This is true too, back when the big three ruled the airwaves, and were in strong competition. Now it’s more like the networks together against cable.
Carol Burnett, Glen Campbell, Karen Valentine, and Marlo Thomas were “stars of competing networks” also. Just not head-to-head competition like Dick Cavett was.
They were making appearances as themselves that publicized their shows. Unless Cavett was also an award winner, I wouldn’t expect to see him on the show. It’s hard to explain, but I remember it. When the network that aired The Bionic Woman dropped it, and another network picked it up, there was a huge to-do about some of the characters who were also on the Six-Million-Dollar Man. Would they be permitted to appear on both shows on competing networks? There was a collective national gasp when they were allowed to, as part of the contract transfer-- that is, the show was sold as a package with actors’ contracts intact.
No one would think twice-- or even notice, I suspect-- if that happened now. I DVR my favorite shows, and watch them later (FFing through commercials), so I couldn’t even tell you what network most of them are on, but still I remember which networks broadcast my favorite shows when I was a kid.
That’s not mistrust, it’s caution. Many posters are experts on how we can be fooled and know how easy it is to fool yourself when you’re not careful. Pranksters and misinformation sources are ubiquitous more now than ever.
Cavett co-hosted the Emmys in 1970. He was a writer for the Tonight Show in the past, so it’s possible that for him there was less of a taboo about appearing on the Tonight Show than for others on competing networks.
For the record, he did appear once on the Tonight Show during his run, in 1969.
That aside, however, his own NYC show ran on 11/11/70, as well as the preceding and following days. If the Tonight Show really taped in Burbank that week, the timing doesn’t work.
http://www.tv.com/shows/the-dick-cavett-show/season-5/
Plus that is distinctly NOT Dick Cavett’s hair!
It wasn’t a taboo-- it was what your contract would allow. Contracts called for “publicity appearances,” but actors weren’t free to sign up for one-off appearances on other shows on their own, unless they had that built into their contract.
Which was really my only point, initially.
Okay, I can only piece together what I think could be a possibility for Jean Paul Belmondo, at 33, same hairline, similar side profile, same body type. Here he is in the James Bond spoof Le Magnifique" which was released in 1973 Le Magnifique Trailer Jean-Paul Belmondo - YouTube
He was involved with Ursala Andress from 1965-1972 At various times in Los Angelas on Andress’ insistence that he move to the US to work in Hollywood. There are photos of them in 69 and 70 going to movies and taking meetings. Andress’ A-list contacts such as Sinatra and Bob Hope as well as Belmondo’s body of work got him meetings with studio reps. Belmondo got frustrated with the lack of distribution of French films in the US and publically blamed the distributors and left LA around the time he split permanently from Andress. He was not back to LA for a number of years. The LA Film Critics Association presented him with their award in 2009 for lifetime career achievement and he went to receive his award.
Could It be possible that Belmondo’s criticism of the Hollywood Film distributors was a sore spot? The show had lots of ties to the film industry, Fred De Cordova was also a film director, so the Tonight Show chose not to include his name in the credits for that episode. Just a musing …
Wow, Jean Paul Belmondo really does look like MM. The ear even looks right, the lobe and everything.
I’m not sure why he’d be on the show, though.
Hmmm. It looks like everyone in the photo, as well as Jean Paul Belmondo, was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1971 for work in 1970.
And here’s the thing-- Marlo Thomas’ GG was for a movie called Jenny, where she didn’t wear bangs, the way she has her hair in the picture. I can’t remember her not wearing bangs in That Girl. I could be wrong, though, as I was never a big fan of the show, and I haven’t seen it in years.
When are the GGs announced? can we find out who the guests were on Carson then? I know it seems odd that almost the same group would assemble twice, but odder things have happened.
Hmmm. IMDb says Jean Paul Belmondo was never on The Tonight Show, and Wiki agrees. I wouldn’t be shocked if the sources were wrong, but for now, I’m voting No on him.
I don’t know, but we could trace the Golden Globes to February 5, 1971. And yes, JP Belmondo’s film Borsellino was nominated. It would be fitting for Belmondo to be there to promote his film to the American audience.
It’s quite possible he’s a MM because the record is deliberately left off. He was pissed at the Hollywood film distributors
Feb 5, 1971 had Bob Newhart as a guest host, and Jack Cassidy as a guest. There are several blank days later in February, and in March, there is a week were Joey Bishop guest-hosted, and no guests are listed. Let me check a couple of other sources for lists.
So… what, it was okay to have him on the show, one that was seen by millions considering the number of stars on that episode, but the powerful Tonight Show and NBC were afraid to include his name in the TV listings because… what, they were afraid that the Critics Assoc. would picket them? 
We KNOW all those people were on the November 11, 1970 show, thanks to multiple sources. Are you guys suggesting that the exact same group of people showed up a few months later? Wouldn’t that be a little… weird and incredibly unlikely?
There is just no reason to believe the mystery man was on the Tonight Show the day (or night) that picture was taken. Any of that group may or may not have appeared on the show, and the whole group may not have been on the show together. Johnny may not have been there at all when the picture was taken, and Dick Cavett or anyone else might have been on the show because NBC didn’t just book NBC TV personalities to appear on the Tonight Show or it never would have lasted until 1970. They avoided mentioning the other networks by name, but they didn’t hesitate to take advantage of another network’s success by bringing on their stars.
So it could be Dick Cavett or Jean Paul Belmondo, but it’s not.
If they were on a show together as Nominees in November, and the GG weren’t handed out until February, then JP Belmondo could have been considered the “others” on the show in November.
Records to that effect of placing him there might have been mutually expunged for all kinds of reasons, possibily contractual, especially when he called out the Hollywood Film Distribution industry. For me JP looks the most like MM from any of the names brought foward so far.
They wouldn’t announce the '70 nominees in November. They’d wait until after Dec. 31.
Well it is a coincidence that JP Belmondo was also a GG nominee along with the others on the panel that night.
Huh. Jean Paul Belmondo is the first person suggested in this thread that has the exact right hair.