If you grew up watching The Carol Burnett Show, you know it was almost a sport to determine when the actors would break character on the show. That’s one of the reasons we enjoyed watching! The fact that they were truly funny to each other made each episode that much more entertaining to watch. Tim Conway was well-known for breaking several of the other actors throughout his scenes with them.

It’s remarkable they managed to get any work done with him around. But, in 1974 an incident happened that broke most of the people in the scene- and yet Burnett herself kept cool as a cucumber. Her guest performers in this 1974 show were the Jackson 5, and she continued with the sketch despite an earthquake rocking the set and scaring the actors! She even ad-libbed in a way that was relevant to both the skit and the recent earthquake.

This was filmed at CBS Television City’s Studio 33 in Los Angeles so they had their share of earthquakes. Perhaps she was used to it by then. However, it was not a minor incident, as seen by the cameras shaking and the Jackson brothers’ expressions of unease. In her memoir In Such Good Company (2016), Burnett discussed how she always wanted to keep going no matter what happened.

She also sought to change costumes quickly so that there would be no pauses. Sticking with the character through an earthquake was evidently part of the deal! Watch the expert maintain her cool amid an earthquake in the video below!