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82-542: David Letterman's relationship with NBC began in 1978, when he made his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson . Over the next two years Letterman returned to the show several times, and occasionally served as guest host in Carson's absence. NBC's president Fred Silverman was so impressed by Letterman's performance that he decided to offer him a morning talk show. In early 1980, NBC's daytime morning lineup consisted of six game shows. The David Letterman Show

164-449: A "Weird Al" Yankovic album cut ; it was even used for the character Johnny Cage in the video game series Mortal Kombat . McMahon, who held the same role in Carson's ABC game show Who Do You Trust? 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

246-515: A production assistant in 1980 before being promoted to production coordinator and assistant producer. As a producer, she was nominated for the Emmy eleven times and won five consecutive awards for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Program. She became one of the most popular staff members with audiences, appearing regularly on the show in segments such as "How's the Weather?", in which Letterman would call

328-704: A 2:00 a.m. comedy-club edge. He reached for his emergency weapons. Let go, he let go. By the beginning of October, audiences were packing themselves into the studio." College boys hitched cross-country with petitions to save him. Some Long Island housewives threatened to block Manhattan traffic until the network relented. For the next year, NBC paid him $ 1,000,000 ($ 20,000 a week) to do nothing except not work for someone else without their permission, which included guest-hosting The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on multiple occasions. Letterman's next program, Late Night premiered on February 1, 1982, replacing Tom Snyder's Tomorrow program. Approximately 83 episodes (of

410-428: 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 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

492-517: 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 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 [Carson]'s going." He wrote in his 1998 autobiography: My role on

574-409: A free agent since April of that year because his most recent contract had been signed in 1972. Carson cited a California law barring certain contracts from lasting more than seven years . NBC claimed that it had signed three agreements since then and Carson was bound to the network until April 1981. While the case was settled out of court, the friction between Carson and the network remained and Carson

656-655: A guest appearance by Tallulah Bankhead (one of her last), was preserved on poor-quality home kinescope and audiotape in separate recordings by Beatles fans. Similarly, the Supremes ' May 22, 1967 appearance survives on poor-quality kinescope and an audio recording of their April 5, 1968 appearance honoring the recently slain Martin Luther King Jr. was preserved. The program archive is virtually complete from 1973 to 1992. Carson Productions has also made clips available on YouTube and Antenna TV . Although no footage

738-416: A man whose recipe for triple fudge brownies includes two quarts of vodka, sauerkraut, and a heaping tablespoon of love...David Letterman!") Because Letterman owned the rights to The David Letterman Show , he was able to claim ownership of all the sketches that originally aired on it; this would prove valuable in 1993, when Letterman left NBC to launch The Late Show on CBS . NBC wanted to claim that much of

820-525: A note following the accidental death of Carson's son Ricky in June 1991. On February 17, 2014, Rivers returned to the Tonight Show as part of a skit in which numerous celebrities paid new host, Jimmy Fallon , after having lost the bet that he would never become the host of the program. Rivers appeared for a full-length interview segment on March 27, 2014. The program of July 26, 1984, with guest host Joan Rivers,

902-572: A random number in a phone book Gaines picked out and ask about the weather. She also worked on production for the Orange Bowl Parade ; One of the Boys , a comedy series starring Mickey Rooney , Nathan Lane and Dana Carvey ; and The $ 50,000 Pyramid . Gaines made the 2008 Ten Amazing Gay Women in Showbiz list. Since 2022, Gaines has co-hosted The Barbara Gaines Show alongside Dave Letterman on

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984-425: A rule of no more than three on the same subject) was sometimes followed by sketch comedy , then moving on to guest interviews and performances by musicians and stand-up comedians , in no fixed order. Occasionally, Carson interviewed prominent politicians such as Richard Nixon , Ronald Reagan , Bill Clinton , Robert F. Kennedy , and Hubert Humphrey , however Carson refused to discuss his personal political views on

