The Tonight Show, starring Johnny Carson....

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

got off to a VERY auspicious start.

I was doing a 'net search to try and find an address for Carson Productions (going to write a letter suggesting that they assemble some video tapes of just the musical guests - tons of jazz greats made appearances) when I found a list of Johnny’s first guests.

Rudy Vallee
Joan Crawford
Mel Brooks
Tony Bennett

Take that Jay Leno, you hack.

2

Jay’s first guest was Billy Crystal. What’s wrong with that?

I agree, though. Johnny ruled.

3

We just bought the infomercial Johnny Carson’s Favorite Moments. What a hoot!

There has neither been, nor ever will be, another “Johnny”.

4

The fact that Jay didn’t even mention Johnny on his first show turned me off to him forever.

5

Although I agree, IMHO Conan is the best, Jay wanted to pay tribute to Johnny his first night on the air, but his agent Helen Kushnik (AKA Kathy Bates) supposedly nixed the idea right before showtime. Or so they would have us believe…

6

I read the book that the movie was based on. Apparently Helen Kushnik (IIRC got producer credit on Tonight Show after Jay got the job) pushed very hard to get Leno the Tonight Show and then tried as best she could to make the American public forget Johnny and accept Jay, part of that included no meniton of Johnny on Jay’s first night.

I think Jay fired her after that season, might even have been before the first season’s end.

7

–According to a comment Johnny made toward the end of his reign the only thing you’ll probably find about most of his earliest show is a list. The video tape in those days would be recorded over the next night.
Every now and then an engineer might save a particularly memorable moment (like Ed Ames and the hatchet).

Sometime a guest host got interesting, too. An interview guest host Harry Belafonte had with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stands out.Belafonte guested for Carson for one week back in the mid-60’s.
I was just a kid but even I knew King was too controversal for talks shows of that period. All I recall was Belafonte asking him if he was afraid of being murdered. The response was quiet, thoughtful, and now lost.