Conway remarks that the idea for the Oldest Man character began with memories from earlier in life: “I broke my back in high school,” Conway says, “and walking to and from school that was my speed. That was the way I walked. So that got a lot of laughs.” Later, when working on The Carol Burnett Show, Conway claims the idea for the shuffling walk arrived spontaneously during one sketch. “Carol (Burnett) opened the door and I was supposed to walk to the couch and then I was going to talk to her but I was supposed to be this old man. I started walking that way and as I was walking across the room I said to myself, ‘You know, if they don’t stop this the sketch is going to be about three days long.’ But nobody stopped me, we kept going, and that started that character.”
Conway says the spontaneity of the Oldest Man’s creation served as a way to make fellow actor Korman laugh. “A lot of the characters were created on air... Harvey would fall apart because the first time they saw the old man and the way I walked as the old man was when we were actually taping the show. So, when I started walking from the door and shuffling across the room as the rug was gathering in of me (laughs), that was the first time that anybody had seen it.”
Carpenter, Chris. "Tim Conway: The King of Clean." Tim Conway: The King of Clean. CBN, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.
Carpenter, Chris. "Tim Conway: The King of Clean." Tim Conway: The King of Clean. CBN, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.