Carol Burnett, through laughter and tears

(CBS News) "The Carol Burnett Show" ran for 11 years on CBS. Back then she was the queen of comedy -- and she can still leave 'em laughing. Lee Cowan has a Sunday Profile:

There was a time when staying home on Saturday nights wasn't an indictment of your social life, because America had a standing date with Carol Burnett.

For more than a decade "The Carol Burnett Show" was on in almost every household with a TV. It's still regarded as one of the most beloved variety shows ever.

Remarkable, given that when she first auditioned to be on television, no one -- not even Carol Burnett herself -- believed she'd ever really be a good fit.

"The guy who was casting me said, 'You're too big for television!'" Burnett laughed. "You're too loud. You're too . . . Poof!!!'"

At almost 80 years old she hasn't lost any of that larger-than-life charm.

Who else could interrupt a taping of "The Bold and The Beautiful" and still get such a warm welcome?

It's been more than 30 years since her show went off the air at Television City in Hollywood. She toured Studio 33 with Cowan. "This was our big stage," she said - what is now home of "The Price Is Right."

"This is the best studio in town as far as doing sketches or music or anything like that, because you're right there with the audience," Burnett said.

She was especially close to her audience. Her Q&A sessions made her seem less like a star and more like a friend, always aiming to please.

"You wanna hear the Tarzan yell? Aahhhhh eeee aaaahhh eeeee ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"

But out of all the seats in the house, one row meant the most -- where her three young daughters (Jody, Erin and Carrie) all sat during rehearsals.

"They'd usually sit in these three seats here," she said, seats which she laughingly noted have been reupholstered.

She laughs now, but those seats weren't always filled with smiles.

Carrie, her oldest, descended into a world of drug addiction -- what People Magazine at the time called "Carol Burnett's Nightmare."

"I didn't give up on her," Burnett said. "It was very hard, and at time, you know, we weren't speaking. At one point I said, I have to love her enough to let her hate me."

But Carrie got clean -- and didn't hate her mother. She actually followed in her footsteps -- becoming a writer and an actress herself, even appearing opposite her mother.

But not for long.

"She was on her way, so to speak, when she got sick," Burnett.

In 2001 Carrie learned she had cancer. What happened next is the subject of Burnett's latest book, "Carrie and Me," out this week.

"We all went through disbelief, shock," Burnett told Cowan. "Then you get angry, then scared. They were hoping that they might save one lung. But then it went up to her brain."

Carrie died at just 38 years old.

"You never get over it, but I've learned to cope," Burnett said. "You have no other choice."

It was hardly her first bout with addiction, and loss. She grew up in the midst of all of it, always making the best of it.

"Daddy drank from when he was a teenager," Burnett told Cowan. "But he was like a drunk Jimmy Stewart," she laughed. "Sweet, but unfortunately he couldn't hold a job, he had the disease. And then Momma, she started to drink in her 30s, and then she became an alcoholic also. So they both died in their 40s."

She was raised by her grandmother -- first in Texas, where Burnett was born, then in Hollywood, where they shared a one-room apartment.

They lived on government assistance. Their only escape was the movies.

"Nanny would save up her pennies and at times, I think sometimes I would see maybe eight movies a week," Burnett said.

She never thought she'd be a star herself. She actually wanted to a writer.

So she enrolled at UCLA, and found herself playing a hillbilly in the theater arts program. On her first night on stage, everything changed.

"All I said was, 'I'm baaaackkk.' And everybody laughed. And I thought, Woah, I like this feeling, I really like this feeling."

That feeling took her to Broadway, where she landed the starring role in "One Upon a Mattress."

"Once I got out there and started to belt out the first number, I felt again, like, I'm baaaackkk!" she laughed.

The small screen soon took notice -- and before long the woman once thought too big to be on TV was becoming bigger-than-life.

But when she wanted to lead her OWN variety show, she hit a ceiling, with one network executive telling her point blank: "Variety is a man's game. Gleason, Dean Martin. Milton Berle, Sid Caesar . . . "

"Were you offended by that?" Cowan asked.

"No. I wasn't. I am now, but that was then," Burnett said.

She was determined to give "The Carol Burnett Show" a live feel, even though it was taped.

The result was genius. Some of the funniest moments were the un-scripted moments, especially between Harvey Korman and Tim Conway.

"We wanted it to feel dangerous, spontaneous," she said. "We were never proud of cracking up, ever! And never did we mean to. Oh, Harvey would be furious at himself, because he was such a fine actor, but all Tim would have to do would be to go [raises an eyebrow] and he'd be gone. He would be gone."

But few sketches stick to the funny bone quite like their parody of "Gone With the Wind." First there's the dress, then that line: "I saw it in the window and I just couldn't resist it."

Burnett said she fell to the floor laughing when she first saw the dress. "I thought, this is genius! It's in the Smithsonian now."

She, however, is no museum piece, and her comedic timing hasn't lost a beat.

Those signature Carol Burnett goodbyes always did have a way of lingering. They still do, to this day.

For more info:

• "Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story" by Carol Burnett (Simon & Schuster) | Audio download | eBook | CD
• "The Best of The Carol Burnett Show" (Time-Life)