1066-412: A show. In contrast to the avuncular mien ( Merv Griffin , Mike Douglas ) and loquacious erudition ( Dick Cavett ) evinced by his contemporaries, Carson was a comparatively "cool" host who only laughed when genuinely amused; additionally, it was not uncommon for him to abruptly cut short monotonous or embarrassingly inept interviewees. Mort Sahl recalled, "The producer crouches just off camera and holds up

1148-517: A stool alone at center stage, similar to Jack Paar 's last show. He said these final words in conclusion: Barbara Gaines (television producer) Barbara Gaines (born June 1, 1956) is a former executive producer of the Late Show with David Letterman . She held that position from May 2000 to the show's finale in 2015. She graduated in 1979 from Ithaca College with a BA in educational television. She started on The David Letterman Show as

1230-439: A week 37 weeks a year (a guest host would appear Monday nights and for most of Carson's 15 weeks of vacation and "Best of Carson" reruns would air Tuesdays) and also give him ownership of the show, as well as its back catalog, and of the time slot following the Tonight Show which became Late Night with David Letterman produced by Carson Productions. In September 1980, Carson's eponymous production company gained ownership of

1312-430: A week, 37 weeks a year. "Best of Carson" reruns aired on Tuesdays in the weeks that Carson was hosting new shows. Monday night shows and shows for most of the 15 weeks that Carson had off were hosted by guest hosts. Due to the frequent need for substitutes, starting in 1983 permanent guest hosts were hired in order to give the program more stability. The permanent guest hosts were Joan Rivers (1983–1986), then, after about

1394-417: A year where a wide range of guest hosts were used, Garry Shandling alternating with Jay Leno (1987–1988). Shandling, who guest-hosted 37 times, left to focus on his Showtime series It's Garry Shandling's Show . This left Leno alone as the sole permanent guest host from August 1988 on. Leno first guest hosted in 1986, and would do so 333 times before becoming the next Tonight Show host in 1992. Though

1476-497: A young Bill Maher was an audience member on the show's first episode, and Conan O'Brien claims he hitchhiked to New York just to see a broadcast in Studio 6A (which has also been home to some of Jack Paar 's NBC programs, and then eventually Letterman and O'Brien's versions of the network's Late Night franchise). The final weeks of the show received particular acclaim. Esquire noted, "He cut loose with his own jokes until they had

1558-747: Is a list of those who guest-hosted at least 50 times: Impressionist Rich Little guest hosted 12 times during the 1970s. Sammy Davis Jr. guest hosted on November 23, 1964, becoming the first African-American to host a talk show, and then guest hosted for a week in August 1966. Harry Belafonte guest hosted for a week in February 1968, and among Belafonte's guests were Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. , just months before both men were assassinated ( King in April ; Kennedy in June ). On April 2, 1979, Kermit

1640-408: Is a long time." He paused long enough for me to recognize my cue, so I asked, "How long is it?" "That's why you're here," he said, probably summing up my primary role on the show perfectly... I had to support him, I had to help him get to the punch line , but while doing it I had to make it look as if I wasn't doing anything at all. The better I did it, the less it appeared as if I was doing it....If I

1722-417: Is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC . The show is the third installment of The Tonight Show . Hosted by Johnny Carson , it aired from October 1, 1962 to May 22, 1992, replacing Tonight Starring Jack Paar and was replaced by The Tonight Show with Jay Leno . Ed McMahon served as Carson's sidekick and the show's announcer . For its first decade, Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show

