It was a running gag on Carson’s Tonight Show that Ed really liked the sauce. In fact, I can remember when the show itself would play clips from past episodes where Ed was acting pretty loopy. But I seem to have a niggling feeling that Ed had a defining, spectacular flameout moment where he either cursed a blue streak or ripped into Johnny or did something else that was highly embarassing and inappropriate. I’ve tried looking online but can’t seem to find anything.
Are there any religious watchers of the show that remember anything like that?
Hmmmm… I recall one particular outake from a blooper show where he was almost certainly drunk. No total embarrassing blow out or anything, just some mumbling and incoherent thought processes.
McMahon was on the air with Roe Conn on WLS 890AM in Chicago a few weeks ago. I’m an avid listener, hehe.
I recall him sharing tales about his various outings with Carson where alcohol was involved, and I specifically remember him talking at length about how Carson was a veritable teetotaller. In addition to being notoriously shy around people who weren’t close friends, he also was a bit of a lightweight … or at least, alchohol made him behave in ways he didn’t want to behave. He didn’t go into too much detail about his own drinking on-air, but alluded to it.
I was able to find this, though. 
O my God, anamnesis, that’s incredible! It’s like something straight off of Larry Sanders. (Actually, I think that was probably the direct inspiration for several scenes in The Larry Sanders Show.) I’m amazed they let Ed back on TV after that. If that isn’t a defining “Ed McMahon being drunk” moment, I don’t know what would be. And Johnny was absolutely merciless! He kept his good humor the whole time as if he were just laughing it off, but I bet he was seriously pissed. If he hadn’t brought Joan Embry out when he did, I think Ed was going to start bawling.
[Johnny Carson]
“Very funny, Ed, but the dog was supposed to eat the Alpo.”
[/JC]
And what’s Ed doing now? The jokes write themself.
Dang that was funny. I forget how bad Johnny was. I also can’t believe it was Johnny not Ed, when talking about the S Diego zoo woman said “she does three horse shows per day” pregnant pause “at the wild animal park.”
You shouldn’t be amazed about it because given the tenor of the times back then, it wasn’t that remarkable. Dean Martin and Foster Brooks were both very popular and each used being drunk (or more acting like a drunk, more accurately) as part of their schticks. MADD didn’t exist. Three martini lunches were part of the culture. Excessive alcohol use wasn’t forbidden or looked down on. If Ed was drunk on air, he and everyone else laughed it off.
This was the early 80s, not the late 60s. MADD was founded in 1980, and the three martini lunch was past its prime. Martin and Brooks never appeared on stage actually drunk, and never did anything as unintentionally embarrassing as Ed. Being drunk os one thing, disrupting the show is another.
Wow, that clip makes so much more sense now. The Carson collection that was released several years ago has the latter half of that clip with Ed on the couch up until Joan Embrey comes out, and their behavior never made sense to me until now.