It’s not a pair that one would expect on television but Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin and comedy legend Carol Burnett are cozy co-stars in Apple TV’s next series, “Palm Royale,” premiering March 20.

Martin, who’s been performing since he was 12, says he was amazed to be playing opposite Burnett. “The energy that she brought onstage every day, it doesn’t matter if the call time was at five in the morning — it was light, it was love. And every time they said, ‘Action,’ we were together… It was incredible. I will always be forever grateful just to have the opportunity to be with her onstage and on set, and it was very beautiful,” he says.

The series is about the struggles to fit into an impenetrable elite society. And for Martin, whose career has been singing and songwriting, acting is an “elite society” that he’s not used to.

“Believe it or not, when I was 15 years old, I had the opportunity to do a TV series in Argentina for the first time, and for me, there was something about being in front of the camera and telling a story without music that really seduced me,” he recalls.

“And, obviously, music did its thing. And I just had to hop on the wave and surf. Then later on in life, I had the opportunity to do theater and a couple of times on Broadway, and then later on with working next to Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramirez in another very important series (“The Assassination of Gianni Versace.”) At the end of the day, it’s about telling stories and owning the character and believing every word that you say,” he continues.

A drama series is a whole new world for Burnett too, who helmed her now-legendary variety show for 11 seasons. “I went to New York in 1954, and I didn’t have any jobs or anything — but I lived at a place called the Rehearsal Club, which was for young women interested in the theater, $18-a-week room and board. And I got to make the rounds and do things, and I auditioned in 1955 for Leonard Bernstein when he was doing (network TV series) ‘Omnibus,’” she remembers.

“He did it every week, and this one week they were doing a salute to musical comedy beginning in the early 1900s. And I sang for Lenny, and he said, ‘Take it up a key.’ Sang again, up a key, because he wanted me to belt. And he hired me to do a segment honoring (Broadway star) Ethel Merman … and that was my first experience.”

Her big break arrived when she auditioned for legendary director George Abbott for the musical “Once Upon a Mattress,” and got it. It was a resounding hit for Burnett, who earned a Tony nomination for the role.

“Then I doubled on (the talk show) ‘The Garry Moore Show’ for two years. I was young — 25, 26 years old — so I could work that hard,” she says.

“So I never thought I would be a television person, but once I got with Garry’s show, that was it, that solidified it for me. And so when I got the chance to do my own show, instead of doing a sitcom — which CBS wanted me to do — I had it in a contract that I could do a one-hour comedy variety show, which was what I wanted. I wanted music. I wanted dancers. I wanted guest stars. I wanted a rep company. And so we wound up doing an original musical comedy revue every week, and that was my love,” she sighs, “and I feel very fortunate that we came along at that time.”

Burnett thinks it would be impossible to present a show like that today. “We had a 28-piece orchestra, we had 65-to-70 costumes a week … the guest stars and so forth. No network would let us do that now with that kind of money. And I even hired Vicki Lawrence, who was right out of high school.

“I’d seen her at a contest, and we hired her. And no network today would let me do that, would let us do that, a girl right out of high school with no experience. So I feel very fortunate that our show happened at the time it did. I don’t think it could be done today.”

Tribune News Service

Ricky Martin in the Apple TV+ series “Palm Royale,” premiering March 20. (Erica Parise/Courtesy AppleTV/TNS)