Mrs. Wiggins

"Mrs. Wiggins" (also known as "Mr. Tudball and Mrs. Wiggins") is a series of comedy sketches featured on The Carol Burnett Show. It was introduced during the ninth season in 1976 and continued for the remainder of the series. However, the final installment of "Mrs. Wiggins" would not air until August 18, 1979, on a different four-week summer series titled Carol Burnett & Company. All together, there were 19 installments of "Mrs. Wiggins" sketches.

Premise
"Mrs. Wiggins" features two characters created by Tim Conway: Mr. Bernie Tudball (played by Conway) and Mrs. Wanda Wiggins (played by Carol Burnett). Vicki Lawrence would occasionally play Mr. Tudball's wife. Mr. Tudball is a businessman with an off-color toupee and a mock Romanian accent, pronouncing his secretary's name "Mrs. Uh-Whiggins". Mrs. Wiggins is his secretary, a "bimbo who the IQ fairy never visited". She was notably recognized by how she walked in her skirt, as designed by Bob Mackie, and her near-constant fingernail filing. The sketches center on Mr. Tudbull's frustration over Mrs. Wiggins' dimwittedness, such as not being able to properly use the office intercom system.

Background
Tim Conway created the sketch after The Carol Burnett Show writers' office secretary, Charlene, would constantly press the wrong button on the intercom.

Mrs. Wiggins was originally written to be a little old lady, but Bob Mackie decided to go another route. He decided to base the look of Mrs. Wiggins on the kind of secretary that would sit around and file her nails and go to lunch. In the costuming of Mrs. Wiggins, Mackie put Burnett in a very tight skirt that would control the way she walked. He told Burnett to stick her behind in the bagging part in the back of the skirt, and this gave her the "Wiggins walk."

Sketches

References

Category:Comedy sketches
Category:Fictional secretaries
Category:Carol Burnett