"As the Stomach Turns" is a series of comedy sketches parodying the soap opera As the World Turns (or its title, at any rate) featured on The Carol Burnett Show, with one installment airing on Carol Burnett & Company. The sketch was created by show writers Kenny Solms and Gail Parent.[1] The Carol Burnett Show introduced the series during its first season in 1967–68 and continued to air new installments for the remainder of its 11-season run, through its final season in 1977–78. The final installment of "As the Stomach Turns" did not air until September 8, 1979, on a different four-week summer series titled Carol Burnett & Company. This was the only installment of "As the Stomach Turns" that did not air on The Carol Burnett Show, which completed its run almost a year and a half earlier on March 29, 1978.
The sketch's premise was to describe, in great detail, the problems of a woman in her 30s named Marian Clayton (played by Carol Burnett), who lived in the fictional town of Canoga Falls. The first installment aired on the 21st episode of the first season on February 12, 1968.[2] As introduced by Lyle Waggoner, it was supposed to be the final episode of a 15-year long soap opera.[3]
The sketch dealt with problems that were more likely to be seen on a soap opera than in real life, although many skits were inspired by popular television shows or movies. An example of the latter is a spoof of The Exorcist when Marian's niece Raven (played by guest Bernadette Peters) came to visit her and was possessed by a devil, Marian assumed, because Raven was such a nice girl normally. Otto Blackflag, the town exterminator, now styling himself as a freelance exorcist (played by Tim Conway and using the same mock Romanian accent[4] that he would use to play the character Mr. Tudball) exorcised the demon from Raven's body. This same sort of plot was eventually done, in all seriousness, on Days of Our Lives decades later.
Another movie parody saw Marian meet the bedraggled "Richard Dryface," played by guest Steve Martin in a spoof of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, complete with a grey, bulbous-headed alien played by Conway.
The sketch also touched on stereotypical aspects of production values in American soaps. Many times, Marian forgot what she wanted to say, reminiscent of the times when soap operas were broadcast live and actors routinely forgot their next line. The "soap's sound effects people" would frequently either miss their cues to ring Marian's doorbell or telephone, or they would ring them too soon, leaving "the actress playing Marian" high and dry to the point that, after multiple times of trying to hint that she was waiting for a sound effect and getting complete silence, she was forced to answer her door or the phone before they rang (after which the sound effect would finally be heard––at the completely wrong time) in order to keep the plot moving. On live soap opera productions, these were big problems; due to the live nature of the show, they happened fairly frequently and were subsequently spoofed at length on The Carol Burnett Show.
In addition to the missed cues, the sketch was notorious for overusing loud and plangent organ music, a reference to a time when soap operas would have in-house organists play dramatic music as well as the show's theme song (when this skit first ran, organ music was still in wide use on the serials). Organ music was eventually discontinued in the mid-1970s, around the time The Carol Burnett Show wrapped up its run, so when the sketch is seen in syndication today, it brings back a sense of production technique that is now seen by many younger soap viewers as archaic and outdated.
One of the sketch's recurring characters is Marian's "ne'er-do-well" daughter (played by Vicki Lawrence) who arrives at the door holding a baby (a doll), usually says "Don't you recognize me mother? I'm your daughter," then leaves after giving the baby to Marian who immediately stashes it in the umbrella stand.[5] This was a parody of the fact that traditional soap operas have little use for child characters, either dropping them from the plot line shortly after they are introduced or unnaturally aging them into adulthood or, more recently, into the teenage years (for example, a young character might be sent upstairs to put on his or her shoes and never be referred to again).
The sketch also marks the first appearances of Harvey Korman's Mother Marcus character, who had also become a recurring resident of Canoga Falls, as well as Tim Conway's Oldest Man character, who within the confines of the series, played several characters, including Marian's grandfather, her Uncle Waldo, insurance agent Duane Toddleberry, and obscene phone caller Marvin Peterson Jr.[6]
The sketch was famous for the parody ending in which the announcer would ask foreboding, progressively nonsensical questions about the characters while focusing on their puzzled reactions.