Grammy awards 1974 with Bette Midler and Carpenters

I wasn't aware that Midler ever made fun of Karen's anorexia. Do you have something more to back up that claim? The parenthetical comment in the link is an addition by the editor, not Midler's words. Whoever wrote that little piece was apparently assuming Midler's jokes were about the anorexia, but I sure never heard Midler comment on that. [SNIP]
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Quoting from the link @Harry posted above, in Midler's own words:

“I regret making all those Karen Carpenter anorexia jokes,” says Midler, whose stage act used to brim with put-downs and nasty one-liners.

So it seems true that Midler took shots at Karen's illness. But I will also say that her apology, in full in that same article, seemed very genuine to me.
 
Thanks for the clarifications and supporting evidence. Weird, though. I don't recall a single Midler joke based on Karen's illness -- she definitely took shots at the goody-four-shoes image, but the anorexia? Well, if she admits that she did, must have happened, but...huh. Ah well. There are happier topics to dwell on. You're right, Karen looks great in this clip and handles herself well. I wonder if the soft speaking voice wasn't a conscious attempt to try to sound feminine, if that makes any sense.
 
Thanks for the clarifications and supporting evidence. Weird, though. I don't recall a single Midler joke based on Karen's illness -- she definitely took shots at the goody-four-shoes image, but the anorexia? Well, if she admits that she did, must have happened, but...huh. Ah well. There are happier topics to dwell on. You're right, Karen looks great in this clip and handles herself well. I wonder if the soft speaking voice wasn't a conscious attempt to try to sound feminine, if that makes any sense.

i'm with you, I don't remember any personal attack on Karen, just the " professional " jabs. Karen did not place herself as a victim, if you recall, she stated something about whenever anyone mentions you in their act it's good.
 
I'm with the last two posters. I don't think Midler ever referred to Karen's anorexia when she was poking fun at her (in contrast to Joan Rivers). In an arcticle that Paul Grein wrote for Goldmine in 1991—copied here on A&M Corner—he quotes Midler from that Sept. 1990 Redbook magazine interview thusly:

"She had tremendous talent, and I was a jerk for saying those things," Midler told Redbook earlier this year. "I was young and stupid and crazy and thought I was doing profound and enduring stuff. But I wasn't--I was adding to the ugliness in the world.”

I suspect that the source Harry links to, as well as a few others on the 'net, have taken some license and inserted the word anorexia into that quote when it didn't exist in the original article.
 
^^Correct.
I have a print copy from the newspaper at that time (of the apology):
Bette Midler says she has deep regrets about
"making all those Karen Carpenter jokes."
 
I'm with the last two posters. I don't think Midler ever referred to Karen's anorexia when she was poking fun at her (in contrast to Joan Rivers). In an arcticle that Paul Grein wrote for Goldmine in 1991—copied here on A&M Corner—he quotes Midler from that Sept. 1990 Redbook magazine interview thusly:

"She had tremendous talent, and I was a jerk for saying those things," Midler told Redbook earlier this year. "I was young and stupid and crazy and thought I was doing profound and enduring stuff. But I wasn't--I was adding to the ugliness in the world.”

I suspect that the source Harry links to, as well as a few others on the 'net, have taken some license and inserted the word anorexia into that quote when it didn't exist in the original article.

To insert a word into someone else's quote, and in a way that dramatically affects it's intent, isn't journalistic license, it's journalistic malfeasance. In this case, it is profound; there is a huge difference between making fun of the Carpenters' image, and joking about Karen's illness.

I'm going to dig into this further.
 
You guys are likely right. I was unable to find any joke, reference to jokes, or admittance by Bette that she specifically targeted Karen's anorexia in her comedy routine, nor in any article or interview.

What I did find were many quotes from Bette's Redbook article where the word "anorexia" is not included. In fact, I found one where this was placed inside Bette's apology: "...making all those Karen Carpenter jokes (about anorexia)" where the parenthetic was clearly added by the editor/interviewer.

I'm a good internet sleuth but of course someone else may have proof I did not find. At this point, it seems to me that a perception developed that Bette had done so, one of those assumptions that grow until it seems factual, when in fact she did not.
 
David A, thank you for your due diligence at researching this. At this point, I am convinced, that the "about anorexia" was interjected into the article, and had no basis in fact. I just don't get the "vibe" that Bette would purposely kick Karen when she was down, so to speak. I think I can speak for all on this forum, that as Carpenters fans, and especially fans of our beloved Karen, we do not take kindly to abuse visited upon them. In a way, we are guarding their legacy. Maybe we should put this baby to bed...
 
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In Make Your Own Kind of Music, didn't Karen open an x-ray of deceased Mama Cass? It was a folded in 1/2 and opened up very wide. I don't see that there is a difference between making fun of anorexia and making fun of obesity. Just saying. It was a time in our culture where people made fun of others for unkind reasons. Karen made fat jokes throughout their career in interviews and appearances.
 
And... we've come full circle...

I think all of us have said things we regret. We've all done and said things that we wish we could take back. With self-awareness, empathy, and maturity, we apologize and make amends for our words and behavior. It doesn't erase what transpired, but it goes a long way to making things right. One of the best feelings in the world is making a heartfelt and sincere apology to someone and receiving a gracious and accepting reply. We all make mistakes; we are human. We are stronger when we try to focus on the good things:

"Sometimes, not often enough, we reflect upon the good things...."​
 
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And... we've come full circle...

