He made millions laugh when he played Ensign Charles Parker in the 1960’s on the television show, McHale’s Navy. He was also popular for 11 years on the Carol Burnett Show, first staring as a guest in 1967. Thomas Daniel Conway, who changed his name to Tim to avoid being confused with actor Tom Conway, also started in a series of Walt Disney movies, often with Don Knotts, including the popular, Apple Dumpling Gang. Tim Conway also appeared in lesser known television shows, such as Rango, in 1967, in which he played an incompetent Texas Ranger and the 1970’s Tim Conway Show, with Joe Flynn of McHale’s Navy, set in a DC-3. Today Tim Conway is still making people laugh at family-friendly shows he is in. These days, some of Conway’s work also shares the Christian faith.
On the Carol Burnett Show Tim Conway was the funny guy, and Harvey Korman was his straight man. Sometimes Conway was so funny that Korman would crack up laughing when the two were working on a scene. One such example was a scene, in which the two were having a swordfight in medieval clothing, and Korman appeared to run Conway through with a sword. Conway pulled the sword out, looked at it like it was a dipstick, and said, “Hmm…down a quart!” Tim Conway earned three Emmy Awards for his work on the Carol Burnett Show.
In 2001 Conway and Korman appeared in the 25th anniversary reunion special, The Carol Burnett Show: Show Stoppers. About 20 million people watched the still popular show. It was the highest rated show of the season. People from grandparents, who had watched the original Carol Burnett Show, to teenagers who had enjoyed watching reruns on TV Land watched the special.
Tim Conway has many times during his career turned down material because of content he did not deem appropriate, and to this day, he refuses to do a show that is not family-friendly. The actor says he feels more “comfortable” doing family-friendly programming. He says part of the reason he is such a stickler for doing family-friendly shows is that he grew up in a small town where everybody knows everybody.
Tim worked his way from a staff job on a Cleveland television station to a regular part on the Steve Allen Show, before McHale’s Navy and other successes.
Conway says he chooses material the way he does out of a “respect” for the audience. He says he wants a family to be able to watch a show together and then be able to go home and talk about what they have seen.
As a Celebrity Advisory Board Member of the Parents Television Council, he works to put adult programming in the proper time slots. He said in the “old days” putting a show in the right time slot was not a concern, because television was a trusted member of the family, and those watching a show could cry, laugh, or relax together while watching a show. Tim Conway says the Carol Burnett Show was so popular because it was in the “comfort zone” for families watching together.
He says he doesn’t want to sit in his living room and watch “raunch” on his television. He said the greats of comedy, such as Laurel and Hardy, Jackie Gleason, and others didn’t need bad language or to use nudity to make people laugh.
The work Tim Conway does these days still makes people laugh, and it is still family-friendly. A lot of his work also shares the Christian faith. He did voice over work for the DVD, Hermie and Wormie, a faith-based film for young children. He did three in the past with Knotts before he died. The first sold more than a million copies. He is also completing a voice recording of Freddy, an animated Garfield, buddy character. The work, Garfield’s Fun Fest, a 3D CGI animated picture, will soon be released. Tim was featured in the May issue of Guidepost, which featured his association with Louise DuArt, her husband SQuire Rushnell, and his successful book series, When God Winks. They championed faith-based sentiments to guide people to a happier life. This summer, Tim Conway will also appear in a new series that features present stars and the stars that have influenced them. Howie Mandel of the television game show, Deal or No Deal, will tell how Conway has influenced him.
Tim Conway is also an active member of a variety of charities, including various drug abuse programs. Tim is also co-founder of the Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund, which aids injured and disabled jockeys by providing renovation of homes to accommodate the use of wheelchairs, conversion of vans and cars with hand control and side gate lifts, prosthetic devices, wheelchairs, and more.
Many might have enjoyed Tim Conway on the family-friendly shows, McHale’s Navy, the Carol Burnett Show, and the other television shows and movies he has been in. Conway is still providing family-friendly entertainment today, only now some of it shares the Christian faith.