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1804-966: Is distributed through various free over-the-top platforms , including Stirr , Xumo and Pluto TV . Recently, The Roku Channel began streaming JohnnyCarsonTV on its multi-channel platform LiveTV. Jack Paar had often asked Carson to guest-host Tonight in its earliest years and repeatedly claimed he had been responsible for NBC's selection of Carson in 1962 as his replacement. Steve Allen also utilized guest hosts, including Carson and Ernie Kovacs , particularly after he began hosting The Steve Allen Show in prime time in 1956 and needed to reduce his workload on Tonight . The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson had guest hosts for entire weeks during Carson's vacations and other nights he had off. Many guest hosts were already large names in their own right, among them Frank Sinatra , Burt Reynolds , Don Rickles , Tony Danza , and Steve Martin . Comedian Woody Allen guest hosted three times between 1966 and 1971. The following

1886-458: Is enough. It's time to get out while you're still working on top of your game, while you're still working well." Carson hosted his penultimate show, featuring guests Robin Williams and Bette Midler , on May 21, 1992. The last of Carson's monologues was delivered on this episode and was written by Jim Mulholland, Steven Kunes and Rift Fournier. Once underway, the atmosphere was electric and Carson

1968-416: Is known to remain of Carson's first broadcast as host of The Tonight Show on October 1, 1962, photographs taken that night survive, including Carson being introduced by Groucho Marx , as does an audio recording of Marx's introduction and Carson's first monologue . One of his first jokes upon starting the show (after receiving a few words of encouragement from Marx, one of which was, "Don't go to Hollywood!")

2050-630: The Library of Congress in the Armed Forces Radio collection. Many 1970s-era episodes have been licensed to distributors that advertise mail-order offers on late-night TV. The later shows that exist in full were stored by Carson in a bomb-proof underground salt mine outside Hutchinson, Kansas . The non-tape archives pertaining to Carson's show are held by the Elkhorn Valley Museum in Carson's hometown of Norfolk, Nebraska . Beginning in 2020,

2132-497: The NBC Orchestra , was led by Skitch Henderson , 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. 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

2214-441: The Tonight Show by a half-hour—would begin preempting the program entirely and replace it with syndicated reruns to generate extra revenue from local advertising. In an onscreen eulogy to Carson in 2005, David Letterman said that every talk show host owes his livelihood to Johnny Carson during his Tonight Show run. In 1979, when Fred Silverman was the head of NBC, Carson took the network to court, claiming that he had been

2296-471: The Tonight Show specifically to disprove the Israeli performer's claims. Randi later wrote, "that Johnny had been a magician himself", so prior to the date of taping, Randi was asked "to help prevent any trickery." Per Randi's advice, the show prepared their own props without informing Geller, and did not let Geller or his staff "anywhere near them." When Geller joined Carson on stage, he appeared surprised that he

2378-427: The Tonight Show. These spoofs typically ran in the sitcom's usual spot on the broadcast schedule and featured one of the sitcom's main characters as the guest host. In September 1983, Joan Rivers was designated Carson's permanent guest host, a role she had been essentially filling for the previous year. In 1986, after years as a guest and 190 total appearances as guest host, she left the program for her own show on

2460-860: The 90 produced) are held in the archives of Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants ; a brief clip from the finale was shown on Letterman's 15th anniversary show in 1997, and similarly brief clips from several episodes were featured as interstitials on the Late Show's final episode in 2015. Some episodes are available for on-site viewing at the Paley Center for Media in New York. In 2022, Letterman started releasing interviews from this program (in addition to his later shows) on his official YouTube channel, after longtime Letterman-archivist Don Giller did this on his own fan channel. The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

2542-580: The Frog was guest host. In addition, many other Muppets appeared for skits and regular segments: Frank Oz voiced Fozzie Bear and Animal, while Jerry Nelson performed Uncle Deadly, a Vincent Price –inspired Muppet during a segment with the real Price. Richard Dawson guest hosted 14 times during 1979 and 1980, and was being considered as a full-time replacement should Carson have retired during his 1980 contract dispute with NBC. Carson's contract, that took effect in 1981, reduced his work schedule to three nights

