broadcast bonanza. Of course, in order to do that, we have to narrow the scope quite a bit — and what better way to do that than via the format we love to celebrate: film. Indeed, the Carol Burnett Show excelled at taking on the standard Tinseltown titles and turning them into memorable spoofs and lampoons. Along with Mel Brooks, and the amiable Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker group, no other entity did such a great job with such a tricky subject. While there are dozens of other entries to consider, here are the choices we’ve made. Looking over this collection of the 10 Best Movie Spoofs from The Carol Burnett Show , it’s clear while the star has had such a long career. She’s the First Lady of Laughter.

10. Born Free

For those of us growing up in the ’70s, the seminal animal movie was a sacred cow — or better yet, lion. So what better way to take down this otherwise well meaning nature drama than having co-star Tim Conway dress as a big cat and calmly debunk the ‘veddy British’ demeanor of Carol and Harvey Korman. Sure, it’s a slight spoof, failing to deal with many of the issues the feature film brought to the fore. Still, as an example of how this series would settle in and deal with a cultural talking point, the results are hilarious.

9. Babes in Barns

During the Depression, one of the most commercial cinematic genres was the musical. Borrowing heavily from the Tin Pan Alley idea of classic songs and constantly referencing the “grass roots, can do” spirit of the era’s struggles, it’s the genesis of the now motion picture cliché “Hey kids… let’s grab a bunch of costumes and put on a show!” In this skit, the references are obvious. We get a little Mickey Rooney. We get some Judy Garland. And thanks to the talent of the overall creative company, we get a lot of entertainment enjoyment.

8. Torchy Song

No one did Joan Crawford better than Carol Burnett. She may not have looked exactly like the infamous Golden Era diva, but she had her on screen mannerisms and demeanor down pat. Take this classic example of the early ’50s tearjerker. Burnett is a demanding Broadway star who rebuffs the advances of her accompanist. When he is struck blind, true love prevails, kind of. While not necessarily overloaded with laughs, the singing and dancing are enough to warrant inclusion here.

7. A Swiped Life

Along with Crawford, Burnett also excelled at another legendary larger than life lady of the silver screen, Betty Davis. Again, it wasn’t so much an impersonation as an interesting impression. The story here centers on a pair of twins who fall for the same man. When one of them dies, the other assumes her place. Based on a novel by Karel J. Benes, there’s a surreal level of mindboggling melodramatic intrigue in the narrative, something that the show can’t help but exaggerate. Yet another amazing example of the series exploring obscure targets, and coming up a winner.

6. Rancid Harvest

While he may no longer be a household name, there was a time when James Hilton was the John Grisham of publishing. Throughout the ’30s and ’40s, novels like Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips catapulted to the very top of the charts. The same thing happened with this, a book built around the present day problem (at the time) of shell shocked veterans. Again, this was perfect fodder for Burnett and the gang, our leading lady essaying the role made famous by Greer Garson and she tries, desperately, to help Harvey Korman regain his memory. Truly inspired.

5. Disaster ’75

Want to see Airplane! before Airplane! Then check out this hilarious spoof of the entire Irwin Allen-oriented disaster genre. In fact, it’s so close to the ZAZ offering that it’s amazing lawyers never got involved. Look closely and you’ll see Burnett channeling Karen Black (ala Airport ’75 ) and the Dick Van Dyke Show ‘s Carl Reiner as a pudgy (and balding) Charlton Heston substitute. Many of the same beats are there, and so are the laughs. This remains one of the series best, an easy target, but taken down with style and significant wit.

4. Riverboat

The 1927 musical Showboat was significant in many ways. It introduced serious subject matter (racism and miscegenation) to the song and dance stage, as well as moving the genre away from the variety type show to focus on a more fully realized, inclusion concept. Of course, Burnett and friends have no desire to concentrate on controversy. Instead, they use the storyline to bring their own sensational take on the subjects to the fore. Even better are the song parodies, including “Can’t Help Loving that Bum of Mine” and “Old Mister Sippi”. One of the series’ very best.

