I’m pretty sure they have beer and stuff in the green room (maybe not?), but what’s in the coffee cups when they are out there doing the show. Can some guest say "I want my cup full of Jim Beam or whatever?
Yes. At least they could when Carson was hosting, I don’t know why it would be different now. I remember one show Johnny did with the “oldest Avon Lady” (over 100, I think) as a guest and when they came back from commercial he told the audience they had asked if she wanted something to drink and she said “I’d like a screwdriver,” and they obliged. He got a kick out of it. She was really cute, she said her 80 year old son drove her to the airport when she left her home to fly out to be on the show.
(Screwdriver= vodka and orange juice, for those who don’t know.)
Thanks for the reply. I did figure that at least high profile guests could get what they wanted just to show up. And I grew up with Carson, and always figured Johnny, doc Ed and most of the guests were a bit buzzed.
Tom Green(e) appeared on Leno one night, and did shots of Jaegermeister during his entire interview (don’t know if they were real, but he sure seemed wobbly by the end of his spot).
Hunter S. Thompson (or P. J. O’Rourke…I know, pathetic of me, but I can never keep those two straight; not being a particular fan of either) was on Conan O’Brien one night, and not only appeared pretty blitzed, but came on stage with a drink, as I recall.
Didn’t Bobcat Goldwaithe get drunk while on a show and ended up burning a piece of furniture?
And there was one infamous show Jimmy Kimmel show where guests were pretty drunk on camera.
Don’t forget the show Leno did on the set of Cheers when that show ended. Even the ghost of Nicholas Colasanto got ripped on that one.
Just remember that Hunter was the guy who would come on stage drunk and coked out of his mind with a handgun, shoot out a camera, and set the host’s desk on fire, while PJ was the one who would joke about it in his bestseller before going back to talking a lot about how he occasionally gets drunk and stoned too (Big fan of both, btw).
Crispin Glover didn’t come out onstage with a coffee cup in his Letterman gig a few years ago, but it sure looked like he’d been consuming something.
There was the infamous Farrah Fawcett interview on Letterman. No, wait, she explained later – it was satire. :smack:
Steve-O of Jackass renown came on Adam Carolla’s short lived show hammered as hammered could be. He could barely speak and he ended up smashing a table.
Just remember that people used to be able to smoke on talk shows too. I don’t think you see too much of that anymore either. Most drinking is done undercover out of cups if at all anymore.
Once saw Quentin Tarantino on Leno, so drunk that Leno kept making comments about the smell of his breath. Not such a great interview.
And Matthew McConaghey was on something (although I don’t think it was alcohol) the time he went on the Daily Show and told this bizarre rambling story about goatfucking. It was so bizarre and rambling that they actually cut out the final segment of news parody to let him continue the anecdote. Never seen that before or since. Jon just sat there, watching the trainwreck.
When Johnny Depp was on Inside the Actors Studio he was smoking French hand-rolled cigarettes like a chimney. It was rather startling to see these days.
Yeah, that’s pretty different. What makes hand rolled cigs “French”?
There’s a vaguely popular (among American scenesters) French brand that’s supposedly hand-rolled. I assume that’s what he was talking about.
That is pretty funny.
It was a big pouch of European tobacco rolled with dark brown tobacco paper that he smoked like a cigarette. And he lives in France. Sorry if that somehow offended your elite sensibilities for some reason.
They come from France?
Miller, it’s actually based more on their political tendencies and passion for soccer.
(Phillips Screwdriver = vodka, orange juice and milk of magnesia.) 
Natasha Henstridge brought a bottle of tequila on Conan O’Briens show (it was his birthday, iirc) and they did some shots.
She seemed like a fun person to do shots with. Surprisingly down to earth, at least on that appearance.
Back when Craig Kilborn was hosting the Late Late Show, Vince Vaughn shotgunned a beer on-camera one night. As I recall, Craig gave him the “come on, be a macho guy” talk and Vince did it, but really didn’t look too happy about it.
Whoa. That was weeeeeeeeeird.