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2624-679: The Tonight Show writing staff from 1970 to 1975. If the laughter fell short when a line bombed (as it often did), "Carnac" would face the audience with mock seriousness and bestow a comic curse: "May a diseased yak befriend your sister!" or "May a rabid holy man bless your nether regions with a power tool!" Some bits are desk pieces, others are stand-ups , however the multiperson sketches are collectively referred to as by The Mighty Carson Art Players , with sketch series that include Tea Time Movie with Art Fern , and Home Shopping Network(?) with Sheila McShallow . Jack Paar 's last appearance

2706-493: 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 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

2788-406: The concept of using "permanent" guest hosts was fairly strictly adhered to, occasionally illness or some other situation necessitated a substitute guest host, as when David Brenner filled in for Joan Rivers on October 31 and November 1, 1985, when Rivers' husband was briefly hospitalized. During the show's run, its cast and crew collaborated with a number of NBC sitcoms to produce spoof episodes of

2870-566: The early 1970s, but then thrown out to free storage space after the show moved to Burbank, California . When Carson later learned of their destruction, he was furious. Other surviving material from the era has been found on kinescopes held in the archives of the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service , or in the personal collections of guests of the program, while a few moments such as Tiny Tim 's wedding, were preserved. New York meteorologist Dr. Frank Field , an occasional guest during

2952-514: The first fifteen minutes of the show between February 1965 and December 1966 without Carson, who then took over at 11:30. Finally, because he wanted the show to start when he came on, at the beginning of January 1967 Carson insisted the 11:15 segment be eliminated (which, he claimed in a monologue at the time, "no one actually watched except the Armed Forces and four Navajos in Gallup, New Mexico "). By

3034-630: The first five years of Late Night .) Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers wrote the opening theme of the show. Behind the scenes were (after the first few weeks) Hal Gurnee directing, with Biff Henderson serving as stage manager, a role he served for the next 35 years of Letterman's career. The writing staff initially consisted of Merrill Markoe (head writer), Valri Bromfield , Rich Hall , Harold Kimmel, Edie McClurg , Gerard Mulligan , Paul Raley, Will Shriner, Bob Sarlatte and Ed Subitsky. (Bromfield, McClurg, Kimmel, and Sarlatte left before

3116-465: The first line, Carson joined in and turned it into an impromptu duet. Midler finished her appearance from center stage, where she slowly sang the pop standard " One for My Baby (and One More for the Road) ." Carson became unexpectedly tearful, and a shot of the two of them was captured by a camera angle from across the set that had never before been used on the show. The audience became tearful as well and called

3198-493: The latter, retiring altogether. In order to work fewer days each week, Carson began to petition network executives in 1974 that reruns on the weekends be discontinued, in favor of showing them on one or more nights during the week. In response to his demands, NBC created a new comedy/variety series to feed to affiliates on Saturday nights that debuted in October 1975, Saturday Night Live . In 1980, Carson renewed his contract with

3280-403: The mid-1970s Tonight was the most profitable show on television, making NBC $ 50 to $ 60 million ($ 230 to $ 280 million in 2023) each year. Carson influenced the scheduling of reruns (which typically aired under the title The Best of Carson ) in the mid-1970s and, in 1980, the length of each evening's broadcast, by threatening NBC with, in the first case, moving to another network, and in

3362-451: The mid-2000s. In 2014, Turner Classic Movies would begin rerunning select interviews from the program for a new series called "Carson on TCM" presented by Conan O'Brien , who himself hosted The Tonight Show briefly. The digital multicast network Antenna TV acquired rerun rights to whole episodes of the series in August 2015. Unlike the previous clip shows , Antenna TV's airings feature full broadcasts as they were originally seen, with

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3444-492: The monologue, the other that listed the guests and re-announced the host, starting at 11:30 p.m. The two openings gave affiliates the option of screening either a fifteen-minute or thirty-minute local newscast preceding Carson. Since 1959, the show had been videotaped earlier the same broadcast day. As more affiliates introduced thirty minutes of local news, Carson's monologue was being seen by fewer people. To rectify this situation, Ed McMahon and Skitch Henderson co-hosted

