Consistently ranked inside the top 25 television programs of all time, this sketch comedy show from 1967 won 25 Emmy's on 70 nominations. I'm talking about The Carol Burnett Show of course, which ran for 279 episodes and 11 years.

Having already established herself as a comedy television star, Carol Burnett exercised a clause in her 10-year CBS contract in the mid 60s, forcing the studio to give her "30 one-hour, pay-or-play" appearances.

After being offered a role in a sitcom and told that variety is a "man's genre," she put her foot down and made the show she wanted: A sketch comedy program featuring character sketches, parodies, and music. CBS quickly became glad she did. 

Over the course of the next decade, Burnett, her cast, and the show's characters became household names. Sketches and episodes are still syndicated to this day.