when soap operas were broadcast live and actors routinely forgot their next line. Marian also answered the door either too soon or too late when someone rang her doorbell. Other times, she would miss the correct time to answer the phone, saying "Hello" before the sound effect came for it to ring. On live soap opera productions, these were big problems; due to the live nature of the show, they happened fairly frequently, and were subsequently spoofed at length on The Carol Burnett Show. In addition to the missed cues, the sketch was notorious for overusing loud and plangent organ music, a reference to a time when soap operas would have in-house organists play dramatic music as well as the show's theme song (when this skit first ran, organ music was still in wide use on the serials). Organ music was eventually discontinued in the mid-1970s, around the time The Carol Burnett Show wrapped up its run, so when the sketch is seen in syndication today, it brings back a sense of production technique that is now seen by many younger soap viewers as archaic and outdated. One of the sketch's recurring characters is Marian's "ne'er-do-well" daughter (played by Vicki Lawrence) who arrives at the door holding a baby (a doll), usually says "Don't you recognize me mother? I'm your daughter," then leaves after giving the baby to Marian who immediately stashes it in the umbrella stand. This was a parody of the fact that traditional soap operas have little use for child characters, either dropping them from the plot line shortly after they are introduced or unnaturally aging them into adulthood or, more recently, into the teenage years (for example, a young character might be sent upstairs to put on his or her shoes and never be referred to again). The sketch also marks the first appearances of Harvey Korman's Mother Marcus character, who had also become a recurring resident of Canoga Falls, as well as Tim Conway's Oldest Man character, who within the confines of the series played several characters, including Marian's grandfather, her Uncle Waldo, insurance agent Duane Toddleberry, and obscene phone caller Marvin Peterson Jr. The sketch was famous for the parody ending in which the announcer would ask foreboding, progressively nonsensical questions about the characters while focusing on their puzzled reactions. Trivia In her 1996 memoir, As My World Still Turns, actress Eileen Fulton, who