3526-548: The museum began working with the National Comedy Center to preserve the archive. A large amount of material from Carson's first two decades of The Tonight Show (1962–1982), much of it not seen since it had first aired, appeared in a half hour "clip/compilation" syndicated program known as Carson's Comedy Classics that aired in 1983. Audio clips from the show were featured nightly on WHO-AM in Des Moines, Iowa , in

3608-663: The name Tomorrow Coast to Coast . This was short-lived as a year and a half later, Snyder had quit and Tomorrow Coast to Coast had been canceled. Carson was given authority to fill the vacant time slot and used it to create Late Night with David Letterman (1982–1993). Today, The Tonight Show remains one hour in length and is still followed by Late Night , currently under the title Late Night with Seth Meyers (2014–). In May 1991, following positive viewer reception during tests in St. Louis ( KSDK ) and Dallas – Fort Worth ( KXAS ), NBC reached an agreement with Carson Productions to delay

3690-542: The official Letterman YouTube channel. Gaines met her partner Aari Blake Ludvigsen in 1991. They are married. Their son was born in 2006. Gaines belongs to Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST), the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Straight Synagogue in New York, and in 2010 did a video with the Strength Through Community project at CBST about her life and experiences. This article about

3772-625: The only edits being removal of The Tonight Show name, with the show being renamed simply as Johnny Carson (as of January 2018, the broadcasts air opposite the current edition of The Tonight Show in much of the United States, and NBC still owns the trademark on that name), and with bumpers, walk-on music and the closing theme being replaced by generic music cues from the Warner/Chappell Production Music library. Most musical guest segments are also removed. Antenna TV began airing

3854-401: The remainder of the staff handled; Brickman remarked in a 2009 interview that this was the main reason why he, at 25, got his position without any major experience, since all of the other writers under Cavett declined the offer. Brickman was succeeded as head writer by Hank Bradford, a writer and stand-up comedian who had performed his routine on the show multiple times in the 1960s, and who lead

3936-641: The risk. The series' announcer and Carson's sidekick was Ed McMahon , 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 on the NBC Radio Network program Monitor ). The catchphrase was heard nightly for 30 years, and ranked top of the TV Land poll of U.S. TV catchphrases and quotes in 2006; it has been referenced in lots of media going from The Shining to Johnny Bravo to

4018-488: The show after owning it from 1969 to the early 1970s. Only 33 complete episodes of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show that had originally aired prior to May 1, 1972, are known to exist. All other shows during this period, including Carson's debut as host, are now considered lost. Carson himself initially encouraged the erasure of his archives thinking that the shows were of no real value and that NBC should "make guitar picks" out of them. Carson's shows were preserved by NBC into

4100-424: The show between six weeks and three months of its debut, while the other (initially uncredited) regulars stuck through to the end. Familiar bits that became staples of Letterman's comedy on his later shows were originally introduced on this show. They include: "Small Town News", "Stupid Pet Tricks", and an ever-changing non-sequitur opening introduction immediately before Letterman is seen on camera. (e.g., "And now,

4182-439: The show never was strictly defined. I did what had to be done when it had to be done. I was there when he needed me, and when he didn't I moved down the couch and kept quiet. ... I did the audience warm-up , I did commercials, for a brief period I co-hosted the first fifteen minutes of the show..., and I performed in many sketches . On our thirteenth-anniversary show Johnny and I were talking at his desk and he said, "Thirteen years

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4264-409: The show out of concern it might alienate his audience and resisted efforts from his writing staff, particularly head writer and admitted liberal Marshall Brickman , to include more political material in the show. 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

