STARRING JOHNNY CARSON
 |
October 2, 1962 - May 22, 1992
NBC Late Night Talk Show - 4531 Episodes
Host:
Johnny Carson
Announcer:
Ed McMahon
Musical Directors:
Doc Severinsen (1967-1992)
Skitch Henderson (1962-1966)
Milton Delugg (1966-1967)
Assistant Musical Director:
Tommy Newsom (1968-1992)
The contrast between Jack Paar (the previous host of
The Tonight Show) and Johnny Carson was marked. As
emotional and likely to blow up as Paar was, that is how
calm and unflappable Carson was. Carson opened each
show with a monologue and then spent most of the
remainder of the evening chatting with guests. Unlike
Paar, Carson tended to avoid anything controversial and
was usually content to keep his audience amused. When
Carson started, the show was originating from New York
and was taped on the same evening that it aired. Johnny
was on all five nights and began his monologue when the
show began, at 11:15 P.M. On his first show, Carson was
introduced by Groucho Marx; Johnny's first words,
reacting to applause as he walked onstage for the first
time: "Boy, you would think it was Vice President Nixon."
In February 1965 he refused to do the 11:15-11:30 P.M.
segment any longer, leaving that to Ed McMahon and
Skitch Henderson. On January 2, 1967 this first
fifteen minutes was dropped from the show
altogether, leaving the show at 90 minutes.
For millions of Americans, the show was a comforting,
consistent, comedic lullaby. Every night for three
decades, they'd drift off to sleep as a twinkle-eyed,
silver-haired Nebraskan swung an invisible golf club,
made some alimony jokes, and inspired throaty ho-ho-hos
from his eager sidekick. Over the course of some 4500
shows, he turned The Tonight Show into a pre-sleep
ritual, launched a thousand stand-up careers, and
reached the kind of fame where last names were
unnecessary: "Heeeeere's Johnny!" was enough.
The show would remain at 90 minutes in length until
1980 when it was cut back to only one hour. Features
that were used on his show with varying frequency
included "Stump the Band," in which members of the
studio audience would ask the band to try to play
obscure songs by giving them only the titles; "Carnac
the Magnificent," with Carson as an inept magician;
"Aunt Blabby," with Carson as a gossiping little old
lady; "The Mighty Carson Art Players," spoofing movies,
commercials, tv shows, and events in the news; "Floyd
R. Turbo," with carson as a super-patriot; and "The Art
Fern Tea Time Movie," with Carol Wayne as the original
"Matinee Lady." Perhaps the most celebrated telecast,
and certainly the one with the most enormous
audience, was that of December 17, 1969,
on which Tiny Tim married Miss Vicki.
In May 1972 the show was permanently moved from New
York to Burbank, California. It was also around this time
that Carson started cutting back on his appearances.
He would now do the show only four nights per week,
leaving the Monday night show to a guest host. The most
frequent guest hosts during the first 21 years were:
Joey Bishop (177 times), Joan Rivers (93 times),
Bob Newhart (87 times), John Davidson (87 times),
David Brenner (70 times), McLean Stevenson (58 times),
Jerry Lewis (52 times), and David Letterman (51 times).
Joan Rivers was the "permanent" (and only) guest host
from September 1983 until 1986. The Tonight Show
reverted to various guest hosts after Joan left, with
Jay Leno the most frequent. Leno then became the
exclusive guest host in the fall of 1987, a position
he held for the remainder of Johnny's rein. Johnny's
final telecast was a national event. A quiet reminicence
(without big-name guests) about the shows golden
moments over the past 30 years. Many, however,
felt that the next-to-the-last show was the best;
in it, Bette Midler sang a wistfully comic love song
to Johnny that expressed what most viewers felt,
THERE WOULD NEVER BE ANOTHER QUITE LIKE HIM!
Program Opening from 1987 CD Theme Music Midi Theme |
 |
         |
Click HERE for Johnny Carson's obituary.
NOW SHIPPING EXCLUSIVELY FROM AMAZON.COM:
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Amazon now shipping made-to-order DVDs of your favorite episodes!
Click on the image below to purchase
Click on the image above to purchase 1800 minutes of material in this new DVD collection!
Or click the online store link below for many more titles.
Click HERE to enter The Johnny Carson Online Store!
Custom Search
|
|
|
|
Doc Severinson
Custom Trumpets Web Site
Johnny Carson
From The Museum of Broadcast Communications
Johnny Carson
By Phoenix Media/Communications Group
Johnny Carson
From Wikipedia
Johnny Carson Bio
From Biography.com
The Kennedy Center Honors Johnny Carson
By The Kennedy Center
Petition to re-air vintage episodes of
"The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson"
By Daniel J. Noble
The Tonight Show
From The Museum of Broadcast communications
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
From TV.com
These links were last tested September 2007.
Check out these classic TV Guide covers...
UNITED STATES |
CANADA |
UNITED KINGDOM |
| Click the buttons above for amazing savings! | ||
Hosted By
