Harvey Korman

The hour-long special hosted by Carol Burnett features musical and comedy routines with Carol and guest performers, Carl Reiner, Whoopi Goldberg, and Robin Williams. The four comedians, Burnett, Reiner, Goldberg and Williams introduce the show from lecterns in a mock-academic recitative number, called "Laughter," in which they examine laughter's "primary root and cause."

Moments in four different years in the lives of the Harper family beginning with 1955 as a hopeful Eunice prepares to go to a party, and her brother Phillip, a recent college graduate, departs for New York. In 1963, a married Eunice and her husband, Ed Higgins, help Mama welcome novelist Phillip home for a visit. In 1973, a divorced Eunice is living with Mama. In 1978, Eunice, Ellen, and Phillip return from Mama's funeral and Eunice makes a painful realization about her life.