''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American
late-night talk show hosted by
Johnny Carson on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
, the third iteration of the
''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, 1992.
Ed McMahon
Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was an American announcer, game show host, comedian, actor, singer, and combat aviator. McMahon and Johnny Carson began their association in their first TV series, the ABC game sh ...
served as Carson's
sidekick
A sidekick is a slang expression for a close companion or colleague (not necessarily in fiction) who is, or is generally regarded as, subordinate to the one they accompany.
Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, ...
and the show's
announcer
An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience of a broadcast media programme or live event.
Television and other media
Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaking, usually providing narration ...
.
For its first decade, Johnny Carson's ''The Tonight Show'' was based at
30 Rockefeller Plaza
30 Rockefeller Plaza (officially the Comcast Building; formerly RCA Building and GE Building) is a skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Completed in 1933, the 66-s ...
, New York City, with some episodes recorded at
NBC Studios in
Burbank, California; on May 1, 1972, the show moved to Burbank as its main venue and remained there exclusively after May 1973 until Carson's retirement. The show's
house band, the
NBC Orchestra, was led by
Skitch Henderson
Lyle Russel "Skitch" Henderson (January 27, 1918 – November 1, 2005) was a pianist, conductor, and composer. His nickname "Skitch" came from his ability to "re-sketch" a song in a different key. Bing Crosby suggested that he should use the ...
, until 1966 when
Milton Delugg took over, who was succeeded by
Doc Severinsen less than a year later.
The series has been ranked as one of the greatest TV shows of all time in polls from both 2002 and 2013.
Format
Johnny Carson's ''Tonight Show'' established the modern format of the late-night talk show: a
monologue sprinkled with a rapid-fire series of 16 to 22 one-liners (Carson had a rule of no more than three on the same subject) was followed by
sketch comedy, then moving on to guest interviews and performances by musicians and
stand-up comedians
Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up.
Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...
. Occasionally, Carson interviewed prominent politicians such as
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
,
Ronald Reagan,
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
,
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, ...
, and
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...
, however Carson refused to discuss his personal political views on the show out of concern it might alienate his audience. Other regulars were selected for their entertainment or information value, in contrast to those who offered more cerebral conversation;
His preference for access to
Hollywood stars caused the show's move to the West Coast on May 1, 1972; ''The Tonight Show'' would not return to New York until 2014 when Jimmy Fallon took the hosting reins. When asked about intellectual conversation on ''The Tonight Show'', Carson and his staff invariably cited "
Carl Sagan,
Paul Ehrlich
Paul Ehrlich (; 14 March 1854 – 20 August 1915) was a Nobel Prize-winning German physician and scientist who worked in the fields of hematology, immunology, and antimicrobial chemotherapy. Among his foremost achievements were finding a cure ...
,
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard C ...
,
Gore Vidal
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...
,
Shana Alexander
Shana Alexander (October 6, 1925 – June 23, 2005) was an American journalist. Although she became the first woman staff writer and columnist for ''Life'' magazine, she was best known for her participation in the "Point-Counterpoint" debate seg ...
,
Madalyn Murray O'Hair" as guests; one television critic stated, however, "he always presented them as if they were spinach for your diet when he did
eature such names"
Family therapist
Carlfred Broderick
Carlfred Bartholomew Broderick (April 7, 1932 – July 27, 1999) was an American psychologist, sociologist, and family therapist, a scholar of marriage and family relations at the University of Southern California, and an author of several books. ...
appeared on the show ten times,
["Carlfred B. Broderick, Noted Sociologist, Dies at 67"](_blank)
''USC News,'' September 6, 1999. Retrieved April 30, 2017. and psychologist
Joyce Brothers
Joyce Diane Brothers (October 20, 1927 – May 13, 2013) was an American psychologist, television personality, advice columnist, and writer.
She first became famous in 1955 for winning the top prize on the American game show '' The $64,000 Ques ...
was one of Carson's most frequent guests. Carson, in general, did not feature
prop comedy
Prop comedy is a comedy genre in which performers use humorous objects, or conventional objects in humorous ways. The stages and films term "prop", an abbreviation of "property", refers to any object an actor handles in the course of a performance ...
acts (Carson was not averse to using prop comedy himself); such acts, with
Gallagher being a prominent example, more commonly appeared when guest hosts helmed the program.
