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Her relatively brief resume as a series regular is perhaps the result of her early Hollywood success.
I started in the Emerald City, Lawrence laughs.
My whole young experience was just so special.
But the second half of Lawrences career was different.
And once again, audiences seem ready to embrace her.
This is the first regular series role youve had in some time.
How did it come together?I havent done this on a regular basis since the 80s.
SinceMamas Familywent off the air, really.I know.
And the traffic has gotten so much worse in L.A., it may kill me.
So how did this happen?
Well, they were casting this right when we were doing the 50th anniversary of theBurnettreunion.
I could not be bothered.
My agent kept calling me saying, But this is perfect for you!
And I went, Its cute, but really, Im so tired of going to auditions.
So you didnt have to go out on a ton of auditions, Id imagine?I never have.
It was an accident I ended up onThe Carol Burnett Show.
So, I really havent had to do a lot of auditioning.
Because they expect Mama to walk in the room.
I just wasnt a big fan.
Very frankly, I was sitting around waiting for somebody to say, We really want Vicki.
Can we get her?
You were onGreat Newsbefore it was canceled.
Did you have to go out for that?They came to me withGreat News.
Tina Fey said, Can we hey get Vicki Lawrence?
And Im like, Shit, Im not saying no to Tina Fey.
He just kept calling and calling.
Im thinking, Ill get my son to drive with me, so we can carpool.
Ill miss the traffic going and Ill miss the traffic coming.
It does surprise me that you and some of your co-stars actually had to audition forCool Kids.
Youre all comedy legends!As I said, all the casting people are young now.
Theyre in their 30s and 40s.
Is she still funny?
Has she lost her shit?
You know, they dont know.
How was the audition once you got there?The casting gal, her name is Wendy OBrien.
I said, Dear God, how the hell do I know how that happened?
How nice this is, that there arent the old guys in the suits anymore.
Theyre just young and adorable.
You mentioned the old guys in the suits being gone.
Has it been a better experience?Our whole staff is that younger generation, which is so refreshing.
Its a great energy.
Gone are the old suits.
All the suits are gone.
We each had a blast doing the pilot.
Ive done a few pilots, and theyre usually not a blast.
Its just going to be crazy, silly fun.
Were not embracing any old shit.
Were not gonna take an hour and a half to do something on the computer.
Were not gonna talk about our aches and pains, I dont think.
Unless its a really funny drug episode, which I can totally see happening.
How would describe your character in a couple sentences?Shes feisty.
I think shed probably scare the crap out of Mama.
Shes a bit of a wild child.
Shes just speaks her mind.
Shes a bit raunchy.
Thats whyMamas Familydid not succeed on NBC, because those executives didnt understand a rural comedy, number one.
They did not understand a young woman playing an older woman, number two.
They just never really gave her a chance until we went into syndication.
As for shows [with older casts], I think everything has to come together perfectly.
The cast has to come together.
The idea has to come together.
But I do think the older generation is finally being embraced.
I havent seen that one.
Thereve been some wonderful movies about older people.
Theyre being embraced a little more, certainly in film.
Were the ones with the disposable income!
Ive asked many times, Why, why, why not?
And they say, Well, older people are set in their ways.
They tend not to try new things.
Im like, I try new shit all the time.
I dont get it.
Im the one buying things.
The 25-year-old whos got more college debt than they know what to do with is not.
Theyre using whatever I buy.
We had that whole meeting with all those people.
Im like, Youre from what, now?
What in the hell is Roku?
Dont forget to check us out on iTunes.
Dont forget to check us out on Roku.
Dont forget to … At the end of the meeting, I said, Ive got a question.
How in the hell do you do the ratings anymore?
They said, Oh, its very complicated and very different.
Television is not like television was at all, anymore.
Because God knows, they love to laugh at their grandparents.
I went by them, and they were screaming and yelling and stomping their feet.
So I backed up and I went, Really?
And they were, like, Shit, we would not have gotten through without Mama.
You were really hot back in the day.
Im like, Yeah!
Why isnt there talk about aMamas Familyreboot?
Youre busy now, but if someone were to suggest it, would you be down?
Reboots are all the rage and I think thered be an audience for it.Yeah, maybe there would be.
It would have to change gears a tiny bit.
And the rights toMamaare so convoluted, it would not be fun figuring it all out.
I actually have to pay to use her on the road.
Is she Carol Burnetts creation?Not really.
If it was Carols, it would be easy because Carol and I love each other.
Its a really big mess.
And I just dont see that ever sorting itself out.
Sadly, I just dont see that ever happening.
l wanted to talk about some other aspects of your showbiz career.
You were, very briefly, a pop star.
You had a big hit withThe Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.
And it all happened while you were starring inThe Carol Burnett Show.
It mustve been a cool time in your career.At the time, it was not that cool.
And he hated the song.
