112-458: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 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
224-502: 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
336-428: 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
448-523: 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
560-586: A familiar nightclub mold." In the September 28, 1960 Peanuts comic strip, Schroeder is reading aloud to Lucy from a biography on his all-time favorite composer, Ludwig van Beethoven where he describes his idol as someone who "would sometimes startle people in public places," then at times "flew out in anger against all that was petty, dull, or greedy in men., [and] Often, however, his scorn would turn to high hilarity and humorous jests." Lucy then asks, "Are you reading about Beethoven or Mort Sahl?" Sahl
672-407: 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
784-583: A friend then rented an old theater, which they called Theater X, for "experimental," and he began writing and staging one-act plays. One of his plays was titled Nobody Trusted the Truth . Unable to attract a large enough audience, they eventually closed the theater. For income, Sahl began doing odd jobs and writing. He worked as a used car salesman and a messenger , and wrote a novel, which went unpublished, and short stories. He went to New York hoping to sell his plays, but only managed to earn about eighteen dollars
896-525: A good one, that he described as "spiritual". Sahl was discharged in 1947 and enrolled in Compton College , followed by the University of Southern California . He received a B.S. degree in 1950 with majors in traffic engineering and city management . He continued with a masters program, but dropped out to become an actor and playwright. Between 1950 and 1953 Sahl attempted to get jobs as
1008-665: 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
1120-533: 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,
1232-545: A one-man Off-Broadway show, Mort Sahl's America , which, despite getting good reviews from critics, was not a box office success. The New York Times stated, "History has returned Mort Sahl to the spotlight when he is most needed. His style has an intuitive spontaneity. His presence is tonic." Robert Weide produced a biographical documentary, Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition , which ran on PBS in 1989. Sahl found his previous level of success increasingly difficult to recapture.. One Los Angeles Times critic wrote, "Sahl
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#17327798685481344-425: 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
1456-412: 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
1568-459: A stand-up comedian in about 30 nightclubs in Los Angeles, but with no success. NBC , where he auditioned, told him he would never succeed as a comedian. He offered to perform free during intermissions for the chance to show his talent. He recalled of that period: "Despite all the folklore about the faith of friends in the struggling young artist, my friends constantly discouraged me." He and
1680-577: A stool alone at center stage, similar to Jack Paar 's last show. He said these final words in conclusion: Talk show Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.237 via cp1104 cp1104, Varnish XID 200696593 Upstream caches: cp1104 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 07:44:28 GMT Mort Sahl Morton Lyon Sahl (May 11, 1927 – October 26, 2021)
1792-522: A tobacco store in Montreal. Sahl's family later relocated to Los Angeles, where his father, unable to become a Hollywood writer, worked as a clerk and court reporter for the FBI . Sahl notes, "My dad was disappointed in his dreams and he distrusted that world for me." Sahl went to Belmont High School in Los Angeles, where he wrote for the school's newspaper. Actor Richard Crenna was a classmate. When
1904-617: A veteran comedian, and he was included with the new comedians breaking into the field, such as George Carlin , Lily Tomlin , and Richard Pryor . In the 1980s he headlined for Banducci's new clubs in San Francisco. In the late 1980s he was trying to write screenplays, besides doing sporadic shows around the country. In 1987 he had a successful multiweek run in Australia. In 1988 Sahl was back in New York City and performed
2016-675: A voice in New England dialect saying, ‘God damn it.'” Sahl began getting reports through his agent, Milt Ebbins, that the Kennedys felt betrayed and wanted him to cool it. “They kept telling me that Utopia was here, that my people were finally in,” he told the Saturday Evening Post in 1964. “I don’t think my people are ever going to be in.” Finally Ebbins and Peter Lawford delivered an ultimatum from Joseph: “The ambassador says if you don’t cooperate, you’ll never work again in
2128-557: A week (about $ 720 in 2020 money), which became his first steady job as a stand-up comedian. Word about Sahl's satirical comedy act spread quickly. He received good reviews from influential newspaper columnist Herb Caen . The reviews gave Sahl instant credibility: "I don't know where Mr. Sahl came from, but I'm glad he's here," Caen wrote after watching the show. Caen began inviting his own friends, such as film comedians Danny Kaye and Eddie Cantor , to watch Sahl's performances. Cantor took him "under his wing" and gave him suggestions. By
2240-437: 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
2352-429: 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
