View source for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

{{Short description|American late-night talk show}}
{{For-multi|the entire Tonight Show franchise|The Tonight Show|the 1955–1956 CBS variety show hosted by Carson|The Johnny Carson Show}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox television
| image                = Tonightshowtitlecard1980s.jpg
| alt_name             = {{ubl|''[[The Tonight Show]]'' (franchise brand)|''Johnny Carson'' ([[Antenna TV]] repeats)}}
| genre                = [[Late-night talk show|Late-night talk]]/[[Variety show|Variety]]
| creator              = {{ubl|[[Steve Allen]]|[[William O. Harbach]]|[[Dwight Hemion]]|[[Sylvester Weaver (executive)|Sylvester L. Weaver Jr.]]}}
| writer               = {{ubl|''Head writer'':|Walter Kempley (1963–1967)| Hank Bradford (1969–1975)|[[Marshall Brickman]] (1969–1970)|[[Raymond Siller]] (1974–1988)|[[Andrew Nicholls and Darrell Vickers]] (1988–1992)}}
| presenter            = [[Johnny Carson]]
| narrated             = [[Ed McMahon]]
| theme_music_composer = [[Paul Anka]]
| opentheme            = "[[Johnny's Theme]]"
| country              = United States
| language             = English
| num_seasons          = 30
| num_episodes         = 6,714
| list_episodes        = List of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson episodes
| executive_producer   = 
| producer             = {{ubl|[[Fred de Cordova]]|[[Peter Lassally]]}}
| location             = {{ubl|[[NBC Studios (New York City)|NBC Studios]]|New York City (1962–1972)|[[The Burbank Studios|NBC Studios]]<br />Burbank, California (1972–1992)}}
| camera               = [[Multiple-camera setup|Multi-camera]]
| runtime              = 47–105 minutes
| company              = 
| network              = [[NBC]]
| first_aired          = {{Start date|1962|10|1}}
| last_aired           = {{End date|1992|5|22}}
| related              = ''[[Carson's Comedy Classics]]''
}}

'''''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]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Man Who Retired|magazine=[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]|date=June 2002|author=Bill Zehme|url=http://www.cjayarts.com/pages/ASSORTED/retired.htm|access-date=2010-06-09}}</ref> [[Ed McMahon]] served as Carson's [[Sidekick#In television|sidekick]] and the show's [[announcer]].

For its first decade, Johnny Carson's ''The Tonight Show'' was based at the RCA Building at [[30 Rockefeller Plaza]], New York City, with some episodes recorded at [[The Burbank Studios|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.<ref>Carson brought the show back to Manhattan in November 1972 for three weeks and again in May 1973 for an additional three weeks.</ref> The show's [[house band]], the [[The Tonight Show Band|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tv-guide-names-top-50-shows/ |title=TV Guide Names Top 50 Shows |date=April 26, 2002 |publisher=Cbsnews.com |access-date=2011-10-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tvguide.com/news/tv-guide-magazine-60-best-series-1074962/|title=TV Guide Magazine's 60 Best Series of All Time|date=23 December 2013}}</ref>

== Format ==
Johnny Carson's ''Tonight Show'' established the modern format of the late-night talk show:<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OzkV0UxzRRgC&pg=PA22|title=Fort Lauderdale: Playground of the Stars|first=Jack|last=Drury|date=February 16, 2008|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9780738553511|via=Google Books}}</ref> a [[monologue]] sprinkled with a rapid-fire series of 16 to 22 one-liners (Carson had a rule of no more than three on the same subject) was sometimes followed by [[sketch comedy]], then moving on to guest interviews and performances by musicians and [[stand-up comedy|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 the show out of concern it might alienate his audience<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.anb.org/articles/18/18-03822-print.html|title=American National Biography Online}}</ref> and resisted efforts from his writing staff, particularly head writer and admitted liberal [[Marshall Brickman]], to include more political material in the show.<ref name=brickmaninterview>{{cite book
| first1=Mike
| last1=Sacks
| authorlink=Mike Sacks
| date=July 8, 2009
| title=And Here's The Kicker: Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers
| publisher=Writers Digest
| isbn=978-1582975054
| url=http://www.andheresthekicker.com/ex_marshall_brickman.php
| access-date=September 18, 2023
| archive-date=October 6, 2011
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006150230/http://www.andheresthekicker.com/ex_marshall_brickman.php
| url-status=bot: unknown
}}</ref> Other regulars were selected for their entertainment or information value, in contrast to those who offered more cerebral conversation.{{r|tynan19780220}}

His preference for access to [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] stars caused 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.<ref>{{cite news | last=Carter | first=Bill | date=March 20, 2013 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/business/media/tonight-show-expected-to-return-to-new-york-with-fallon.html?pagewanted=print | title='Tonight' Show Expected to Return to New York, With Fallon | work=The New York Times | access-date=March 20, 2013}}</ref> When asked about intellectual conversation on ''The Tonight Show'', Carson and his staff invariably cited "[[Carl Sagan]], [[Paul R. Ehrlich|Paul Ehrlich]], [[Margaret Mead]], [[Gore Vidal]], [[Shana Alexander]], [[Madalyn Murray O'Hair]]" as guests;{{r|tynan19780220}} one television critic stated, however, "he always presented them as if they were spinach for your diet when he did [feature such names]."<ref name="simon20130708">{{Cite news |url=http://buffalonews.com/Article/20130708/CITYANDREGION03/130709331 |title=The return of Johnny Carson on TCM |last=Simon |first=Jeff |date=2013-07-08 |work=The Buffalo News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927045241/http://buffalonews.com/Article/20130708/CITYANDREGION03/130709331 |archive-date=2013-09-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Family therapist [[Carlfred Broderick]] appeared on the show ten times,<ref name="USC990906">[https://news.usc.edu/8556/Carlfred-B-Broderick-Noted-Sociologist-Dies-at-67/ "Carlfred B. Broderick, Noted Sociologist, Dies at 67"], ''USC News,'' September 6, 1999.  Retrieved April 30, 2017.</ref> 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 (comedian)|Gallagher]] being a prominent example, more commonly appeared when guest hosts helmed the program.<ref name="wtf">[http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_145_-_gallagher Episode 145 – Gallagher], ''[[WTF with Marc Maron]]'', wtfpod.com</ref>