[Episode 145 – Gallagher](_blank)
''WTF with Marc Maron
''WTF with Marc Maron'' is a weekly podcast and radio show hosted by stand-up comedian Marc Maron. The show was launched in September 2009. The show is produced by Maron's former Air America co-worker Brendan McDonald.
Background
The show's ti ...
'', wtfpod.com
Carson almost never socialized with guests before or after the show; frequent interviewee
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
recalled that ''Tonight Show'' employees were astonished when Carson visited Welles's dressing room to say hello before a show. Unlike his avuncular counterparts
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 he hosted his own t ...
,
Mike Douglas, and
Dick Cavett, Carson was a comparatively "cool" host who only laughed when genuinely amused and abruptly cut short monotonous or embarrassingly inept interviewees.
Mort Sahl
Morton Lyon Sahl (May 11, 1927 – October 26, 2021) was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, and social satirist, considered the first modern comedian. Sahl pioneered a style of social satire that pokes fun at political and current event t ...
recalled, "The producer crouches just off camera and holds up a card that says, 'Go to commercial.' So Carson goes to a commercial and the whole team rushes up to his desk to discuss what had gone wrong, like a pit stop at
Le Mans." Actor
Robert Blake Robert Blake may refer to:
Sportspeople
* Bob Blake (American football) (1885–1962), American football player
* Robbie Blake (born 1976), English footballer
* Bob Blake (ice hockey) (1914–2008), American ice hockey player
* Rob Blake (born 196 ...
once compared being interviewed by Carson to "facing the death squad" or "Broadway on opening night." The publicity value of appearing on ''The Tonight Show'' was so great, however, that most guests were willing to subject themselves to the risk.
Show regulars
Ed McMahon
The series' announcer and Carson's sidekick was
Ed McMahon
Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. (March 6, 1923 – June 23, 2009) was an American announcer, game show host, comedian, actor, singer, and combat aviator. McMahon and Johnny Carson began their association in their first TV series, the ABC game sh ...
, who from the first show would introduce Carson with a drawn-out ''"Here's Johnny!"'' (something McMahon was inspired to do by the overemphasized way he had introduced reporter
Robert Pierpoint Robert Pierpoint may refer to:
* Robert Pierpoint (journalist) (1925–2011), American broadcast journalist
* Robert Pierpoint (British politician) (1845–1932), member of parliament for Warrington
* Robert Pierpoint (Vermont politician)
Robert ...
on the NBC Radio Network program ''
Monitor
Monitor or monitor may refer to:
Places
* Monitor, Alberta
* Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States
* Monitor, Kentucky
* Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States
* Monitor, Washington
* Monitor, Logan County, West ...
''). The catchphrase was heard nightly for 30 years, and ranked top of the
TV Land
TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division. Originally a spinoff of Nick at Nite consisting exclusively of classic television shows, the channel now airs a combination of recent and cl ...
poll of U.S. TV catchphrases and quotes in 2006; it has been referenced in all media going from ''
The Shining'' to
Johnny Bravo
''Johnny Bravo'' is an American animated comedy television series created by Van Partible for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. It is the second of the network's Cartoon Cartoons, which aired fr ...
to a "Weird Al" Yankovic
album cut; it was even used for the character
Johnny Cage
Johnny Cage is a fictional character in the ''Mortal Kombat'' fighting game franchise by Midway Games/ NetherRealm Studios. Introduced in the original 1992 game, he is an action movie star with an extensive martial arts background. The series d ...
in the video game series ''
Mortal Kombat''.
McMahon, who held the same role in Carson's
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
game show ''
Who Do You Trust?
''Who Do You Trust?'' (originally titled ''Do You Trust Your Wife?'' until July 1958) is an American television game show. The show aired from September 30, 1957 to November 15, 1957, at 4:30 pm Eastern on ABC, and from November 18, 1957 ...
'' for five years previously, would remain standing to the side as Carson did his monologue, laughing (sometimes obsequiously) at his jokes, then join him at the guest chair when Carson moved to his desk. The two would usually interact in a comic spot for a short while before the first guest was introduced.