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#17327798685482464-608: A week. He recalled ... "I couldn't get a thing going. I was working on a novel, I was out of work, and I was out of gas." As a result, he decided to try something different, by performing his plays as monologues. He felt it would be easier to do his monologue on stage instead of trying to sell it to others. "I knew that if I was going to get anything done, I'd have to do it myself," he says. He returned to Los Angeles, where he appeared at some clubs, but his new style of monologue comedy received little attention. In 1953 he began dating Sue Babior. When she moved to Berkeley to study at
2576-512: A wide assortment of celebrity and political fans, including Adlai Stevenson , Marlene Dietrich , S.J. Perelman , Saul Bellow , and Leonard Bernstein . Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. said his popularity was due to the public's "yearning for youth, irreverence, trenchancy, satire, [and] a clean break with the past." And Steve Allen introduced him on one of his shows as being "the only real political philosopher we have in modern comedy." Combined with his improvisational skill, Sahl's naturalness
2688-416: 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
2800-764: 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
2912-408: 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
3024-572: Is a man with a country but not a stage." A number of television specials gave him a venue to perform in front of live audiences. Beginning in November 1991, the Monitor Channel broadcast a series of eight shows called Mort Sahl Live . From the 1990s on he performed, but less often and mostly in theaters and college auditoriums. When Woody Allen saw him perform in 2001 at one of his rare New York club appearances, Allen told him, "this
3136-437: Is a political bloat, Mort sticks a pin in it." Sahl considered Ronald Reagan one of his closest friends. They valued the fact that he stayed current and took material from major newspapers and magazines. He kept his material fresh, wrote few notes, and entertained his audiences by presenting otherwise serious news with his brand of humor. He was not fond of television news, however, which he blamed in 1960 for "spoon-feeding"
3248-470: Is crazy – you should be working all the time." Allen then called his manager Jack Rollins : "Listen, this guy is hilarious. We gotta bring him to New York." Sahl then did shows at Joe's Pub in Manhattan to standing-room only audiences. In 2008, Sahl performed at B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill on 42nd Street with Woody Allen, Elaine May , and Dick Cavett in attendance. Sahl
3360-965: 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
3472-461: 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
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3584-415: 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!")
3696-564: The Bay of Pigs invasion ; he pilloried Kennedy with no less relish than he had Eisenhower. In Heartland he remembers the president coming to see him at the Crescendo in Hollywood: “Kennedy was in the audience in the back booth. And I said, ‘I have a bulletin. Marilyn Monroe is going to marry Adlai Stevenson. Now, Kennedy can be jealous of him twice.’ And I heard a fist come down on the table and
3808-650: 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,
3920-501: 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
4032-439: 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
4144-476: 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
4256-427: 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
4368-634: The United States Army Air Forces . He was later stationed in Alaska with the 93rd Air Depot Group. In the military, however, he resisted the discipline and authoritarian control it exerted over his life. He expressed his nonconformity by growing a beard and refusing to wear a cap as required. He also wrote articles for a small newspaper criticizing the military that resulted in his being penalized with three months of KP duty . In an interview, Sahl stated he found his military experience
4480-399: The University of California , Sahl hitchhiked there to be with her. He spent his time auditing classes and hanging out at local coffee houses. For income, he wrote for a few avant-garde publications. He slept in the back seat of a friend's car; Babior was living with roommates. "Things were simple then," he said. "... All we had to worry about was the destiny of man." He felt at home in
4592-462: The civil rights movement . After seeing Mort Sahl on stage, Woody Allen , whose writings were often about his personal life, decided to give it a try: "I'd never had the nerve to talk about it before. Then Mort Sahl came along with a whole new style of humor, opening up vistas for people like me." Commenting on Sahl's monologues, Nachman described him as a "gifted narrator, so good at taking you along on his travels that you didn't quite realize until
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4704-435: The hungry i nightclub in 1953. His popularity grew quickly, and after a year at the club, he traveled the country doing shows at established nightclubs, theaters, and college campuses. In 1960 he became the first comedian to be featured in a Time cover story. He appeared on various television shows, played a number of film roles, and performed a one-man show on Broadway . Television host Steve Allen said that Sahl
