The Carol Burnett Show (1967)

The template for everything after it. Carol Burnett ran this CBS variety hour from 1967 to 1978 with a rubber face, a fearless body and a gift for movie parody, and the show collected 25 Emmys along the way. Its most famous moment is "Went with the Wind!", where her Starlett O'Hara descends the staircase in a dress made from the curtains, rod still attached. The ensemble includes men, Harvey Korman and Tim Conway among them, but Burnett is the star and the comic center. Start with the movie spoofs, and savor the moments when the cast visibly struggles to keep a straight face: they are part of the pleasure.