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 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 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 [[24 Hours of Le Mans|Le Mans]]." Actor [[Robert Blake (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 the risk.<ref name=tynan19780220>{{Cite magazine | url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1978/02/20/1978_02_20_047_TNY_CARDS_000326477?printable=true | title=Fifteen Years of the Salto Mortale | last=Tynan | first=Kenneth | author-link=Kenneth Tynan | magazine=The New Yorker | date=February 20, 1978 | access-date=2011-03-16}}</ref>

== Show regulars ==
=== Ed McMahon ===
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 (journalist)|Robert Pierpoint]] on the NBC Radio Network program ''[[Monitor (radio 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;<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6216642.stm|title='Here's Johnny' is top TV quote|date=December 7, 2006|via=news.bbc.co.uk}}</ref> it has been referenced in lots of media going from ''[[The Shining (film)|The Shining]]'' to [[Johnny Bravo]] to a [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] [[Polka Party!|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 [[American Broadcasting Company|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 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."{{r|tynan19780220}} He wrote in his [[1998 in literature|1998]] autobiography:

{{blockquote|My role on 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 [[Sketch comedy|sketches]]. On our thirteenth-anniversary show Johnny and I were talking at his desk and he said, "Thirteen years 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 was going to play [[sidekick|second fiddle]], I wanted to be the [[Jascha Heifetz|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 was to be part of a team that generated the laughs.<ref>{{cite book| title=For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times| last=McMahon | first=Ed | year=1998 | author-link=Ed McMahon | isbn=0-446-52370-4| page=154| publisher=Warner Books }}</ref>}}

=== Bandleaders and others ===
{{Listen|type=music|filename=|title="Johnny's Theme"|description=Sample of "[[Johnny's Theme]]", performed by the NBC Orchestra in 1986. The song served as the show's opening theme during the entirety of its run.}}
[[File:Doc Severinsen 1974.JPG|200px|thumb|[[Doc Severinsen]] led the NBC Orchestra beginning in 1967; he held the role until the show's finale]]
''The Tonight Show'' had a live [[big band]] for nearly all of its existence. The [[The Tonight Show Band|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|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 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).<ref name="official">{{cite web |title=Bio |url=http://www.docseverinsen.com/about/ |website=Doc Severinsen |date=January 10, 2011 |access-date=January 17, 2022}}</ref> 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".<ref name=johnnystheme>{{cite web|author=Myers, Marc|author-link=Marc Myers|url=http://www.jazzwax.com/2014/01/tonight-show-theme-evolution.html|title=''Tonight Show'' Theme: Evolution|website=JazzWax|date=January 7, 2014|access-date=November 4, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141104115115/http://www.jazzwax.com/2014/01/tonight-show-theme-evolution.html|archive-date=November 4, 2014}}</ref> During shows when Newsom filled in for Severinsen, the band played a slightly truncated version of the theme that transitioned from the bridge to the closing phrase without reprising the first few notes of the main melody. The [[The Tonight Show Band|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 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 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.<ref name=brickmaninterview/> 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 the Tonight Show writing staff from 1970 to 1975.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hank Bradford |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0103030/ |website=IMDB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Malkoff |first=Mark |date=August 31, 2017 |title=The Carson Podcast: Interview with Head Writer Hank Bradford |url=https://carsonpodcast.com/hank-bradford/ |website=The Carson Podcast}}</ref>

== Recurring segments and skits ==
=== Characters ===
[[File:Carnac the Magnificent.jpg|thumb|Carson as Carnac the Magnificent, a reoccurring comedic role he introduced in 1964.]]
* '''[[Carnac the Magnificent]]''', in which Carson played a psychic who clairvoyantly divined the answer to a question contained in a sealed envelope. This was to some degree a variation on [[Steve Allen]]'s recurring "The Question Man" sketch. The answer was always an outrageous pun. "Carnac" examples:
**''"[[Debate]]" ... "What do you use to catch de fish?"''
**''"[[Baja California|Baja]]" ... "What sound does a sheep make when it laughs?"''
**''"[[Bengay|Ben-Gay]]" ... "Why didn't [[Deborah Read|Mrs. Franklin]] have any kids?"''
**''"[[Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam|A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou]]" ... "Name three things that have yeast."''
**''"[[Three Dog Night]]" ... "What's a bad night for a tree?"''
**''"[[Mount San Antonio|Mount Baldy]]" ... "What did [[Yul Brynner]]'s wife do on their wedding night?"'' also ''"How do you play 'horsey' with [[Don Rickles]]?"''
**''"[[Sis boom bah]]" ... "Describe the sound made when a [[Exploding animal|sheep explodes]]."'' (Ed McMahon's personal favorite)<ref>{{cite news|url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0602/22/lkl.01.html|title=CNN Transcripts: Larry King Live|date=2006-02-22|work=[[CNN]]|access-date=2013-10-02}}</ref>
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!"''

