8mm Forum: Beloved Tim Conway!

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on May 15, 2019, 11:15 AM:

I was greatly saddened today, to hear of the passing of the last of the great comic genius’s …

Tim Conway!

He was the last of the classic era of comedians.
What do I mean by this?

He was the last of a generation of comedians that didn’t have to be vulgar or crude to be funny. He was funny in a way that the whole family could watch and be endlessly entertained and falling over laughing about. In fact, it could well be said that Tim was part of the lastof the“classic comic duo’s” that existed in a generation of comedy that had lost it’s way … Tim Conway and Don Knotts who, together in a period of six or seven years, made a large number of “family comedies” in which you and you’re children could sit down together and laugh at. How many of us remember “The Apple Dumpling Gang” films, for instance?

Tim found a very good home for his style of humor, however, even without Don Knotts at the Disney studio, where he made seemingly countless family comedies. This was not, however, the extant of his comedy genius!

He began his rise to stardom on TV as the co-star of “McHales Navy”, along with Ernest Borgnine.

Most people today remember him as part of the genius comedy essamble of the “Carol Burnett Show”, in which people would literally watch to see how long it would take for Tim to totally make Harvey Corman, (his usual “foil”) to break up in laughter. As Harvey and Carol happily remember, it was literally impossible to keep him “on script”, as he would come up with material with was constantly better than what was on paper. This was made evident as Tim was a great master of the art of “physical” comedy, (comedy in which no dialog is necessary, but you still fall down laughing).

In his later years, Tim made such film appearances as in the comedy “Dear God”, and, even if he wasn’t the “star” of the film, he would usually, in his own way, outshine the star. He also played a reoccuring character on the “Spongebob” TV show.

I was lucky enough to have had him sign an autograph for me after a number of correspondences, which I still have to this day.

Rest in peace, beloved funny man!

Posted by Leon Norris (Member # 3151) on May 15, 2019, 11:34 AM:

Wow! That's the third actor to pass this week! Very sad!

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on May 15, 2019, 11:53 AM:

He was the absolute master of ad-lib. On the Carol Burnett show they used to write a straight script and rehearse it that way, then roll camera and catch him just completely destroying Harvey Korman by going off script.

So now we have all these one-of-a-kind comic jewels:

The Dentist

-you almost feel sorry for the guy! It's like a hostage situation!

What gets me about this is how they pulled it off without ever getting nasty or dirty: it's getting hard to find that these days.

Bonus Outake:

Siamese Elephant Story: Vicky Lawrence Pays Tim Back!

Posted by David Michael Leugers (Member # 166) on May 15, 2019, 01:58 PM:

Before the Carol Burnett Show, Tim was the funniest part of the McHale's Navy TV show. His back and forth with Captain Binghamton (Joe Flynn) was pure comedy. I am not sure Tim Conway ever really got all the recognition he deserved, but then again, I don't think he really cared about that stuff. He was too busy being funny.

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