Carol Burnett is the subject of 'American Masters' Monday night at 8 on PBS.

Comedy has a short shelf life. Then there's Carol Burnett. Nearly 30 years after The Carol Burnett Show went off the air, the skits remain funny. It would be a wonderful dare to see whether people could keep a straight face while watching Burnett as Scarlett O'Hara, wearing a frock made out of green velvet curtains - with the curtain rod still stuck in the shoulders.

One of the most genuinely funny comics to grace television, Burnett is profiled in PBS' American Masters episode 'Carol Burnett: A Woman of Character', airing on Monday.

The first woman with her own variety show, Burnett has worked steadily for six decades.

"I never thought of myself as a trailblazer," Burnett says. "I had done Garry's show. Even though it was his show, he always gave me the best stuff to do. He was so generous."

Burnett paid Garry Moore's generosity forward. Vicki Lawrence, Harvey Korman, Lyle Waggoner and Tim Conway, the main players on her show, all talk about how she made sure others had great jokes.

22 Emmys

Her variety show, which garnered 22 Emmys during its 11 seasons, was known for its opening segment. Burnett began each show by talking to the audience, and the PBS biography is built around a one-woman question-and-answer show she taped in Santa Barbara, California, earlier this year.

Burnett was never afraid to look hideous, if it got her a laugh. Eunice, the brittle, misunderstood daughter to Lawrence's Mama, was her all-time favourite character, she says.

"I loved all the movie take-offs, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford," she says.

Born to alcoholic parents in 1933, she was moved by her grandmother to Hollywood. The two of them tried to see eight movies a week. "I would come home and pretend to be these people," she says. "Then I could pretend to be them (on the show), and then I got to have them as guests. It was just amazing."

- Jacqueline Cutler, Zap2it