4816-582: 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
4928-593: The San Francisco Bay Area, commenting, "I was 'born' in San Francisco ." He stated that the three years he lived in Berkeley were a valuable experience. Sahl sought clubs where he could perform stand-up, and Babior suggested he audition for the hungry i , a nightclub in San Francisco. Its owner, Enrico Banducci , took an immediate liking to Sahl's comedy style and offered him a job at $ 75
5040-682: 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
5152-845: The U.S. entered World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , Sahl, then aged 14, joined the school's Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). He won a medal for marksmanship and an American Legion "Americanism award". Wanting to express his patriotism, he wore his ROTC uniform to school and in public and, when he turned fifteen, he dropped out of high school to join the United States Army by lying about his age. His mother tracked him down and brought him back home two weeks later after she had revealed his true age. After Sahl graduated from high school, his father tried to get him into West Point and had received his Congressman's help, but Sahl had by then already enlisted in
5264-579: The United States.” Before long the offers began to taper off. Sahl remembers Shelley Davis, who’d just bought the Crescendo, warning him, “I’ve been told that the White House would be offended if I hired you and I’d be audited on my income tax.”. Following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Sahl's interest in who was responsible was so great that he became a deputized member of District Attorney of New Orleans Jim Garrison 's team to investigate
5376-573: The assassination and in 1968 used his influence to get Garrison a spot on The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson . As a result, Sahl's comedy would often reflect his politics and included readings and commentary about the Warren Commission Report, of which he consistently disputed the accuracy. He alienated much of his audience, was effectively blacklisted , and more of his planned shows were cancelled. His income dropped from $ 1 million to $ 13,000 by 1964. According to Nachman,
5488-526: The audience's responses. You adjust to them every night. I come in with only an outline. You've got to have a spirit of adventure. I follow my instincts and the audience is my jury. His casual style of stand-up, where he seemed to be one-on-one with his audience, influenced new comedians, including Lenny Bruce and Dick Gregory . Sahl was the least controversial, however, because he dressed and looked "collegiate" and focused on politics, while Bruce confronted sexual and language conventions and Gregory focused on
5600-493: 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
5712-404: The clubs had never had a stand-up comedian; Sahl had to break in as a new kind of act. "I had to build up my own network of places to play," he said. He was the best thing I ever saw. There was a need for revolution, everybody was ready for revolution, but some guy had to come along who could perform the revolution and be great. Mort was the one. He was the tip of the iceberg. Underneath were all
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#17327798685485824-406: 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
5936-573: 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
6048-649: The end of Sahl's first year at the hungry i, he was earning $ 3,000 a week (about $ 29,000 a week in 2020 money) and performing to full houses. Later in his career, he said, "I'd be washing cars if it weren't for Enrico." After a year at the hungry i, Sahl began appearing at other clubs, including the Black Orchid and Mister Kelly's in Chicago, the Crescendo in Los Angeles, and the Village Vanguard and The Blue Angel nightclub in New York City. Some of
6160-406: The end of their marriage and said "I'm sorry I divorced Kenslea; I'm still in love with my wife. If you love a woman it'll make her a better woman." In 1976, Sahl wrote an autobiography called Heartland . In June 2007, a number of star comedians, including George Carlin and Jonathan Winters, gave Sahl an 80th birthday tribute. In 2008, Sahl moved from Los Angeles to Mill Valley, California ,
6272-430: The establishment,” he said from the stage at one preview. “The same people who like jokes about John Foster Dulles and Goldwater suddenly freeze when they hear satirical humor about Vietnam or the war on poverty. That’s my job”. In those days Sahl liked to say, “I have only a few months to tell these jokes before they become treason,” but the line would come back to haunt him after Kennedy took office. Sahl went to town on
6384-548: The extensive focus on the Kennedy assassination details was Sahl's undoing and wrecked his career. Sahl later admitted that "there's never been anything that had a stronger impact on my life than this issue," but added that he nonetheless "thought it was a wonderful quest." Mort Sahl has charted one of the most precipitous courses in American entertainment for last thirty years and has gone from celebrity to internal exile. There
6496-523: 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
6608-468: 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