* '''"Floyd R. Turbo'''," a dimwitted yokel responding to a TV station editorial. Floyd always spoke haltingly, as though reading from cue cards, and railed against some newsworthy topic, like Secretaries' Day: "This raises the question: Kiss my Dictaphone!"
* '''"Art Fern'''," the fast-talking host of a "Tea Time Movie" program, who advertised inane products, assisted by the attractive Matinee Lady, played by [[Paula Prentiss]] (late 1960s), [[Carol Wayne]] (the most familiar Matinee Lady, 1971–81, 1984), Danuta Wesley (1982), and [[Teresa Ganzel]] (1984–92). He imitated the vocal stylings of [[Jackie Gleason]]'s character "Reginald Van Gleason". The fake movies Art would introduce usually had eclectic casts ("Ben Blue, Red Buttons, Jesse White, and Karen Black") and nonsensical titles ("Rin-Tin-Tin Gets Fixed Fixed Fixed"). This would be followed by a four-second stock film clip before coming back for another commercial, usually catching Art and the Matinee Lady in a very compromising position. {{Anchor|Slauson cutoff}}On giving directions to a fake store he was touting, Fern would show a spaghetti-like road map, sometimes with a literal "fork in the road," other times making the joke, ''"Go to the [[California State Route 90#History|Slauson Cutoff]]...''," and the audience would recite with him, ''"...cut off your Slauson!"'' The character was previously named '''"Honest Bernie Schlock"''' and then '''"Ralph Willie"''' when the Tea Time sketches first aired in the mid-to-late 1960s. At least one surviving pre-1972 Art Fern sketch that originated from New York had its movie show title as "The Big Flick," an amalgam of two movie show titles in use at the time by New York station [[WWOR-TV|WOR-TV]], ''The Big Preview'' and ''The Flick''. On that sketch [[Lee Meredith]] was the Matinee Lady. [[Carson's Comedy Classics]] features an episode where [[Juliet Prowse]] is in the role of Matinee Lady, from 20 August 1971.
* '''"Aunt Blabby'''," an old woman whose appearance and speech pattern bore more than a passing resemblance to comedian [[Jonathan Winters]]' character "Maude Frickert." A frequent theme would be McMahon happening to mention a word or phrase that could suggest death, as in "What tourist attractions did you check out?," to which Aunt Blabby would respond, "Never say ''check out'' to an old person!"
* '''"El Mouldo'''," mysterious mentalist. He would announce some mind-over-matter feat and always fail, although triumphantly shouting "El Mouldo has done it again!" Ed McMahon would take exception, noting El Mouldo's failure. "Did I fail before?" asked El Mouldo. "Yes!," replied McMahon, to which El Mouldo said, "Well, I've done it again!" El Mouldo was in large part a continuation of Carson's mentalist character Dillinger, which he had performed on ''[[The Johnny Carson Show]]'' in 1955 on [[CBS]]; Dillinger was an obvious spoof of [[Dunninger]], leading to complaints and threats of lawsuits against Carson and CBS.
* '''"David [[Howitzer]], Consumer Supporter'''," a thinly veiled satire of consumer reporter [[David Horowitz (consumer advocate)|David Horowitz]]. Howitzer's segments (in a rare example of [[prop comedy]] for the show) usually featured purported [[Counterfeit consumer good|counterfeit consumer goods]] (usually gag props) that unscrupulous mail-order companies had sent his unsuspecting viewers (for example, a woman who spent thousands of dollars on an oriental rug instead received a cheap [[Toupée|toupee]] made in Taiwan).
* "'''[[Ronald Reagan]]'''." During President Reagan's term in office, Carson developed an impersonation of the president that was featured regularly in a Mighty Carson Art Players segment.<ref name=famaap/> Carson also did a less memorable impersonation of [[Jimmy Carter]] during his term as president.

=== Bits ===
Some [[Bit (comedy)|bits]] are desk pieces,
<ref name=desk-piece>
*https://web.archive.org/web/20101105153628/https://www.sandpapersuit.com/2010/11/what-goes-into-comedy-writing-packet.html
*https://kathystrobos.com/tips-for-writing-the-comedy-set-piece/
*https://www.latenightcomedywriter.com/desk-bits
*https://prohumorist.com/late-night-comedy-writing-packet/
*https://www.standupcomedyclinic.com/how-do-you-get-into-late-night-tv-comedy-writing/
*https://latenighttvcourse.com/
</ref><ref name="joetoplyn-desk-piece">* [https://joetoplyn.com/how-to-write-a-desk-piece/ How to Write a Desk Piece] [[Joe Toplyn]]
* [https://www.bigbencomedy.com/archives/comedy-writing-late-night-tv-quotes/ Joe Toplyn quotes]
</ref> others are [[Stand-up comedy|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''.<ref name=unl-Carson-Ganzel>[https://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/artsatunl/7007/40032 'Tea Time Movies' skit actress Teresa Ganzel is next Carson Lecturer] [[University of Nebraska–Lincoln]]</ref>