4346-419: The show seven days a week beginning January 1, 2016. Currently, 60-minute episodes (from September 1980 – May 1992) air Monday through Friday nights, and 90-minute episodes (from 1972 – September 12, 1980) Saturday and Sunday nights. Selected episodes of Carson's show are available on NBC's Peacock streaming service. Shout! Factory launched a 24/7 streaming channel devoted to the series in August 2020, which

4428-546: The show ten times, and psychologist Joyce Brothers was one of Carson's most frequent guests. Carson, in general, did not feature prop comedy 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. Carson almost never socialized with guests before or after the show; frequent interviewee Orson Welles recalled that Tonight Show employees were astonished when Carson visited Welles's dressing room to say hello before

4510-468: The show's de facto producer despite having absolutely no prior experience in the role. Much more comfortable as a writer than as producer, Markoe stayed aboard as the show's head writer for the entire run of the series, but was succeeded as producer by Barry Sand. Sand joined the show as of the July 15th episode, and remained at the helm for the rest of its run. (Sand later returned to Letterman as producer for

4592-584: The show's end; added to the staff through the run were Ron Richards, Gary Jacobs and Letterman himself, not credited as a writer on early episodes.) All the writers appeared on camera, some fairly frequently. Seen most often, usually in character being interviewed by Dave, were: Early publicity photos for the show (issued prior to the first broadcast) showed the cast as a quartet of Letterman, Bromfield, McClurg and Sarlette, and in early episodes, only Bromfield, McClurg and Sarlette were identified as cast members. Ironically, Bromfield, McClurg and Sarlette all left

4674-748: The show's move to the West Coast on May 1, 1972. The show would however would continue to have episodes filmed in New York until 1973 when production moved to Hollywood permanently. 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 , Margaret Mead , Gore Vidal , Shana Alexander , 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 [feature such names]." Family therapist Carlfred Broderick appeared on

4756-493: The show's start time by five minutes beginning September 2, allowing its stations to include more commercials during their local newscasts. (The timeshift would also affect Late Night , Later with Bob Costas , and station-programmed overnight syndicated shows.) NBC executives had been proposing the five-minute delay idea to Carson since 1988, only to be repeatedly rebuffed, amid concerns that some of its affiliates—particularly those that had unsuccessfully sought permission to delay

4838-458: The show, Carson regretted that the first 10 years of his tenure as host no longer exist saying that he would have loved to show the audience clips of Jayne Mansfield with Boris Karloff , Peter Lorre talking to Tallulah Bankhead and even the first appearance of Bette Midler (who had appeared on Carson's penultimate episode the night before) on the show. More than fifty million people tuned in for this finale, which ended with Carson sitting on

4920-421: The show, bantering with Carson from his chair off-camera (though occasionally a camera would be pointed in his direction). Dick Cavett was Carson's original head writer. He was succeeded by Marshall Brickman when Cavett left to pursue a stand-up career in 1964. The Tonight Show writing staff was structured so that the head writer was responsible for all of the material except for the nightly monologues, which

5002-411: The stipulation that the show lose its last half-hour. On the last 90-minute show (September 12, 1980), Carson explained that by going to an hour, the show would feel more fast-paced, and have a greater selection of guests. For a year, Tom Snyder 's existing talk show, Tomorrow , was expanded to 90 minutes and forced to change its format, adding gossip reporter Rona Barrett as a co-host and taking on

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5084-592: The then-new Fox Network . According to Carson, Rivers never personally informed him of the existence of her show. Rivers, on the other hand, disagreed. Nevertheless, Rivers' new show was quickly canceled, and she never again appeared on The Tonight Show with Carson. Nor did she appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno , a ban maintained by Leno out of respect for Carson. She also never appeared during Conan O'Brien's seven-month run. After Carson's death in 2005, Rivers told CNN that Carson never forgave her for leaving, and never spoke to her again, even after she wrote him

5166-461: The three performers out for a second bow after the taping was completed. This show was immediately recognized as a television classic that Midler considered one of the most emotional moments of her life and eventually won an Emmy for her role in it. Carson had no guests on his final episode of The Tonight Show on May 22, 1992, which was instead a retrospective show taped before an invitation-only studio audience of family, friends, and crew. During

