TLDR: Of the main Carol Burnett Show cast, two are still performing in 2026: Carol Burnett (92) just starred in Palm Royale Season 2, and Vicki Lawrence (76) is touring as Mama Harper across America.
Three have died: Harvey Korman (2008, age 81), Tim Conway (2019, age 85), and Lyle Waggoner (2020, age 84) who left behind a $222 million trailer empire. Dick Van Dyke, who briefly joined in 1977, just turned 100.
Every Saturday night from 1967 to 1978, millions of Americans gathered around their television sets to watch Carol Burnett pull her ear, introduce her guests, and lead one of the most talented comedy ensembles ever assembled.
The Carol Burnett Show ran for 279 episodes on CBS, winning 25 Emmy Awards and creating characters that would outlive the variety show format itself.
The show had five main performers who became household names.
Carol Burnett was the fearless ringleader who could sing, act, and make her face do things that shouldn’t be physically possible.
Harvey Korman played pompous authority figures slowly losing their dignity.
Tim Conway was the guest star who became a regular because he could destroy any sketch with a single improvised line.
Lyle Waggoner was the handsome announcer and leading man who opened every show.
And Vicki Lawrence was the teenager discovered through a fan letter who grew into one of the show’s breakout stars.
Nearly sixty years after the show premiered, here’s where the cast ended up. Two of them are still performing in 2026. One is on a prestige streaming series. The other is selling out theaters across the country with a stage show.
Three died between 2008 and 2020, each leaving behind different kinds of legacies. And one, who briefly joined the cast in its final season, just celebrated his 100th birthday.
Carol Burnett Is 92 and Starring in a Hit Show
Carol Burnett is alive, working, and thriving at 92 years old. In late 2025, she starred in the second season of Apple TV+’s Palm Royale, holding her own in scenes with Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, and Allison Janney. Her comedic timing proved she hasn’t lost a step.
The most significant moment of the season was her on-screen reunion with Vicki Lawrence, her former protégé from The Carol Burnett Show. In a casting decision that felt like closing a fifty-year loop, Lawrence played Burnett’s mother on Palm Royale.
This reversed the dynamic from their famous “Family” sketches where a young Lawrence played Burnett’s elderly mother despite being 16 years younger.
In interviews, Burnett has said she’s ready to step back from on-camera work unless something “unbelievable” comes along. She’s transitioning to producing, developing projects from behind the scenes where she doesn’t have to “put on make-up” anymore.
But she’s still a public figure, scheduled to headline “Art Party 2026” in late January to honor costume designer Bob Mackie, the man responsible for the glamorous gowns and sight gags that defined her show.
She lives in Southern California, remains sharp as ever, and frequently shares stories about her early career.
Like the time a rude hostess at a Manhattan ice cream parlor told her “we don’t serve slacks” because of her casual attire.
She made it. The hostess didn’t.
Vicki Lawrence Is 76 and Still Touring as Mama
Vicki Lawrence is the only main cast member actively touring with a live stage show in 2026. At 76, she’s performing a two-act show called “Vicki Lawrence and Mama” at theaters and Comic Cons across North America.
The first half is Vicki telling stories and singing. The second half is Mama Harper. The character she created in 1974 on The Carol Burnett Show and carried through six seasons of Mama’s Family. Unleashed on a modern audience.
Her 2026 schedule runs from January through October, with stops in Tucson, Glendale, Palm Springs, Abilene, and Niagara Falls. She’s selling tickets for $81 to $128 per seat and grossing over $135,000 per sold-out show.
It’s a family business. Her son Garrett is her tour manager and travels with her.
But the tour is happening in the shadow of a personal tragedy. Lawrence lost her husband of nearly fifty years in June 2024, just months before they would have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
She’s back on the road now, performing six nights a week, managing a chronic health condition, and proving that Mama Harper isn’t confined to reruns.
The character is alive on stages across America, and Lawrence shows no signs of retiring her.
Tim Conway Died in 2019 After a Decade-Long Health Battle
Tim Conway started as a guest star on The Carol Burnett Show but became so essential to the cast chemistry that he was made a regular in 1975.
His specialty was improvisation. Saying things that weren’t in the script. Doing physical comedy that made Harvey Korman break character and laugh on camera.
Stretching two-minute sketches into seven-minute masterpieces of controlled chaos.