McMahon stated in a 1978 profile of Carson in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' that "the 'Tonight Show' is my staple diet, my meat and potatoes—I'm realistic enough to know that everything else stems from that." After a 1965 incident in which he ruined Carson's joke on the air McMahon was careful to, as he said, "never to go where
arsons going." He wrote in his
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
autobiography:
Bandleaders and others
![Doc Severinsen 1974](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Doc_Severinsen_1974.JPG)
''The Tonight Show'' had a live
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
for nearly all of its existence. The
NBC Orchestra during Carson's reign was originally led by
Skitch Henderson
Lyle Russel "Skitch" Henderson (January 27, 1918 – November 1, 2005) was a pianist, conductor, and composer. His nickname "Skitch" came from his ability to "re-sketch" a song in a different key. Bing Crosby suggested that he should use the ...
(who had previously led the band during ''
Tonight Starring Steve Allen
''Tonight Starring Steve Allen'' is an American talk show hosted by Steve Allen. It was the first version of what eventually became known as ''The Tonight Show''. ''Tonight'' was the first late-night talk show, as well as the first late night tel ...
''), followed briefly by
Milton DeLugg. Starting in 1967 and continuing until
Jay Leno took over, the band was led by
Doc Severinsen, with
Tommy Newsom
Thomas Penn Newsom (February 25, 1929 – April 28, 2007) was a saxophone player in the NBC Orchestra on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'', for which he later became assistant director. Newsom was frequently the band's substitute dir ...
filling in for him when he was absent or filling in for McMahon as the announcer (this usually happened when a guest host substituted for Carson, which generally gave McMahon the night off as well).
The series' instrumental
theme music
Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...
, "
Johnny's Theme," was a re-arrangement of the
Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known for his signature hit songs including " Diana", " Lonely Boy", " Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and "(You're) Having My Baby". Anka also ...
composition "Toot Sweet," which Anka and
Annette Funicello had separately recorded, with lyrics, as "It's Really Love."
During shows when Newsom filled in for Severinsen, the band played a slightly truncated version of the theme that transitioned from the bridge to the closing phrase without reprising the first few notes of the main melody. The
NBC Orchestra was the last in-house studio orchestra to perform on American television.
Behind the scenes, motion picture director/producer
Fred de Cordova
Frederick Timmins de Cordova (October 27, 1910 – September 15, 2001) was an American stage, motion picture and television director and producer. He is best known for his work on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''.
Early life
De Cordova ...
joined ''The Tonight Show'' in 1970 as producer, graduating to
executive producer in 1984. Unlike many people of his position, de Cordova often appeared on the show, bantering with Carson from his chair off-camera (though occasionally a camera would be pointed in his direction).
Recurring segments and skits
Characters
*
Carnac the Magnificent
Carnac the Magnificent was a recurring comedic role played by Johnny Carson on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''. One of Carson's most well-known characters, Carnac was a "mystic from the East" who could psychically "divine" unknown an ...
, in which Carson played a psychic who clairvoyantly divined the answer to a question contained in a sealed envelope. This was to some degree a variation on
Steve Allen
Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, and writer. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-cre ...
's recurring "The Question Man" sketch. The answer was always an outrageous pun. "Carnac" examples:
**''"
Debate
Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, a ...
" ... "What do you use to catch de fish?"''
**''"
Baja" ... "What sound does a sheep make when it laughs?"''
**''"
Ben-Gay
Bengay, spelled Ben-Gay before 1995, is a topical analgesic heat rub for temporary relief from muscle and joint pain associated with arthritis, bruises, simple backaches, overuse, sprains and strains.
Overview
Bengay was developed in France b ...
" ... "Why didn't
Mrs. Franklin have any kids?"''
**''"
A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou" ... "Name three things that have yeast."''
**''"
Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night is an American rock band formed in 1967, with founding members consisting of vocalists Danny Hutton, Cory Wells, and Chuck Negron. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Michael A ...
" ... "What's a bad night for a tree?"''
**''"
Mount Baldy" ... "What did
Yul Brynner
Yuliy Borisovich Briner (russian: link=no, Юлий Борисович Бринер; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985), known professionally as Yul Brynner, was a Russian-born actor. He was best known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in th ...
's wife do on their wedding night?"'' also ''"How do you play 'horsey' with
Don Rickles
Donald Jay Rickles (May 8, 1926 – April 6, 2017) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He became known primarily for his insult comedy. His film roles include ''Run Silent, Run Deep'' (1958) with Clark Gable, Carl Reiner's ''Enter La ...
?"''
**
**''"