* '''"The Mighty Carson Art Players,"'''<ref name=famaap>[[Fred Allen#Town Hall Tonight|Fred Allen's ''Mighty Allen Art Players'']]</ref> began in 1966. The name was a tribute to radio legend [[Fred Allen]]'s [[Fred Allen#Town Hall Tonight|''Mighty Allen Art Players'']]. While Carson's show was primarily a talk show, with performances by guests, periodically Carson, "playing on top of a character", and a group of  stock performers, including [[Betty White]],<ref name="newsfromme-smart-funny"/> blonde [[Teresa Ganzel]], curvaceous Suzanne LaRusch (from a modeling agency),<ref name="newsfromme-smart-funny"/> buxom [[Carol Wayne]], Fred Holliday, Norm Alden, [[Peter Leeds]], and Jimmy Devine, would perform skits that spoofed news, movies, television shows, commercials, and past events.<ref>
*https://www.chicagotribune.com/2005/01/30/carson-helped-craft-own-brand-of-sketch-comedy/
*https://web.archive.org/web/20240605050348/https://www.chicagotribune.com/2005/01/30/carson-helped-craft-own-brand-of-sketch-comedy/
*https://archive.today/20240605050418/https://www.chicagotribune.com/2005/01/30/carson-helped-craft-own-brand-of-sketch-comedy/
</ref><ref>
*https://www.newsfromme.com/2023/09/23/ask-me-the-mighty-carson-art-players/
*https://web.archive.org/web/20240605055957/https://www.newsfromme.com/2023/09/23/ask-me-the-mighty-carson-art-players/
</ref><ref>
*https://www.newsfromme.com/2006/12/07/about-peter-leeds/
*https://web.archive.org/web/20221207005727/https://www.newsfromme.com/2006/12/07/about-peter-leeds/
</ref> A ''Mighty Carson Art Players'' appearance would usually be announced along with that night's guests during McMahon's introduction.
:Example: Johnny, dressed as a doctor, starting to talk about some intimate topic (just as in the real ad) and then being hit by cream pies from several directions at once.
::"the secret to getting a sketch approved by Carson was "B.I.B."..."Babe In Bikini" or maybe "Bimbo in Bikini"...if the sketch was really weak, you might need more than one" — Nick Arnold (Nicholas Arnold Melito, 1 March 1947 — 28 September 1999)<ref name="Nicholas Arnold Melito">
*https://web.archive.org/web/20110819012715/https://joecervasio.typepad.com/goodnews/2010/02/oh-nicky-we-hardly-knew-thee.html
*https://www.theobserver.com/2014/10/21/good-times-at-belleville-high/
*https://www.allmovie.com/artist/nick-arnold-an460715
*https://www.emmys.com/bios/nick-arnold
*https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0036583/
*https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/01/classified/paid-notice-deaths-arnold-nick.html
*https://mfwright.com/connie_francis/june_2010_PR_BEF.pdf
*The Hollywood Reporter: Nicholas Arnold Melito
</ref><ref name="newsfromme-smart-funny">
*https://www.newsfromme.com/2017/06/17/smart-funny/
*https://web.archive.org/web/20180212084150/https://www.newsfromme.com/2017/06/17/smart-funny/
</ref>
* '''"The Edge of Wetness'''," in which Johnny would read humorous plot summaries of a fictional soap opera (such as ''[[The Edge of Night]]'') while the camera randomly chose an unsuspecting audience member whom Carson claimed was, for example, [[Mary Roberts Rinehart|the butler]] from the soap.
*'''"Book bit"''' (named retrospctively, with a "fun fact" list read, from a book or news article, followed by a similar comedic "supposed fact" list, a ''bit'' that [[Bill Maher]] currently does a version of)<!--  search:  Carson Tonight Show "Book bit" -->
* '''"How ___ was it?'''" a recurring [[Call and response|call-and-response]] during Carson's monologues. Carson would set up the joke with a passing comment about, for instance, the weather with the phrase "It was ''so'' hot..." prompting the audience to respond "HOW HOT WAS IT?" Carson would then follow with several [[punch line]]s (e.g. "I heard [[The Burger King (mascot)|Burger King]] singing, '[[List of Burger King marketing campaigns|If you want it made your way]], cook it yourself!'"). Carson would occasionally throw the audience off with an [[anti-humor|anti-joke]] (such as "it was worth the trip in, wasn't it?").
* '''"Stump the Band'''," where studio audience members ask the band to try to play obscure songs given only the title. Unlike when this routine was done during the [[Jack Paar]] years with the [[José Melis]] band, Severinsen's band almost never knew the song, but that did not stop them from inventing one on the spot. Example:
:Guest's request: "[[I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover#Arrangements|My Dead Dog Rover]]"
:Doc Severinsen, singing: ''"My dead dog Rover / lay under the sun / and stayed there all summer / until he was done!"''
:[[David Letterman]] revived this bit later, along with the [[Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band|CBS Orchestra]] on his ''[[Late Show with David Letterman|Late Show]]''.
* '''"[[Headlines (Jay Leno)|Headlines]]'''," was developed by [[Jay Leno]], and seen only during nights when he guest-hosted beginning in 1986, featured humorous stories and typos from newspaper clippings. This carried over when Leno became permanent host in 1992.

== Programming history ==
[[File:Tonight Show cast New Years Eve 1962.JPG|thumb|180px|Carson's first ''Tonight Show'' on New Year's Eve, 1962; shown with Skitch Henderson and Ed McMahon]]
[[Jack Paar]]'s last appearance was on March 29, 1962, and due to Carson's commitment to the [[American Broadcasting Company|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]].<ref name= Harris-65>{{cite book |editor-last1=Harris |editor-first1=Jay S.  |title=TV Guide: The First 25 Years | year=1978 |publisher=New American Library |location=New York |isbn=0-452-25225-3 | page=65}}</ref> Carson inherited from Paar a show that was 1 3/4 hours (105 minutes) long.{{r|tynan19780220}} The show broadcast two openings, one starting at 11:15&nbsp;p.m. and including the monologue, the other that listed the guests and re-announced the host, starting at 11:30&nbsp;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 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]]").<ref>{{cite book | title=Uncle John's Giant 10th Anniversary Bathroom Reader | year=1997 | isbn= 978-1879682689 | publisher=Portable Press}}</ref>

