Going Ditzy
Burnett played several elderly characters so when Mrs. Wiggins was initially proposed she too was going to be old. Bob Mackie suggested she mix things up and so Burnett decided to play Mrs. Wiggins as a ditzy blonde. She had plenty of reference material as Burnett confessed she was based on several CBS secretaries.
Going Ditzy
Going Against The Writers
When ‘The Family’ sketch was first cooked up, the writers wanted the characters to speak with a midwestern accent. Burnett could only hear her own family’s Texan accent so did the voice like that, which Vicki Lawrence copied. The writers were unsure, but the sketch became one of the show’s best-known.
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Going Against The Writers
