Carol Burnett marks a big birthday with NBC special

For anyone who's ever thought Carol Burnett's birthday should be a national event, now it is.

One way in which the much-beloved comedy icon will spend her special day Wednesday, April 26, is "Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love," NBC's new all-star celebration of her. The show will be filled with tributes from many of her friends and peers, including Dame Julie Andrews and former "Carol Burnett Show" cohorts Vicki Lawrence and costumer Bob Mackie ... as well as Cher, Lily Tomlin, Ellen DeGeneres, Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, Aileen Quinn ("Annie") and Bill Hader (to whom Burnett learned she is related on PBS' "Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates, Jr." recently).

Additional guests including Katy Perry, Bernadette Peters, Kristin Chenoweth, Billy Porter and Jane Lynch perform musical segments during the show, each commemorating a significant part of Burnett's career. Among those are Burnett's portrayal of Miss Hannigan in the 1982 film of "Annie," and her trademark singing of "I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together" at the end of each episode of "The Carol Burnett Show."

"It was quite a night," six-time Primetime Emmy Award winner Burnett says of the March taping of the program. "I'm still kind of reeling from it. It's not a roast or a birthday party, it's really a variety show. A lot of my dear friends were there, and my 'chum' Julie Andrews was by my side the whole evening; she lives back East, and she flew out just for this. I was totally gobsmacked, I have to say!"

Burnett also has a Tony, a Grammy, a Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award among her many other accolades. Additionally, she has seven Golden Globe Awards, and that ceremony named an honor after her for contributions to television; appropriately, she was its first recipient.

The Burnett birthday event is, she reflects, "really a retrospective of everything I've ever done, practically, starting way back with my almost-first television appearance ... on 'Omnibus.' Then, (the special) covers 'The Garry Moore Show' when I was a regular on that, and movies that I've done, and TV appearances other than my own show. But, of course, 'The Carol Burnett Show' is in there, too."

Expect the late Harvey Korman, Tim Conway and Lyle Waggoner to be seen bountifully in "Carol Burnett Show" clips during the NBC special, but there will be no doubt who the evening's central talent is. And just as it's been for so many years, those physically near her - as well as those watching at home - will be so glad still to be in her orbit.