5248-408: The time to talk shows , soap operas , game shows , and prime time reruns . The original producer was Bob Stewart , a veteran quiz-show creator who had enlisted Letterman as a panelist on Pyramid from 1978 onward. However, due to creative differences, Stewart left the show four days before its premiere, and production of the first several shows fell to head writer Merrill Markoe , who acted as

5330-413: The work he did on Late Night was the property of NBC, but because those sketches were carryovers from The David Letterman Show , he was allowed to take them to CBS. The production staff consisted of George Callahan, Kim Carney, Lee B. Chernick, Barbara Gaines , Edd Hall , Tim Holton, Brian J. McAloon, Meg Mortimer, Dency Nelson, and David Reale . The news producer was Alan Mohan, and the news writer

5412-450: The years he was weather forecaster for WNBC-TV , showed several clips of his appearances with Carson in a 2002 career retrospective on WWOR-TV ; Field had maintained the clips in his own personal archives. There are also two appearances by Judy Garland in 1968 that still survive. John Lennon and Paul McCartney 's joint appearance on the May 14, 1968 episode guest-hosted by Joe Garagiola , with

5494-526: Was Nick Allen. Bill Kelley was the technical director. The musical director was Frank Owens who led the "David Letterman Symphony Orchestra" (actually a four-person combo) and traded jokes with Letterman. Longtime NBC newsman Edwin Newman provided live news updates in the studio during each broadcast; studio audience members often interrupted his reporting with laughter or groans, as if Newman were an anchor on Saturday Night Live ' s " Weekend Update ". The program

5576-931: Was about to pack up the next day and go back to Tel Aviv . I thought, That's it — I'm destroyed." However, this appearance on The Tonight Show , which Carson and Randi had orchestrated to debunk Geller's claimed abilities, backfired. According to Higginbotham, To Geller's astonishment, he was immediately booked on The Merv Griffin Show . He was on his way to becoming a paranormal superstar. "That Johnny Carson show made Uri Geller," Geller said. To an enthusiastically trusting public, his failure only made his gifts seem more real: If he were performing magic tricks, they would surely work every time. As his retirement approached, Carson tried to avoid sentimentality but would periodically show clips of some of his favorite moments and again invited some of his favorite guests. He told his crew, "Everything comes to an end; nothing lasts forever. Thirty years

5658-497: 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 , " Johnny's Theme ", was a re-arrangement of the Paul Anka 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,

5740-436: Was actively courted by rival network ABC , which was willing to double Carson's salary and offer him a lighter work schedule and ownership of the show. NBC, in turn, was ready to offer The Tonight Show to Carson's most frequent guest host at the time, Richard Dawson . Eventually, Carson reached an agreement that paid $ 25 million a year while reducing his workload from 90 to 60 minutes, with new shows airing only three nights

5822-554: Was based at the RCA Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza , 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 with extended returns to New York for several weeks over the next 12 months. After May 1973, however, the show remained in Burbank exclusively until Carson's retirement. The show's house band ,

5904-509: Was being "pressed" to perform by Carson. According to Adam Higginbotham's Nov. 7, 2014 article in the New York Times : The result was a legendary immolation, in which Geller offered up flustered excuses to his host as his abilities failed him again and again. "I sat there for 22 minutes, humiliated," Geller told me, when I spoke to him in September. "I went back to my hotel, devastated. I

5986-565: Was going to play second fiddle , I wanted to be the Heifetz of second fiddlers....The most difficult thing for me to learn how to do was just sit there with my mouth closed. Many nights I'd be listening to Johnny and in my mind I'd reach the same ad lib just as he said it. I'd have to bite my tongue not to say it out loud. I had to make sure I wasn't too funny—although critics who saw some of my other performances will claim I needn't have worried. If I got too many laughs, I wasn't doing my job; my job