3. The Little Foxies

We’re back to Bette Davis again, and one of the Burnett Show ‘s most amazing spoofs. Using the Lillian Hellman play and eventual movie as a backdrop, the gang goes familial infighting gonzo as they try to swindle and finagle as much moolah as they can out of their rich relative (played perfectly by guest star Roddy McDowall). It was a perfect set up for what would eventually become a running theme of relative-oriented anger and hatred. As a matter of fact, The Family can find some of its roots in this riotous bit of buffoonery.

2. Mildred Fierce

Along with our obvious number one choice, this remains one of the most beloved lampoons from the entire series run. Burnett is brilliant in the role that made Crawford an Oscar winner (and, later, Kate Winslet an Emmy honoree), with every costume and make-up detail flawlessly recreated. Even better is co-star Vicki Lawrence, who gets a real chance to shine as the daughter destined to cause chaos within her marginal mother/child relationship. Almost all of the jokes work, even if you’ve never seen the original film or read the famous novel. Fierce is truly the word for this hilarious skit.

1. Went With the Wind

This is the one everyone remembers. This is the one referenced when “Greatest Comedy Skits” and “Longest Extended Laugh” lists are compiled. For the most part, this spoof of Gone with the Wind is dead on. Korman is classic with this Clark Gable smirk and Lawrence livens things up as a very non-Mammy servant. But it’s Burnett as the never say die Scarlett O’Hara who truly brings the laughs home. Her line about her ‘designer’ dress stands as one of the seminal moments in television comedy. It’s a perfectly executed example of what made The Carol Burnett Show so special.

• The Carol Burnett Show - Wikipedia
• The Carol Burnett Show (TV Series 1967–1978) - IMDb
• The Carol Burnett Show Official - YouTube

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Carol Burnett credits luck and kindness for career spanning decades: ‘I got a little angel here somewhere'

Carol Burnett has enjoyed a seven-decade career in show business, breaking barriers for women in comedy and staying active as ever at 90 years of age.

She stars on "Palm Royale" on AppleTV+ alongside Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney and Laura Dern.

Despite her talent, her legendary career may not have happened without a few lucky breaks she gratefully acknowledges.

In a recent interview on "WTF with Marc Maron," while recounting her many serendipitous circumstances, Burnett said, "I got a little angel here somewhere."

CLINT EASTWOOD, CAROL BURNETT, DICK VAN DYKE: LIVING LEGENDS STILL RULING HOLLYWOOD IN THEIR 90S

Her lucky streak began when Burnett was about to graduate high school and desperately wanted to attend UCLA but could not afford the tuition.

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She recalled on "WTF" that it cost $43 a term in 1951. Her family’s rent was $30 a month at the time, an amount they could barely afford.

She was determined to attend and said on "The Howard Stern Show" in 2015, "I knew I was going to go. It wasn’t like I wished for it or was hoping for it. I saw myself on campus. And I didn’t know how I was going to get there, but I knew it was going to happen."

Then, by chance, an envelope addressed to her with $50 appeared in her mailbox. She noted on "WTF" it had been typed, so there was no handwriting to analyze, and although it had a stamp, it hadn’t actually been mailed. It was placed in the mailbox.

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"To this day, I don’t know where that came from. Because we didn’t have that kind of money," Burnett said, adding "everybody was poor" in her building, so it was unlikely to have been a generous neighbor.

At UCLA, Burnett intended to pursue journalism like her mother, but there was no specific major for the field, so she enrolled as a theater arts/English major.

She was required to take an acting class, and that’s where she got her first taste of laughter.

"I wasn’t really ready to do the acting thing, but I had no choice. The first show I was ever in was a student-written one-act script, and I played a hillbilly girl," Burnett told the Toronto Star in 2009.

CAROL BURNETT JOKES THAT BRADLEY COOPER WOULD BE THE BEST 91ST BIRTHDAY PRESENT

"Don’t ask me why, but when we were in front of the audience, I suddenly decided I was going to stretch out all my words and my first line came out, `I’m baaaaaaaack!’

