Operators and switchboards have largely been consigned to history. But Ernestine the Telephone Operator as played by Lily Tomlin endures. The character originated on the TV comedy series “Laugh-In” in ...

Over the past 40 years, Lily Tomlin has been conjuring a cast of lasting characters, from the precocious 5 1/2-year-old Edith Ann to the irascible telephone operator Ernestine. Her personas from the ...

It's not often you get to talk to a legendary performer who is as gracious and down-to-earth as Lily Tomlin. Even a dropped call and fuzzy reception during a recent phone chat with her from Los ...

For nearly a decade — since comedy legend Lily Tomlin played a salty septuagenarian in Paul Weitz’s “Grandma” — I’ve been trying to track down a copy of her one-woman show, “The Search for Signs of ...