6068-407: Was greeted with a sustained, two-minute intense standing ovation. Williams was especially uninhibited with his trademark manic energy and stream-of-consciousness lunacy. Midler was more emotional. When the conversation turned to Johnny's favorite songs, " I'll Be Seeing You " and " Here's That Rainy Day ," Midler mentioned that she knew a chorus of the latter. She began singing the song, and after

6150-459: Was made possible by the cancellation of three of them: High Rollers , Chain Reaction , and the long-running daytime version of Hollywood Squares . The series was a critical success (and won several Daytime Emmys including the 1981 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Writing ) but the edgy comedy did not go over well with morning television watchers, who were more accustomed at

6232-409: Was not going to be interviewed, but instead was expected to display his abilities using the provided articles. Geller said "This scares me." and "I'm surprised because before this program your producer came and he read me at least 40 questions you were going to ask me." Geller was unable to display any paranormal abilities, saying "I don't feel strong" and he expressed his displeasure at feeling like he

6314-463: Was on March 29, 1962, and due to Carson's commitment to the ABC game show Who Do You Trust? , he could not take over until October 1 (the day his ABC contract expired). His first guests were Rudy Vallée , Tony Bennett , Mel Brooks , and Joan Crawford . Carson inherited from Paar a show that was 1 3/4 hours (105 minutes) long. The show broadcast two openings, one starting at 11:15 p.m. and including

6396-548: Was produced by Space Age Meats, a precursor to Letterman's later production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated . Valri Bromfield, Edie McClurg, Rich Hall, Gerard Mulligan, Ed Subitzky , Merrill Markoe and Paul Raley all appeared on the show and served as writers. Edd Hall (later the announcer on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno ) and Late Show producer Barbara Gaines were both production assistants , while stage manager Biff Henderson and director Hal Gurnee followed Dave to his next two shows. Announcer/comedian Bob Sarlatte

6478-810: Was replaced partway through the run by Bill Wendell , who also announced on Dave's next two shows until his retirement in 1995. Among guests who appeared were Steve Allen , Andy Kaufman , Wil Shriner , Dinah Shore , Tom Snyder , photojournalists Jon & Keiko Alpert , keyboardist Suzanne Ciani , Dr. Isaac Asimov and Jeff Greenfield , who reviewed the first show while it was on the air. The show's musical guests included Loudon Wainwright III , The Drifters , Janis Ian , Irene Cara , Maria Muldaur , Nell Carter , Judy Collins , John Sebastian , Tom Rush , Lionel Hampton , Charles Aznavour , Tracy Nelson, Linda Hopkins , Esther Satterfield , Lacy J. Dalton , Michael Franks, Gerard Kenny , John Hartford , and Harve Mann. In one of his earliest television appearances,

6560-533: Was the first MTS stereo broadcast in U.S. television history, though not the first television broadcast with stereophonic sound . Only NBC's flagship local station in New York City, WNBC , had stereo broadcast capability at that time. NBC transmitted The Tonight Show in stereo sporadically through 1984 and on a regular basis beginning in 1985. According to Skepticism activist James Randi , Carson invited Uri Geller , who claimed paranormal powers, onto

6642-467: Was to be part of a team that generated the laughs. The Tonight Show had a live big band for nearly all of its existence. The NBC Orchestra during Carson's reign was originally led by Skitch Henderson (who had previously led the band during Tonight Starring Steve Allen ), 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 filling in for him when he

6724-416: Was to pretend to panic and say, "I want my nana!" (This recording was played at the start of Carson's final broadcast on May 22, 1992.) The oldest surviving video recording of the show is dated November 1962, while the oldest surviving color recording is from April 1964, when Carson interviewed Jake Ehrlich Sr. as his guest. The 30-minute audio recordings of many of the "missing" episodes are contained in

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