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Writer Gail Parent on Writing Tim Conway's Dentist Sketch on "The Carol Burnett Show"
Gail Parent was the only female writer for a variety show when she joined the staff of The Carol Burnett Show in 1967. She was the originator for so many funny bits on that series and was the author of perhaps the funniest comedy sketch in TV history, The Dentist. It featured Harvey Korman as a hapless patient to Tim Conway's first day as a dentist.
How did that sketch come about?
Parent was interviewed by the Archive for American Television and had this to say: "Tim, at the beginning, was a guest star. And then he was asked to bring in his own material. Bring in 6 sketches... and he hired Kenny [Solms] and me to write 6 sketches for him, knowing we were on the show and that we would probably know what would be good for him and what to do. And one of those sketches was The Dentist sketch. And it kills me because every single time it's mentioned, it's mentioned that Tim wrote it. And it just kills me because he added to it, so it's like really a 50-50, maybe 60 (motioning to herself)-40 type of proposition."
Watch the sketch for yourself:
"[Tim] did improvise," Parent says. "He was the only cast member who did. And he did it to make Harvey laugh, or Carol at times, mainly Harvey." Later, Gail Parent co-created Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and wrote for the classic comedy series The Golden Girls.
See the entire interview segment on the creation of The Dentist:
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WIKI: Gail Parent's writing career began in the 1960s where she teamed up with writer Kenny Solms. Her big break came when she began writing for The Carol Burnett Show. She later went on to write for other TV shows including a 1971 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Parent co-wrote the book for the 1974 musical Lorelei. It is her sole Broadway credit.
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