I kept telling him, This is a smash.
Why not [record it]?
He said, Because I hate it, and he left.
Everybody wanted to talk to me and he was getting no credit.
I had to go finish the album with a gun to my head.
It was like, You have to do this, or Im gonna sue you.
That was not fun.
Its a very bittersweet chapter of my life.
If you were doing a love story, they always did the kissing scene first.
Youre like, Really?
Could I just get to know this guy for five minutes before we do this?
But always, always, the kissing scene was first.
And you were intimidated by all the darling girls in the bikinis at the pool scene.
Just intimidated the shit out of me.
Other than that, it was pretty fun.
What do you remember fromSupertrain, or have you blocked it from your memory?Jesus, Joe.
I do rememberSupertrainbecause we were [living] in Hawaii.
They asked me to do this little part.
I said, No, Im in Hawaii.
I dont want to do it.
They called back, and Well throw in a color TV.
I said, No, what dont you understand?
Now they start upping the salary, and its the TV and its all kinds of shit.
I finally go, All right, fine.
I had such a small part.
I remember having to go out on the set and model clothes for that director.
I was so mortified because it was in front of Don Meredith.
He was doingMonday Night Footballat the time and I was such a big fan.
We have to talk about your game-show days, too.
You were a regular onThe $25,000 Pyramidwith Dick Clark and various versions ofPassword.
And you didHollywood Squaresa lot.I just loved games.
You loved playing?If its a game, I will play it.
When theBurnett Showfirst started, there was a game show on the air calledStump the Stars.
Carol said, Were gonna go do it.
And I said, Yay, Im in.
And Harveys like, Okay, whatever.
Were like, Goddammit Harvey, we want to win.
He just looked at us and threw his hands up.
Youre also one of the few women whos hosted an American game show.
You did the NBC version ofWin, Lose, or Draw.
Lets go the opposite way, and lets get a woman to do web connection version.
So thats how I got that job!
Convy produced the show with his friend Burt Reynolds.
Did you work with Burt a lot?Oh yeah, I met with him a bunch.
And I remember playing it wasnt called Win, Lose, or Draw then, it was just charades.
And Im like, Oh my God, I cant draw shit.
He said, No, were going to.
And Trini Lopez is coming over.
I cant remember who Trini was dating at the time, but Burt was dating Sally Field.
And we all played Win, Lose, or Draw.
It was a crazy, fun night.
Any other fond memories of Mr. Reynolds?He was just so sweet.
He was just like, You take care of this lady.
He was just a very nice person to have in your corner.
Bert Convy would come in and give a shot to be logical.
Burt Reynolds would come in and just beat the crap out of someone.
The hardest part of the whole thing was the wardrobe.
The stylist they hired decided that it should be suits every day.
Meanwhile, youve got Richard Simmons sitting on the couch in his dolphin shorts.
And Im like, But Im not a man!
It just became all about this goddamned suit.
That kind of stuff is really hysterical in TV.
This was not Charlie.
This was somebody else on the way out of the audition.
I said, You know what?
Story of my life.
People have been doing it to me for years, so whatever you guys like.
So you look like you, okay?
I very much appreciated that.
You had your own daytime talk show in the 90s.
I remember covering some of the drama behind the scenes.
Was it not a good experience?It was not.
We just had somebody at theCool Kidstaping last week who was on the crew for the talk show.
We talked about what a difficult time it was, and how it could not happen now.
What happened?I worked for a man who said, TV is stressful.
I said, You dont know what the fuck youre talking about.
He said, You know absolutely nothing about daytime.
Im like, Daytime, nighttime.
Its still show business.
We disagree from the very get-go as to how that show should run.
He thought it should be chaotic, and confused, and we should be pitted against each other.
It was incredibly difficult.
Who was he?I will not mention names.
But I totally understand the whole #MeToo movement.
That [Designing Womencreator]Linda Bloodworth-Thomason wrote about Les Moonves.
It isnt always sexual, not at all.
It can just be very abusive.
It can be about power.Yeah.
In spite of all this stress behind the scenes, the show was really getting popular.
Im like, Cant we just hold hands and enjoy the fact that were going to have a hit?
Youve got to fix this for me.
It just really never occurred to me that their solution would be to fire me.
It never occurred to me that somebody wouldnt listen, because we were becoming a hit!
I kind of feel like I was Ellen beforeEllen.
But they made it very difficult behind the scenes.
I got fired and I went into a depression.
I didnt get called for any auditions.
The next thing that happened to me was maybeHannah Montana that was because they asked for me.
They probably didnt know about the talk-show world.
Now, Im working for Charlie, who doesnt remember any of that shit.
He says, They just dont understand that this is your golf.
They dont get that this is what you love.
This is what makes you happy.
Youre a performer.I mean, showbiz beats the crap out of working for a living.