*January 2, 1967 – September 12, 1980: Monday–Friday 11:30&nbsp;p.m.–1:00&nbsp;a.m.
*January 1965 – September 1966: Saturday or Sunday 11:15&nbsp;p.m.–1:00&nbsp;a.m. (reruns, initially billed as ''The Saturday Tonight Show'')
*September 1966 – September 1975: Saturday or Sunday 11:30&nbsp;p.m.–1:00&nbsp;a.m. (reruns, now identified as ''The Saturday/Sunday Tonight Show''; ''The Weekend Tonight Show'' by 1973)

By the mid-1970s ''Tonight'' was the most profitable show on television, making NBC $50 to $60&nbsp;million (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|50|1978|r=-1}}}} to ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|60|1978|r=-1}}}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation year|US}}) each year.{{r|tynan19780220}} 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 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.<ref>{{cite book | title=Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live | first1=Doug | last1=Hill | first2=Jeff | last2=Weingrad | year=2014 | isbn=978-1-61187-709-0 | publisher=Untreed Reads, LLC | location=San Francisco | page=7}}</ref> 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 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, ''[[The Tomorrow 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 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 (franchise)|Late Night]]'', currently under the title ''[[Late Night with Seth Meyers]]'' (2014–).

*September 15, 1980 – August 30, 1991: Monday–Friday 11:30&nbsp;p.m.–12:30&nbsp;a.m.
*September 2, 1991 – May 22, 1992: Monday–Friday 11:35&nbsp;p.m.–12:35&nbsp;a.m.<ref name="tonight1135">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/22/news/nbc-moves-johnny-carson-starting-time-by-5-minutes.html | title=NBC Moves Johnny Carson Starting Time by 5 Minutes | first=Bill | last=Carter | date=May 22, 1991 | work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

In May 1991, following positive viewer reception during tests in [[St. Louis]] ([[KSDK]]) and [[Dallas]]–[[Fort Worth, Texas|Fort Worth]] ([[KXAS-TV|KXAS]]), NBC reached an agreement with Carson Productions to delay 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 (talk show)|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 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.<ref name="tonight1135"/>

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.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/letterman-delivers-carson-penned-monologue-1.541735 | title=Letterman delivers Carson-penned monologue | date=February 1, 2005 | publisher=[[CBC.ca]] | url-status=bot: unknown | archive-url=https://archive.today/20080201072608/http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2005/02/01/lettermancarsontribute050201.html | archive-date=February 1, 2008 }}</ref>

=== 1979–1980 contract battle ===
[[File:Dick Cavett Alan King Johnny Carson Friars Club Carson roast 1968.JPG|right|thumb|With [[Dick Cavett]] and [[Alan King]]]]
In 1979, when [[Fred Silverman]] was the head of NBC, Carson took the network to court, claiming that he had been a free agent since April of that year because his most recent contract had been signed in 1972. Carson cited [[De Havilland Law|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.<ref>{{cite news | title=Television: Family Feud | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947429,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930024402/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947429,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=September 30, 2007 | publisher=Time magazine | date=1979-09-24 | access-date=2007-08-07 }}</ref> While the case was settled out of court,<ref>{{cite news | title=Law: Rent-a-Judge | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,952989,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061130000737/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,952989,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=November 30, 2006 | publisher=Time magazine | date=1981-04-20 | access-date=2007-08-07 }}</ref> the friction between Carson and the network remained and Carson was actively courted by rival network [[American Broadcasting Company|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]].<ref name="the CNN Wire Staff">{{Cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2012/06/03/showbiz/richard-dawson-dies/index.html|title=Former 'Family Feud' host Richard Dawson dies - CNN|author=the CNN Wire Staff|work=CNN|access-date=2018-11-15}}</ref>

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 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.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-johnny-carson-quit-tonight-644508 | title=How Johnny Carson Nearly Quit 'Tonight' and Scored TV's Richest Deal Ever | first1=Henry | last1=Bushkin | first2=Andy | last2=Lewis | work=The Hollywood Reporter | date=October 9, 2013 | access-date=September 4, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=People |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924118,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029233430/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924118,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 29, 2007 |work=Time Magazine |date=1980-05-19 |access-date=2007-08-07 }}</ref> In September 1980, Carson's [[Carson Entertainment|eponymous production company]] gained ownership of the show<ref>{{cite book |last=Carter |first=Bill |title=The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night. |url=https://archive.org/details/lateshiftletterm00cart |url-access=registration |year=1994 |publisher=Hyperion|location=New York, NY |isbn=0-7868-8907-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lateshiftletterm00cart/page/27 27] }}</ref><ref>"Johnny Carson Calls This Man 'Bombastic' All the Way to Bank." ''The Wall Street Journal'', June 8, 1980, p. 14.</ref> after owning it from 1969 to the early 1970s.{{r|tynan19780220}}

=== Archives ===
[[File:Tonight Show memorable moments 1975.JPG|thumb|220px|Some memorable moments. Top left: Carson's first show with Groucho, 1962. Top right: Carson practices pitching at Yankee Stadium, 1962. Bottom left: Tiny Tim's wedding, 1969. Bottom right: Carson does a skydiving demonstration, 1968.]]
Only 33 complete episodes of Johnny Carson's ''Tonight Show'' that had originally aired prior to May 1, 1972, are known to exist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.johnnycarson.com/collections/digital-downloads/products/digital-download-series-volume-1|title=Digital Download – Volume 1}}</ref> 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 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/how-many-johnny-carson-episodes-are-missing.1125729/ |title=How many Johnny Carson Episodes are missing? |date=January 1, 2022 |website=Steve Hoffman Music Forums |access-date=July 19, 2022}}</ref>

