Trivia / The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

• All-Star Cast: The same episode that originated the Copper Clapper Caper also featured a Mighty Carson Art Players presentation of a Mutiny on the Bounty parody. The "Players" other than Johnny were James Garner,^note (Fletcher Christian) Richard Crenna,^note (unnamed, likely Alexander Smith) Dan Rowan,^note (Able Seaman Rowan) Dick Martin,^note (Able Seaman Martin) and Milton Berle.^note (The Cook)
• Creator's Favorite:
  • Burt Reynolds was on the show over sixty times during the 30-year run.
  • Bob Hope was also on a lot, but it should be noted that he was not Johnny's favorite guest; because of Hope's pull with NBC, he was given the privilege to essentially book himself onto the show whenever he had something to promote (usually one of his comedy specials for the network). Bob had an already-prepared and very convoluted set-up for his interviews where Johnny would have to repeatedly set up Bob's prepared punchlines, which made Johnny feel very confined. Bob was also hard of hearing in later years, so if Johnny went out of order, Bob might accidentally answer the wrong question. According to former head writer Andrew Nicholls:
    Andrew Nicholls: There was nothing spontaneous about Hope. He was a guy who relied on his writers for every topic. Johnny was very quick on his feet. Very well read. He was a guy who learned Swahili, learned Russian, learned astronomy. He appreciated people who he felt engaged with the real world. There was nothing to talk to Bob about.
  • Other frequent guests included David Steinberg, David Brenner, Bob Newhart, Don Rickles, Buddy Hackett, George Carlin, Orson Bean, Charles Nelson Reilly, David Letterman, Dom DeLuise, and Carl Reiner. Many of these episodes are now streamed by Shout! Factory.
• Edited for Syndication:
  • In 1983, a Clip Show series called Carson's Comedy Classics was offered to local stations. Each half-hour episode consisted of two or three extended segments, usually "Mighty Carson Art Players" skits and/or segments with Carson characters such as Carnac and Aunt Blabby, plus shorter segments (i.e. commercial spoofs).
  • The Tonight: 4 Decades of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 15-disc DVD set sounds fantastic... except all the episodes are edited in some fashion; certain episodes are chopped down from the standard 43 minutes to a mere 23 minutes!
  • Also applies to the Antenna TV run; as NBC owns the name "The Tonight Show", a new title sequence had to be made, referring to the show as simply "Johnny Carson". Unlike Carson's Comedy Classics, these are the full episodes, although occasionally musical performances are cut due to licensing issues. Said issues carry over to the music coming back from commercials, with Antenna replacing them all with various stock music pieces. Once you know that, it's a little weird seeing Ed praise Doc and the NBC Orchestra, since they didn't actually play the songs.
  • There are episodes on Amazon Prime as well, and they're mostly complete, but like the Antenna TV airings, they're not allowed to use The Tonight Show name so the intros are redone. Additionally, all the title cards are removed, and there is no stock music when guests enter, just applause.
• Executive Meddling:
  • As was common for the era, Johnny couldn't say what network a show was on if it wasn't NBC; he could only say "it airs on another network". The rule was relaxed starting with Leno's era.
  • As noted above, NBC gave Bob Hope carte blanche to book himself onto The Tonight Show whenever he had something to promote (usually, it must be said, one of his many NBC specials). Hope, notoriously unable to function without having all his jokes written for him ahead of time, came armed with a script which Johnny had to follow to the letter. Johnny, who preferred interviewing guests spontaneously and letting the conversation flow naturally, despised doing this, but swallowed his pride. Given how much pull Johnny had at NBC and the great lengths they went to in order to keep him onside, the fact that Hope could steamroll him like this really says something about how much pull he had.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: With selected episodes officially being released on DVD, Carson Productions is becoming increasingly insistent on having unauthorized YouTube Carson clips removed from the site. To their credit, Carson Productions has been releasing a good number of complete episodes (usually the mid-'70s 90-minute episodes) on YouTube for free viewing. And for the first time since 1992, the Carson shows are airing again on broadcast television, specifically the subchannel Antenna TV. When episodes started on Antenna TV, Carson Productions opened their licensing vault to the general public. New registrations are now likely limited to media personnel, though. Episodes featuring such Guest Hosts as Joan Rivers, Garry Shandling, and Jay Leno are unavailable to the public under the current arrangement.
• Milestone Celebration: Prime-time specials to observe his anniversary – 1972, to celebrate Carson's 10th anniversary of hosting the show; 1977, for his 15th; and annually from 1979-1991. The first special was rather limited as far as showing "classic" highlights, since most shows had been erased or recorded over, although famous moments – i.e., Ed Ames' tomahawk throw, the Dragnet parody, Tiny Tim's wedding and others – were preserved and shown. The later specials had more archived clips, since all shows produced after sometime in 1972 exist.
• Missing Episode:
  • Much of the first ten years, due to tape reuse. 1972-92 (coinciding with the show's move to Burbank) are intact.
  • The Antenna TV reruns almost entirely skip the guest hosted episodes, so unless you happen to have them taped off TV from their initial airings, good luck seeing them.
• Referenced by...: Has its' own page.

---