6720-401: The first time, and would digress into related stories or his own experiences. TV executive Roger Ailes said he saw him read the paper one day and after a few hours Sahl got up onstage with an entire evening's worth of new material. "With no writers, he just did what he had seen in the afternoon paper. He was a genius." Sahl's presentation of news commentary as a form of social satire created
6832-674: The handlebars." Sahl's popularity "mushroomed like an Atomic cloud during the 50s," says filmmaker Robert B. Weide , adding, "Simply put, Mort Sahl reinvented stand-up comedy." Time magazine in 1960 published a cover story about him and his rise to fame, in which they described him as "the best of the New Comedians [and] the first notable American political satirist since Will Rogers ." Along with his nightclub performances, he appeared in some films and on television shows, including his network debut on The NBC Comedy Hour in May 1956. He
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#17327798685486944-503: The incumbent with Sahl saying, “If you were the only person left on the planet, I would have to attack you". JFK's father Joseph Kennedy made a few calls, Sahl’s club bookings began to dry up. One morning, Banducci went to the Hungry i who were still booking Sahl and found the doors chained and padlocked by the IRS in demand of back taxes “My so-called liberal supporters have all moved in with
7056-497: 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
7168-538: The medium." British comedy actor John Cleese became immediately interested in Sahl's radical style of humor and accorded to Sahl the same level of respect that The Beatles reserved for Elvis Presley . Television host Steve Allen , who originated the Tonight Show , said he was "struck by how amateur he seemed," but added that the observation was not meant as a criticism, but as a "compliment". He noted that all
7280-402: 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
7392-450: 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
7504-492: 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
7616-563: 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
7728-666: 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
7840-912: 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
7952-582: 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
8064-523: The other people who came along: Lenny Bruce, Nichols & May, all the Second City. Mort was the vanguard of the group. — Woody Allen Celebrities saw his shows after they heard about the "new phenomenon," referring to Sahl's unique style of comedy. Woody Allen , who saw his show at the Blue Angel in 1954, commented that "he was suddenly this great genius that appeared who revolutionized
8176-520: The president. After Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Sahl focused on what he said were the Warren Report 's inaccuracies and conclusions and spoke about it often during his shows. This alienated much of his audience and led to a decline in his popularity for the remainder of the 1960s. By the 1970s, his shows and popularity staged a partial comeback that continued over the ensuing decades. A biography of Sahl, Last Man Standing , by James Curtis ,
8288-413: The previous successful comics dressed formally, were glib and well-rehearsed, and were always in control of their audiences. Allen said that Sahl's "very un-show business manner was one of the things I liked when I first saw him work." Sahl dressed casually, with no tie and usually wearing his trademark V-neck campus-style sweater. His stage presence was seen as being "candid and cool, the antithesis of
8400-400: The public, and was therefore responsible for the "corruption and ignorance that may sink this country." As a result of Sahl's popularity, besides getting on the cover of Time , he also became the first comedian to make a record album, the first to do college concerts, and was the first comedian to win a Grammy . Once Kennedy was in office, Sahl returned to his policy of making jokes about
8512-400: 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
8624-652: 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
8736-484: 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
8848-439: 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
8960-406: 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
9072-418: 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
9184-544: 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
9296-432: The show was over that you had been on a labyrinthine journey." The speed with which Sahl gave his monologues was also notable. British film critic Penelope Gilliatt recalled how Sahl's improvisation "goes on a breakneck stammering loop and you think it will never make the circle. It always does." For her it was like watching a circus act: "He freewheels a bike on a high wire tightrope with his brain racing and his hands off
9408-807: 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
9520-493: 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
9632-456: 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
9744-421: 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
9856-422: The slick comic," stated theater critic Gerald Nachman . And although Sahl acquired a reputation for being an intellectual comedian, it was an image he disliked and disagreed with: "It was absurd. I was barely a C student," he said. His naturalness on stage was partly due to his preferring improvisation over carefully rehearsed monologues. Sahl explained: I never found you could write the act. You can't rehearse