Other surviving material from the era has been found on [[kinescope]]s held in the archives of the [[American Forces Network|Armed Forces Radio and Television Service]], or in the personal collections of guests of the program, while a few moments such as [[Tiny Tim (musician)|Tiny Tim]]'s wedding, were preserved. New York meteorologist [[Frank Field (meteorologist)|Dr. Frank Field]], an occasional guest during the years he was weather forecaster for [[WNBC|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.{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}} There are also two appearances by [[Judy Garland]] in 1968 that still survive. [[Lennon–McCartney|John Lennon and Paul McCartney]]'s joint appearance on the May 14, 1968 episode guest-hosted by [[Joe Garagiola]], with a guest appearance by [[Tallulah Bankhead]] (one of her last), was preserved on poor-quality home kinescope and audiotape in separate recordings by [[The Beatles|Beatles]] fans.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://pdxretro.com/2014/05/the-lost-interview-on-this-day-in-1968/ |title=Pdxretro.com |date=15 May 2014 |access-date=May 15, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517154805/http://pdxretro.com/2014/05/the-lost-interview-on-this-day-in-1968/ |archive-date=May 17, 2014 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1968.05ts.beatles.html|title=John Lennon & Paul McCartney Interview: The Tonight Show, May 14th 1968 – Beatles Interviews Database|work=beatlesinterviews.org|access-date=August 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007100553/http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1968.05ts.beatles.html|archive-date=October 7, 2011|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref> 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.<ref>Johnny Carson: The Official Tonight Show Website, [https://licensing.johnnycarson.com/ Clip Licensing].</ref> Carson Productions has also made clips available on [[YouTube]] and [[Antenna TV]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/user/johnnycarson|title=Johnny Carson|website=[[YouTube]]}}</ref>

Although no footage 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 {{citation needed|date=May 2012}}. 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!") 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.) {{citation needed|date=May 2012}} 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.<ref>{{Citation |title=Jake Ehrlich Sr. on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson Longer Version | date=May 5, 2012 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lNZyiau_30 |language=en |access-date=2023-02-25}}</ref>

The 30-minute audio recordings of many of the "missing" episodes are contained in 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.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}} The later shows that exist in full were stored by Carson in a bomb-proof underground [[Salt mining|salt mine]] outside [[Hutchinson, Kansas]].<ref>Stuever, Hank (May 13, 2012). "A Heartfelt Doc Deconstructs The King of Late Night". ''[[Washington Post]]''.</ref>

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, the museum began working with the [[National Comedy Center]] to preserve the archive.<ref>[https://www.wgrz.com/article/entertainment/national-comedy-center-to-lead-preservation-of-johnny-carson-archives/71-ec01fe78-9639-4528-8bc6-f08d56acbfdd National Comedy Center to lead preservation of Johnny Carson archives; open new multi-media exhibit in 2022]. ''WGRZ''. October 23, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2020.</ref>

=== Rebroadcasts and streaming availability ===
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)|WHO-AM]] in [[Des Moines, Iowa]], in 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.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/carson-on-tcm-review-heeere-s-johnny-1.5589463 | title='Carson on TCM' review: Heeere's Johnny | first=Diane | last=Werts | date=June 28, 2013 | work=[[Newsday]] | location=[[Melville, New York]] | access-date=April 19, 2017}}</ref>

The digital multicast network [[Antenna TV]] acquired rerun rights to whole episodes of the series in August 2015. Unlike the previous [[clip show]]s, Antenna TV's airings feature full broadcasts as they were originally seen, with 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 Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon|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 Music|Warner/Chappell]] Production Music library. Most musical guest segments are also removed. Antenna TV began airing 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.<ref>Littleton, Cynthia (August 12, 2015). "[https://variety.com/2015/tv/news/johnny-carson-tonight-show-full-episodes-antenna-tv-1201568250/ Johnny Carson Returns: Antenna TV to Air Full ‘Tonight Show’ Episodes.]" ''Variety''. Retrieved August 21, 2015.</ref>

Selected episodes of Carson's show are available on NBC's [[Peacock (streaming service)|Peacock]] streaming service. [[Shout! Studios|Shout! Factory]] launched a 24/7 streaming channel devoted to the series in August 2020, which is distributed through various free [[Over-the-top media service|over-the-top platforms]], including [[Stirr]], [[Xumo]] and [[Pluto TV]]. Recently, The Roku Channel began streaming JohnnyCarsonTV on its multi-channel platform LiveTV.

== Guest hosts ==
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''.{{Citation needed|date=April 2017}}

''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 is a list of those who guest-hosted at least 50 times:

*[[Jay Leno]] (333 times, from 1986 to 1992)
*[[Joan Rivers]] (201,<ref name = varioushosts /> between 1969 and 1986<ref name="cnnrivers" />)
*[[Joey Bishop]] (177,<ref name = varioushosts /> mostly in the 1960s, early 1970s)
*[[John Davidson (entertainer)|John Davidson]] (87, mostly in the late 1970s and early 1980s)<ref name = varioushosts />
*[[Bob Newhart]] (87, mostly in the 1960s and 1970s)<ref name = varioushosts />
*[[David Brenner]] (70, from 1975-1984) <ref name = varioushosts />
*[[McLean Stevenson]] (58, mostly in the late 1970s)<ref name = varioushosts />
*[[Jerry Lewis]] (52,<ref name = varioushosts /> mostly in the 1960s to mid-1970s)
*[[David Letterman]] (51, mostly during 1980 and 1981)<ref name = varioushosts />

Impressionist [[Rich Little]] guest hosted 12 times during the 1970s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Rich Little |url=https://canadiancomedyhall.com/rich-little/ |website=Canadian Comedy Hall of Fame |access-date=August 11, 2024}}</ref>