He died on May 14, 2019 at age 85. But the story of his final years involves a family legal battle over his care that became public and painful. Conway suffered from a condition that mimicked dementia, and as his health declined, his wife and daughter fought in court over who should make medical decisions.
The conservatorship battle exposed the difficult reality of watching a comedy legend lose the ability to make people laugh.
Before his health declined, Conway had proven himself a shrewd businessman. In the 1980s, he created a character called Dorf and sold direct-to-consumer VHS tapes that generated millions in revenue.
He also voiced Barnacle Boy on SpongeBob SquarePants from 1999 to 2012, introducing his wheezing comedy style to a generation of children who had never seen The Carol Burnett Show.
Harvey Korman Died Suddenly in 2008
Harvey Korman was the cast member who played the authority figure in every sketch. The general. The husband. The director. And then he’d watch his dignity slowly disintegrate as Burnett or Conway demolished the scene around him.
He was a trained dramatic actor who found himself in comedy, and his ability to play the straight man while suppressing laughter became his signature skill.
He left The Carol Burnett Show in 1977 to star in his own sitcom, which was quickly canceled. But he found immortality playing Hedley Lamarr in Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles in 1974, a role that showcased his gift for playing pompous villains.
Korman died on May 29, 2008 at age 81. The cause was complications from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, a sudden medical emergency that his family described as a miracle he survived long enough to say goodbye.
He spent his later years touring with Tim Conway, performing their classic sketches for audiences who had grown up watching them on Saturday nights.
Lyle Waggoner Died in 2020 But Left Behind a Fortune
Lyle Waggoner was the handsome announcer who opened every episode of The Carol Burnett Show and played the romantic leads in sketches that required a pretty face and comic timing.
He left the show in 1974, feeling typecast as “the hunk,” and went on to star in Wonder Woman as Steve Trevor from 1975 to 1979.
But Waggoner’s real legacy wasn’t acting. While working on Hollywood sets in the late 1970s, he noticed that the trailers provided for actors were uncomfortable and poorly maintained.
So in 1979, he founded a company called Star Waggons and started building luxury trailers himself. He learned to weld, bought a garage, and built an empire.
By the time Waggoner died of cancer on March 17, 2020 at age 84, his company had grown to nearly 700 trailers serving Hollywood productions. In September 2021, eighteen months after his death, Star Waggons was sold to Hudson Pacific Properties for $222 million.
The pretty boy of the cast turned out to be the richest member by far.
Dick Van Dyke Just Turned 100
Dick Van Dyke briefly joined The Carol Burnett Show in 1977 as a replacement for Harvey Korman, but the chemistry didn’t work and he left after a few months.
His legacy is tied more to The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mary Poppins than to his time with Burnett’s ensemble.
But Van Dyke just achieved something almost no one in Hollywood has. He turned 100 years old on December 13, 2025. His birthday was celebrated with a documentary distributed to theaters nationwide.
He still goes to the gym three days a week, performing a full circuit of machines without breaks, singing and dancing between sets.
He lives in Malibu with his wife, admits his world has shrunk due to declining hearing and vision, but remains mentally sharp and emotionally engaged with current events.
The Show That Refuses to Disappear
The Carol Burnett Show aired its final episode on March 29, 1978. That was 48 years ago. But the show never really ended. It airs in syndication on MeTV. Clips circulate on YouTube.
The characters created in those sketches, especially Mama Harper, outlived the variety format and became franchises themselves.
Of the five main cast members, two are still performing in 2026. Carol Burnett is on streaming television, reunited with her former protégé in a show that critics are calling one of the best comedies of the mid-2020s.
Vicki Lawrence is on the road, playing Mama Harper in front of sold-out crowds who grew up watching her berate Carol Burnett in a poorly lit living room set.
The three who died each left behind different kinds of legacies. Tim Conway in 2019 is remembered by children who never saw The Carol Burnett Show but know his voice from SpongeBob SquarePants.
Harvey Korman in 2008 lives on in Blazing Saddles, a film that plays on cable every few months. Lyle Waggoner in 2020 left behind Star Waggons, a company still operating in Hollywood and providing trailers for productions across the country.
The show’s format died with the 1970s. A variety hour with sketches, musical numbers, and audience Q&A just doesn’t exist anymore.
But the people who made it work are still here, still performing, still proving that comedy isn’t about timing.
It’s about endurance.