"They laughed," she continued. "They laughed and it felt great. All of a sudden, after so much coldness and emptiness in my life, I knew the sensation of all that warmth wrapping around me. I had always been a quiet, shy, sad sort of girl, and then everything changed for me. You spend the rest of your life hoping you’ll hear a laugh that great again."

Burnett’s next opportunity came from a generous benefactor.

After performing at a party in San Diego alongside some fellow students, Burnett and her boyfriend were approached by a man and his wife who, after learning they wanted to move to New York after graduation, offered them each a $1000 loan.

The loan was interest-free, and the man requested that she pay it back in five years if she could, never reveal his name and someday show the same generosity should she become successful.

"His wife told me he had also helped somebody start a restaurant and another person run a gas station. He liked the people he picked and felt that they had a chance and were sincere, so he sponsored them," Burnett told People. "Somebody had helped him get his start in this country. So he was paying it forward."

On "WTF," Burnett noted she paid him back, and true to her word, she’s never revealed his name.

"Weird things happen like that," she added of these generous breaks.

CAROL BURNETT RECALLS MEETING 'SWEET' ELVIS PRESLEY AFTER HER 'AWFUL' PERFORMANCE ON 'THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW'

Once in New York, Burnett landed her breakout Broadway role in "Once Upon a Mattress" through pure talent, but the timing did prove to be somewhat magical.

At the time, Burnett thought she had secured a role in a show but was turned down because she wasn’t a big enough star. Her younger sister, Chrissie, was living with her at the time and told her, "You know the cliché, one door closes another one opens."

According to Burnett, the phone rang "that instant" with a call from the producers of "Once Upon a Mattress," asking her to audition for George Abbott, a director she had long wanted to work with. She auditioned and arrived home to another phone call telling her she got the part.

Burnett was nominated for a Tony award for her work on the show, and it launched her to superstardom.

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It’s also how she met lifelong friend Julie Andrews, who she described as a "long-lost sister" on "WTF."

They appeared together in the televised special "Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall" in 1962, earning an Emmy for outstanding program achievement in the field of music and an Emmy for Burnett for her performance.

Last year, Burnett celebrated her 90th birthday with a two-hour special and a host of celebrity friends, including Andrews.

"One thing I have always said is that she’s very bawdy in a good sense of the word," Burnett told Fox News Digital at the time. "And very funny. She gave me class when I worked with her. And she said I allowed her to be silly. It was wonderful to have her there. She sat with me the whole evening. She flew out just for this. It was so sweet. I was just so touched."

CAROL BURNETT ACCEPTS FIRST-EVER CAROL BURNETT AWARD AT GOLDEN GLOBES 2019

Burnett also made another life-long connection with fellow comedian Lucille Ball, who recognized her talent and offered support and mentorship.

"She never tried to give me any advice," Burnett told Fox News Digital in 2019. "She was not one to give any kind of advice. She just supported me. And we had fun working together. Having fun was so important to us."

Burnett and Ball appeared on a special together and remained friendly until Ball’s death in 1989.

On "WTF," Burnett said, "She sent me flowers on my birthday every year," with a card that said, "Happy Birthday, kid."

The day Ball died happened to be Burnett’s 56th birthday, and Burnett remembered turning on the news that day and learning Ball had died. 

"And I got her flowers that afternoon," she said fondly.

The chance circumstances that helped Burnett along the way are more than outmatched by her work ethic. She headlined her own comedy variety show, "The Carol Burnett Show," for 11 years, bringing in 25 Emmys, as well as Golden Globes and a Grammy for her other work.

She’s also starred in films like "Annie" and made numerous television appearances, most recently in "Better Call Saul" and "Palm Royale," as part of a still thriving acting career.

"I always approach it as something new that I've never done before, so I'm just happy to be working and that I've got all my parts," she told Extra at the premiere of "Palm Royale." "I have my hips and my knees — and I think my brain. So, as long as I can keep that up and work, then I want to work."

Burnett will turn 91 April 26 and told the outlet the best gift would be a second season for "Palm Royale."

"That'll keep me working, which I like. Yes, as long as I have fun, and that's what I want."

Original article source: Carol Burnett credits luck and kindness for career spanning decades: ‘I got a little angel here somewhere'