[[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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sammydavisjr.info/television/guest-appearances/ |title=Sammy Davis Jr. TV Guest Appearances |access-date=2017-11-19}}</ref> [[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 ([[Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.|King in April]]; [[Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy|Kennedy in June]]).<ref name="BelafonteShnayerson2011">{{cite book|author1=Harry Belafonte|author2=Michael Shnayerson|title=My Song: A Memoir|url=https://archive.org/details/mysongmemoir00bela|url-access=registration|year=2011|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|isbn=978-0-307-27226-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/mysongmemoir00bela/page/322 322]}}</ref>
On April 2, 1979, [[Kermit the Frog]] was guest host.<ref>{{cite video
 |people     = Barry Gordemer (Producer)
 |title      = Happy 50th Birthday, Kermit!
 |url        = https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4635468
 |medium     = audio recording
 |publisher  = [[National Public Radio]]
 |date      = 2005-05-09
 |access-date = 2009-04-24
 |time       = 1:20–1:25
 |quote      = ...Kermit hosted The Tonight Show.
}}</ref> 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.<ref name="the CNN Wire Staff"/>

Carson's contract, that took effect in 1981, reduced his work schedule to three nights 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),<ref name = varioushosts /> then, after about 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 (TV network)|Showtime]] series ''[[It's Garry Shandling's Show]]''.<ref name = varioushosts>{{cite news|url=http://www.johnnycarson.com/carson/history.jsp|title=History of The Tonight Show |publisher=JohnnyCarson.com|access-date=January 22, 2010}}</ref> 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 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 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.

=== Joan Rivers ===
{{main|The Late Show (1986 talk show)}}
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 [[The Late Show (1986 talk show)|her own show]] on the then-new [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox Network]]. According to Carson, Rivers never personally informed him of the existence of her show. Rivers, on the other hand, disagreed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cwXezZX71A | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211107/_cwXezZX71A| archive-date=2021-11-07 | url-status=live|title=Joan Rivers on Johnny Carson's reaction to the start of her late show on Fox |publisher=Youtube.com |access-date=2012-02-22}}{{cbignore}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2009/08/06/2009-08-06_two_more_football_seasons_for_friday_night_lights_and_other_news_from_tv_critics.html | title=Two more football seasons for 'Friday Night Lights,' and other news from the TV Critics Press Tour| newspaper=[[Daily News (New York)|Daily News]]| date=August 6, 2009| access-date=2009-08-07| quote="We didn't feel it was right to invite her while Johnny was alive," said Leno. "It was a respect thing for Johnny." | first=David | last=Hinckley}}</ref> 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 a note following the accidental death of Carson's son Ricky in June 1991.<ref name="cnnrivers">{{cite news | url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0501/23/se.01.html | title=Johnny Carson, 79, Dies
| work=Live Event/Special rush transcript | publisher=CNN | date=January 23, 2005 | access-date=2009-05-12
| quote=[D]uring our 17 years together, which were wonderful years, and he was the one that discovered me and he was the one that said, "You're going to be a star" the first night I worked. He was an amazing man and an amazing mentor.  And then when I left the show to do my own show on Fox, he never forgave me, and that made me terribly sad. We never spoke again.}}</ref> 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.<ref name = riversshow>{{cite episode|series=The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon| title=Russell Crowe/Joan Rivers/The National| url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3599744/combined| network=nbc| season=1| number=29| date=2014-03-27| access-date=2015-08-24}}</ref>

The program of July 26, 1984, with guest host Joan Rivers, was the first [[Multichannel Television Sound|MTS]] [[stereophonic sound|stereo]] broadcast in U.S. television history,<ref>Lyons, James. Miami Vice. Wiley Publishing, 2010, p. 22</ref> 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.<ref>Peter W. Kaplan, "TV Notes", ''New York Times'', July 28, 1984, sec. 1, p. 46.</ref> NBC transmitted ''The Tonight Show'' in stereo sporadically through 1984 and on a regular basis beginning in 1985.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}}

==Consequential appearances==
According to [[Scientific skepticism|Skepticism]] activist [[James Randi]], Carson invited [[Uri Geller]], who claimed [[paranormal]] powers, onto 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 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 was being "pressed" to perform by Carson.<ref>{{cite web |title=Unforgettable Uri Geller Appearance on Carson Tonight Show - 08/01/1973 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD7OgAdCObs |website=Youtube.com |publisher=Official Johnny Carson YouTube channel |access-date=22 March 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210322185421/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD7OgAdCObs |archive-date=22 March 2021 |date=19 March 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=James Randi - Secrets of the Psychics Documentary (Full)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MFAvH8m8aI| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130816145355/http://www.youtube.com/watch?rl=yes&v=2MFAvH8m8aI&feature=fvwrel&client=mv-google&gl=US&hl=en&guid=| archive-date=2013-08-16 | url-status=dead|website=Youtube.com|publisher=JREF|access-date=25 August 2017}}</ref>{{rp|8:10}} According to Adam Higginbotham's Nov. 7, 2014 article in the ''New York Times'': {{Blockquote|text=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 the next day and go back to [[Tel Aviv]]. I thought, That's it — I'm destroyed."<ref name =Higginbotham>{{cite news|last1=Higginbotham|first1=Adam|title=The Unbelievable Skepticism of the Amazing Randi|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/magazine/the-unbelievable-skepticism-of-the-amazing-randi.html?_r=0|website=[[The New York Times]]|date=7 November 2014 |access-date=25 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031192709/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/magazine/the-unbelievable-skepticism-of-the-amazing-randi.html?_r=0|archive-date=31 October 2022}}</ref>}}

