Burnett Tries New Formula to Boost Ratings : * Television: The veteran comedian is returning to the style of comedy she did during her successful 11-year run on CBS.

Carol Burnett, the one-time queen of variety television, has been working furiously of late to restore luster to a crown that is quickly tarnishing. The 3-week-old “The Carol Burnett Show,” her long-awaited return to CBS after 13 years, has been suffering through falling ratings, creative differences and an on-air identity crisis.

The one-hour variety show, the last of the new fall network series to make it to the air, premiered Nov. 1 as a contemporary, cutting-edge ensemble of comedy sketches. Burnett, 58, was surrounded by a fresh young cast of seven, performing skits from a writing team that included several “Saturday Night Live” veterans.

But something was missing.

“The voice of Carol Burnett. It’s as simple as that,” executive producer Marcia Brandwynne said. “Her remark to me was, ‘I did not agree to do “Saturday Night Live With Carol Burnett.” ’ “

So after a major overhaul concluded last week with the departure--amicably, Brandwynne says--of three executive producers and two performers, Burnett is going back, all the way back, to the style of comedy she did on CBS during her successful 11-year run with the network, from 1967 to 1978.

For Friday night, Burnett has chosen to set aside--perhaps for good--an earlier taped show in favor of one made just a week ago. Burnett says this most recent episode, with guest stars Christopher Reeve and country singer k.d. lang, is a prototype of what she wants her restyled show to look like.

The first three broadcasts featured “high-concept sketches,” Burnett said, as opposed to the character sketches, musical numbers and physical comedy she specializes in. “I think a high concept should be the frosting, not the cake,” Burnett explained this week from her home in Century City.

“You can have high-concept ideas--it’s not bad--but they can’t be the whole show,” Burnett said. “If you come out wearing coneheads, that’s funny. Or the bumblebees are funny. But I don’t want to have a show full of coneheads and bumblebees.”

Burnett and Brandwynne have kept the writing staff, but are searching for a head writer. In the past, Burnett simply edited sketches to fit her style. Now she intends to join the Writers Guild and wants to start writing some of her own material.

What the departed executive producers--Marilyn Suzanne Miller, Neal Marshall and Rocco Urbisci--had in mind for the variety series is not clear, and they did not wish to comment when contacted this week. The official reason that repertory players Rick Aviles and Jann Karam were let go was because the size of the original group was considered unwieldy, but next week a new, older cast member will be added--veteran Broadway and movie actor Tony Roberts.

“I heard they thought the show was too hip,” Abbe Leviton, Aviles’ manager, said when asked why Aviles was cut from the show.

Burnett, a former stage actress who gauges her TV performances by the response of her live studio audiences, said she knows a sketch is working when she’s having fun--”the F word,” she calls it. And she has not been having much fun lately. Her favorite recent skit appears to be a song she sang on the second installment with Roberts. Together, they whipped off a 50-song medley of show tunes in less than five minutes, with no song longer than five seconds.

She had such a good time, in fact, that she signed Roberts for seven more episodes. “They really pushed to have him, I can tell you that. There were long negotiations with his agent,” said Roberts’ manager, Myrna Post. Roberts, 52, will fill roles that call for characters closer to Burnett’s age.

Until a backlog of new sketches can be built, Burnett will dip into her library of material from the old “Carol Burnett Show” on CBS. In addition to recycling a song for Friday night, she and Reeves will do a sketch in a British tea room called “Brief Encounter,” during which each character says only one word throughout the scene. She did that same sketch 15 years ago with Roddy McDowall.

“If we can fit (some old sketches) in while we’re getting over this hump, at CBS’ request and encouragement, we’ll do them,” Burnett said.

Initially, CBS had scheduled “Carol Burnett” after the comedies “Princesses” and “Brooklyn Bridge” as part of a strategy to target older audiences on Friday nights, when many younger viewers are out for the evening. But by the time Burnett’s show finally debuted, “Bridge” had been tapped to move to Wednesdays and “Princesses” was going on hiatus for a cast change.

“Carol Burnett” won its time period the first week, but its ratings declined 16% in its second outing and another 10% last week, when it finished 68th out of 95 prime-time network series.

There is no indication what CBS intends to do with Burnett’s show; the network declined to comment for this story, although executives have publicly voiced support for Burnett. Recent rumors are that CBS may move “Carol Burnett” to another night, which the star says would be a blessing.

“It’s harder today,” said Burnett, who is growing accustomed to the bumpy ride that television is offering her--a marked contrast to her smooth, 11-year reign on CBS.

“I didn’t expect it to be simple,” she said. “But it was simpler then, I think, because we were not scrutinized as heavily. We were not under the gun with people watching every move you make in the industry or in the press. We just came in and made a lot of mistakes.”

When Burnett first returned to TV last year with NBC’s “Carol & Company,” a half-hour comedy-anthology series, there were also early production and script problems. They were hammered out before the series ever got on the air, though, and the show became a Top 40 staple.

But the grind of creating what essentially was a new comedy play each week became too much. She wanted to go back to her old hourlong sketch format, and when NBC said no, CBS Entertainment President Jeff Sagansky stepped in to say yes.

CBS announced “The Carol Burnett Show” in May, giving her five months to put a show together that would premiere in November, after the World Series. But Burnett, who was shooting the feature film farce “Noises Off” until July, said that just wasn’t enough time.

“Most television shows when they start out have several months to work out and prepare before going into production. We were shot right out of the cannon,” said Burnett, who had unsuccessfully lobbied for a January premiere.

Another difference between the old show and the new is that the earlier series was produced by Joe Hamilton, her husband at the time. They later divorced, and he died last summer.

“I’m learning that I have to go in now and do what Joe used to do--to say no--which is not easy,” she said. “I’ve never had to do that.

“My fear has always been confrontations. I grew up not wanting to confront, just making nice and making sure everybody was happy. So you go along and try to please everybody, and sometimes you wind up not pleasing yourself. I understand now that it’s OK to make your ‘noes’ as nice as your ‘yeses.’ ”

Burnett stresses that although her show is returning to its roots for humor, it will remain contemporary: “A lot of this is just a matter of finding a thread, a way to do the comedy that feels right. You have no chance to test this out of town, like you would a Broadway show, and work the kinks out. We’re working them out on the air.”