September 1997 had been very good to me in the way of through-the-mail autograph collecting. As you have seen, I had a multitude of successes and only a handful of unanswered requests. The failures were Suzy Delair, Kathy Shower, Orson Bean, Jason Bateman, Barbi Benton, and Alyssa Milano. Quite an eclectic crew, wouldn’t you say? As October began, the natural follow-up to my previous request of Harvey Korman was of course his sometimes-partner in comedy, Tim Conway.
Tim Conway was always one of my very favorite comedians since early childhood. As I mentioned in the Harvey Korman posting, one of the highlights of watching The Carol Burnett Show was seeing Conway try to crack up Korman where Korman was the (supposed) straight man to Conways comic antics. The roles that Tim Conway portrayed on the show were legendary: Mr. Tudball, 
the old man with the white furry tuft of hair, Dorf, the dentist who accidentally injects himself with novacaine, and the ‘little asshole’ that cracks up Mama’s Family with his tales of the siamese elephants. In fact I spent the better part of 1988 imitating that old man with my friend Lance.
Conway’s roles outside the Carol Burnett Show were meaningful too. He starred in some of the great Disney films of the 1970’s that my Mom would take to me see at the movies: The Apple Dumpling Gang, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, and The Shaggy D.A. And who could forget Tim Conway’s appearance on Newhart, in which he plays himself in some sort of alternate universe where he is a cheapskate who ends up stealing Dick’s car?
And finally, judging from interviews and other accounts, Tim Conway is one heck of a nice guy. I sent him the portrait below on October 1 and it was back in my hands signed along with two notecards on October 10. I would send him another photo in August of 1998, this one from The Apple Dumpling Gang. I had hoped to get Don Knotts to sign it at some point but never did. And finally, I purchased the shot of Tim Conway from The Shaggy D.A. at Disney’s M-G-M Studios and had my friend Bob get it signed in person sometime in the early 2000’s. I can only hope that one day I’ll get to meet Tim Conway in person myself.
Autographs of 1997 will continue…
See the time that I saw Tim Conway live here…
Yes he is a great guy! Along with Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman they are some of the most fan-friendly stars I’ve been lucky enough to meet. Vickie and Lyle are pretty nice too.
Bob
September 14th, 2008