However, this appearance on ''The Tonight Show'', which Carson and Randi had orchestrated to debunk Geller's claimed abilities, backfired. According to Higginbotham, 
{{Blockquote|text=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.<ref name =Higginbotham/>}}

== Carson's last shows ==
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 is enough. It's time to get out while you're still working on top of your game, while you're still working well."<ref name="nyt-end">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/23/arts/fade-out-for-johnny-carson-his-dignity-and-privacy-intact.html | title= Fade Out for Johnny Carson, His Dignity and Privacy Intact | author=Bernard Weinraub | newspaper=[[The New York Times]] | date=May 23, 1992 }}</ref>

Carson hosted his penultimate show, featuring guests [[Robin Williams]] and [[Bette Midler]], on May 21, 1992.<ref name="tv.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.tv.com/the-tonight-show-starring-johnny-carson/show/10019/episode.html |title=The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson Season 30 Episode Guide |publisher=TV.com |access-date=2011-10-26}}</ref> 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 was greeted with a sustained, two-minute intense standing ovation.<ref name="trib" /> Williams was especially uninhibited with his trademark manic energy and [[Stream of consciousness|stream-of-consciousness]] lunacy.<ref name="nyt-end" /><ref name="bandc" /> Midler was more emotional.<ref name="bandc">{{cite news | title=Life After Johnny | magazine=[[Broadcasting & Cable]] | url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/155997-Life_After_Johnny.php | author=Matt Roush | date=January 30, 2005}}</ref> When the conversation turned to Johnny's favorite songs, "[[I'll Be Seeing You (song)|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 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.<ref name="shaiman">{{cite news | url=http://www.filmmusicsociety.org/news_events/features/2005/012405.html?IsArchive=012405/ | title=Someone in a Tree: My view of Johnny Carson's last night | author=Marc Shaiman | author-link=Marc Shaiman | publisher=[[The Film Music Society]] | date=January 24, 2005}}</ref> The audience became tearful as well and called the three performers out for a second bow after the taping was completed.<ref name="trib">{{cite news | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1992/05/22/fans-put-johnny-on-the-spot/ | title=Fans Put Johnny On The Spot | author=Deborah Seibel | newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]] | date=May 22, 1992}}</ref> 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.<ref name="bandc" /><ref name="shaiman" /><ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oNRYAAAAIBAJ&pg=6849,5516905&dq=carson+midler+williams+classic&hl=en | title=Carson: He left 'Tonight Show' with popularity still running high | newspaper=[[The Register-Guard]] | location=Eugene, Oregon | date=January 24, 2005 | page=A1}}</ref>

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 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.<ref name="nyt-end" /><ref name="tv.com" /> More than fifty million people tuned in for this finale, which ended with Carson sitting on a stool alone at center stage, similar to [[Jack Paar]]'s last show. He said these final words in conclusion:

{{blockquote|And so it has come to this: I, uh... am one of the lucky people in the world; I found something I always wanted to do and I have enjoyed every single minute of it. I want to thank the gentlemen who've shared this stage with me for thirty years. Mr. Ed McMahon, Mr. Doc Severinsen, and you people watching. I can only tell you that it has been an honor and a privilege to come into your homes all these years and entertain you. And I hope when I find something that I want to do and I think you would like and come back, that you'll be as gracious in inviting me into your home as you have been. I bid you a very heartfelt good night.}}

A few weeks after the final show aired, it was announced that NBC and Carson had struck a deal to develop a new series. Ultimately, however, Carson chose not to return to television. He gave only two major interviews after his retirement: one to ''[[The Washington Post]]'' in 1993, and the other to ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' magazine in 2002. Carson hinted in his 1993 interview that he did not think he could top what he had already accomplished. He rarely appeared elsewhere after retiring, providing only a guest voice on an [[Krusty Gets Kancelled|episode]] of ''[[The Simpsons]],'' which included him performing feats of strength and featured Bette Midler as well. Carson's final television appearance was a [[Cameo appearance|cameo]] on the May 13, 1994, ''[[Late Show with David Letterman]]'' where he handed over a copy of a Top 10 List and sat in Dave's chair for a minute. He was prepared to say a few words, but the crowd's cheering was so loud and so sustained, that he humorously decided to leave without saying anything—although as he exited, he could be heard saying "Thank you, good night!"

In 2005, after Carson's death, it was revealed that he had made a habit of sending jokes to Dave Letterman via fax machine which Letterman would then sometimes incorporate into his monologues. The January 31, 2005, episode of the ''[[Late Show with David Letterman]]'', which featured a tribute to Carson, began with a monologue by Letterman composed entirely of jokes written by Carson himself after his retirement.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carson-feeds-jokes-to-letterman/|title=Carson Feeds Jokes To Letterman|work=CBS News|agency=Associated Press|last=Hancock|first=David|date=January 18, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.redorbit.com/news/general/123709/letterman_pays_special_tribute_to_carson|title=Letterman Pays Special Tribute to Carson – Redorbit|last=redOrbit|date=1 February 2005}}</ref>

In 2011, the last Carson ''Tonight'' show was ranked No. 10 on the [[History of Pop (American TV channel)|TV Guide Network]] special, ''TV's Most Unforgettable Finales''.<ref>TV's Most Unforgettable Finales – Aired May 22, 2011 on TV Guide Network</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson episodes|List of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' episodes]]
*''[[There's... Johnny!]]''

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
*{{official website|http://www.johnnycarson.com/}}
*{{IMDb title|id=0055708|title=The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson}}
*{{EmmyTVLegends title|tonight-show-starring-johnny-carson-the|The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson}}

{{TonightShow}}
{{The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson episodes}}
{{EmmyAward VarietyMusicComedy 1976–2000}}
{{Joan Rivers}}

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