9968-411: 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
10080-590: 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
10192-457: 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
10304-403: 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
10416-654: Was "the only real political philosopher we have in modern comedy". His social satire performances broke new ground in live entertainment, as a stand-up comic talking about the real world of politics at that time was considered "revolutionary". It inspired many later comics to become stage comedians, including Lenny Bruce , Jonathan Winters , George Carlin , Richard Pryor , Lewis Black and Woody Allen . Allen credits Sahl's new style of humor with "opening up vistas for people like me". Numerous politicians became his fans, with John F. Kennedy asking him to write his jokes for campaign speeches, though Sahl later turned his barbs at
10528-476: Was a Canadian-born Jewish American comedian , actor , and social satirist , considered the first modern comedian. He pioneered a style of social satire that pokes fun at political and current event topics using improvised monologues and only a newspaper as a prop. Sahl spent his early years in Los Angeles and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he made his professional stage debut at
10640-500: 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,
10752-435: 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
10864-504: Was also considered unique for a stage performer. Woody Allen notes that other comics were jealous of Sahl's stage persona and did not understand how he could perform by simply talking to the audience. Nachman stated that the "mere idea of a stand-up comic talking about the real world was in itself revolutionary ... [and] the comedians who followed him – Lenny Bruce , Woody Allen, Dick Gregory , Phyllis Diller , Shelley Berman , Jonathan Winters – were cast in
10976-569: 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 ,
11088-469: Was based on current events, especially politics, which led Milton Berle to describe him as "one of the greatest political satirists of all time." His trademark persona was to enter the stage with a newspaper in hand, casually dressed in a V-neck sweater . He would often recite some news stories combined with satire. He was dubbed " Will Rogers with fangs" by Time magazine in 1960. Sahl would discuss people or events almost as if he were reporting them for
11200-482: 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 was about to pack up
11312-570: 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
11424-403: 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
11536-494: Was married three times. He wedded Sue Babior in 1955; the marriage ended in divorce less than three years later. In the early 1960s his steady girlfriend was Tippi Hedren . Sahl also dated Dyan Cannon and Julie Newmar . In 1967, he married actress and model China Lee and they divorced in 1991. They had one son, Mort Sahl Jr., who died in 1996, aged 19, from an unknown drug-related reaction. In 1997, he married Kenslea Ann Motter; they divorced around 2009. He regretted
11648-402: Was no precedent for what he did. There were no prototypes. He's a genuinely self-created man and a true existential in that sense. Once he passes from the scene, people will begin to lionize him and call him the great American and take to heart all the things he said. — Los Angeles Times , 1983 By the 1970s, the rising tide of counterculture eventually fueled Sahl's partial comeback as
11760-409: 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
11872-464: 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
11984-642: Was one of the interim hosts on The Tonight Show following Jack Paar 's departure as the network waited for Johnny Carson to become available. His audience had also widened to include not only students and a "hip" public, but now even noted politicians sought out his shows. Some became friends, such as presidential candidate John F. Kennedy , who asked him to prepare a bank of political jokes he could use at public functions. Kennedy liked his style of political satire and what he described as Sahl's "relentless pursuit of everybody." Adlai Stevenson and Hubert Humphrey were fans, Humphrey stating that "whenever there
12096-711: Was ranked #40 on Comedy Central 's list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time, ranked between Billy Crystal and Jon Stewart . In 2003 he received the Fifth Annual Alan King Award in American Jewish Humor from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture . In 2011, the Library of Congress placed his 1955 recording, At Sunset , on the National Recording Registry . Sahl's humor
12208-508: Was released in 2017. Sahl was born on May 11, 1927, in Montreal , Quebec , Canada, the only child of Jewish parents. His father, Harry Sahl, came from an immigrant family on New York City's Lower East Side , and hoped to become a Broadway playwright. Harry had met his wife, Dorothy (Schwartz), when she responded to an advertisement he placed in a poetry magazine. Unable to break into the writing field, they moved to Canada where he owned
12320-474: 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
12432-466: 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
12544-414: 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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