I think all of us have said things we regret. We've all done and said things that we wish we could take back. With self-awareness, empathy, and maturity, we apologize and make amends for our words and behavior. It doesn't erase what transpired, but it goes a long way to making things right. One of the best feelings in the world is making a heartfelt and sincere apology to someone and receiving a gracious and accepting reply. We all make mistakes; we are human. We are stronger when we try to focus on the good things:

"Sometimes, not often enough, we reflect upon the good things...."​

well said.
 


Here are some x-ray skits from the show. Mama Cass is the last one.


No wonder they stayed away from TV specials for another five years. Why was Karen doing skits dressed as a nurse and who thought up and produced this rubbish? Absolute drivel and way beneath her talents.
 
No wonder they stayed away from TV specials for another five years. Why was Karen doing skits dressed as a nurse and who thought up and produced this rubbish? Absolute drivel and way beneath her talents.

this was a throw-a-way summer replacement series that was probably completed in 3 or 4 weeks. each show would run down the alphabet, " x " was x-ray, so Karen and Mark were dressed as medical staff.
 
The MAKE YOUR OWN KIND OF MUSIC show used letters of the alphabet as a divider between segments and within segments. That's why you see Karen sitting in a U for "Close To You" and Herb Alpert performs from an H.

Since nothing begins with X, they did an X-ray skit every week. Nothing more complicated than that.
 
this was a throw-a-way summer replacement series that was probably completed in 3 or 4 weeks. each show would run down the alphabet, " x " was x-ray, so Karen and Mark were dressed as medical staff.

The MAKE YOUR OWN KIND OF MUSIC show used letters of the alphabet as a divider between segments and within segments. That's why you see Karen sitting in a U for "Close To You" and Herb Alpert performs from an H.

Since nothing begins with X, they did an X-ray skit every week. Nothing more complicated than that.

I get the gimmick but it’s crazy to think of a talent like hers wasted on a show like this. You’d think she would have learned her lesson after The Dating Game.
 
Well said James. We all have done things we later regret and with the case of Carpenters they were very young on this tv show and I'm sure they wanted to get the most exposure as possible and with Herb guesting it was a no brainer. Maybe they didn't have any control over how the skits would play out and may be why Richard dislikes the show today. It's a shame because the music was good especially the spots with Karen and Richard just piano and vocal.

Richard answered this "fans ask" question:

Q. "I'm trying to find out if "Make Your Own Kind Of Music" will ever be released completely on DVD?”
A. “Absolutely not. Obtaining guest artists' releases, taking care of payment for publishing, director's fee, musicians' fees, etc. would prove to be a Herculean task and one that would not be practical given the meager amount of sales the package would generate. Plus, I don't care at all for the show.”
 
Let’s not forget this was taped in 1971...47 years ago. Very different times and the humor was about as un-PC as could be.
Those humorless segments were written for them. As most of you know, Karen called the results ‘horrible’, and that Carpenters were ‘violently mishandled’. Karen said they realized immediately that it was a mistake, and they ended up shying away from TV for a number of years because of it.

Just to give you an idea of how off-base it was, they had Dusty Springfield on as a guest and they didn’t even ponder the idea of putting she and Karen together for a duet! Really, really dumb. So, they stuck them together and they made some joke about fish and chips, I think. Yikes.
 
In Make Your Own Kind of Music, didn't Karen open an x-ray of deceased Mama Cass? It was a folded in 1/2 and opened up very wide. I don't see that there is a difference between making fun of anorexia and making fun of obesity. Just saying. It was a time in our culture where people made fun of others for unkind reasons. Karen made fat jokes throughout their career in interviews and appearances.

1) Karen didn't write that joke, and while one might judge her for acting out the skit, this was, as someone has mentioned, 1971
2) I am unaware of any fat jokes Karen told as part of the Carpenter's shtick, I'd like to see them if so
3) I personally had no problem with any of Bette Midler's humor as regards the Carpenters' image or their style of music; that's fair game for comediennes, even if I don't like it. It was the idea of joking about Karen's disease after her passing, that would in my view cross the line from legit to vicious. And she would almost certainly have written that joke.

But it seems we've put to bed the idea that Bette ever did that; she didn't, it seems.
 
Let’s not forget this was taped in 1971...47 years ago. Very different times and the humor was about as un-PC as could be.
Those humorless segments were written for them. As most of you know, Karen called the results ‘horrible’, and that Carpenters were ‘violently mishandled’. Karen said they realized immediately that it was a mistake, and they ended up shying away from TV for a number of years because of it.

Just to give you an idea of how off-base it was, they had Dusty Springfield on as a guest and they didn’t even ponder the idea of putting she and Karen together for a duet! Really, really dumb. So, they stuck them together and they made some joke about fish and chips, I think. Yikes.
All very true. That being said, Karen looks great in a nurse's uniform!
 
Also, don't forget that this moment was from 1974. This was years before Karen's struggles with anorexia were known or even rumored about. Even if Bette had made jokes about that (which does not appear to be the case), it would have been way after this incident occurred. The jokes that Bette was making about Karen at that time (and reason for the awkwardness of the situation) were about her/their image.

The primary reason Karen was Bette's "target" in those days stemmed from the Carpenters' success with "Superstar" which Bette had recorded before them. Richard actually discovered the song through Bette's performance of it on "The Tonight Show." Karen and Bette were vastly different in style and image (and to a degree, audience) and with Karen "stealing" a hit song from Bette it made for easy fodder in Bette's raunchy stage show to create a "rivalry" with Karen.
 
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