Harvey Korman’s Son Chris Shares a Rare Glimpse Into His Father’s Legacy (Exclusive)
Beloved comedic actor Harvey Korman passed away 17 years ago, on May 29, 2008, at the age of 81. His son, Chris Korman, offers a heartfelt tribute to his father in his new memoir, OMG! It’s Harvey Korman’s Son! The book paints an intimate portrait of growing up with the legendary star of The Carol Burnett Show and Blazing Saddles, focusing on the father-son bond that defined their lives beyond the senior Korman’s Hollywood fame.
Harvey prioritized family over celebrity, his son recalls, especially when helping him navigate a learning disability. “My dad was the father first and the celebrity second. He never put his fame ahead of my disability,” Korman explained in an interview with ReMIND magazine. “He never let me use my learning disability as a crutch. He used to say, ‘Chris, the only time in life you fail is when you don’t try.’”
Courtesy Chris Korman
Meeting comedy legends
Chris recalled meeting Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, and Carl Reiner in 1987 while his father was directing a project featuring the three stars. “Robin was walking toward me and said, ‘You must be Harvey’s son.’ I asked, ‘So why is that?’ And he joked, ‘Because no one else has that face!’” Goldberg chimed in, telling Williams, “Robin, you should not be talking about faces or body parts, since you’re one hairy son of a bitch.”
Craig Sjodin/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
One of Chris’s most surreal experiences came when he met Jerry Lewis in Hawaii, shortly after the comedy icon underwent triple bypass surgery. “He walks into the room with a light pop stick up his nose, doing that screechy voice saying ‘Lady!’” he remembered. “My dad said, ‘Jerry, my son does an imitation of you.’ And I thought, ‘Oh God, Dad, please don’t make me do this in front of Jerry Lewis and 100 people.’ But I did, and everyone was watching — it was a moment I’ll never forget.”
Chris shared that comic icon, Carol Burnett, had an affectionate nickname for him, “She used to call me Chrissy,” he remembered with a laugh. “People would ask, ‘Why is this woman calling a grown man Chrissy?’ But to Carol, it was a term of endearment. Every time she saw me, it was ‘Christy Korman.’ Then one day, she said, ‘Now you’re Big Christy Korman!’”
Chris also reminisces about the star-studded parties his father hosted, including one featuring Don Rickles and Playboy model Diane Parkinson. “All the men in the room were just staring at her,” he said. “She came up to me and said, ‘Thank you for not leering.’”
On preserving his father’s legacy
Writing the book took two years, a careful process Chris approached with respect for his father’s legacy. “I was really very careful not to name-drop — that was my first concern,” he explained. “It wasn’t meant to be a tell-all. It was more of a celebration of who my father was outside the scope of show business.”
Chris described how his father helped him manage information retention — a core struggle for those with learning disabilities. “He taught me to take things in small chunks — five pages at a time — and record my lines so I could hear them back,” he recalled. Harvey himself had to adjust quickly on The Carol Burnett Show, where script rewrites were constant. “He showed me how to absorb, break down, and retain information so I could purge it when needed.”
Courtesy Chris Korman
Beyond academics, Harvey also helped his son develop physical coordination. “We played tennis, baseball—he wanted me to have strong gross motor skills,” Chris said. “He taught me that learning should be organic, not grueling.”
Harvey Korman was also a passionate advocate for learning disabilities, even serving as the spokesperson for the Learning Disabilities Association in the 1970s. Chris only realized the full scope of his father’s work years later, when attending a national conference. “The president told me, ‘If it wasn’t for your father, we wouldn’t be on the map.’ He didn’t do it for publicity—he did it because he cared.”
How Harvey became known as “Mr. Happy Go Lucky”
Carol Burnett also had a nickname for his father Harvey Korman —“Mr. Happy Go Lucky.” The name originated from The Carol Burnett Show, when Petula Clark, unfamiliar with American-style comedy, misinterpreted Harvey’s playful antics with her and Tim Conway as outright insults. The tension reached Burnett, who confronted Korman.
“Carol told my dad, ‘If you’re not happy here, you don’t have to be here anymore,’” Chris recalled. “He was going through a divorce at the time, and she reminded him that personal issues shouldn’t spill into work. She said, ‘Come Monday morning, if I see you step off the elevator, I want to see you swinging and skipping down the hallway.’”
Everett Collection
To reinforce the message, Burnett had a sign placed on Korman’s dressing room door that read: “Mr. Happy Go Lucky.” From then on, it became his unofficial title among the cast and crew.
Korman approached Burnett’s daughter, Jody Hamilton, to ask her mother if he could use Mr. Happy Go Lucky as the title of his new book. Jody wrote him back with Carol’s response: ‘Tell Chris if he doesn’t use that mantra, Mr. Happy Go Lucky, I’ll have to kill him myself. It’s about time somebody used that freaking mantra!’” Chris recalled with a laugh.
Chris Korman is working on turning his memoir into a one-man show and Q&A event. He’s also wants to return to elder care — a field in which he holds a degree — because “it’s a vocation I love,” he said.
Courtesy Chris Korman
OMG! It’s Harvey Korman’s Son! is available online and in bookstores, offering readers a humorous yet heartfelt look at the life of a comedy legend through the eyes of his son.
Remind 
Classic Comedy Duos
March 2021
Chuckle at television & films funniest comic duos.
Buy This Issue