The Tonight Show
1 9 5 4 - 1 9 9 2
(USA)
 The
Tonight Show premiered on NBC in 1954 with Steve Allen as its
first host. While it maintained a distinctive format and style
throughout its first four decades on the air, The Tonight Show changed
significantly with each successive host. Steve Allen, Ernie Kovacs,
Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, and Jay Leno each took The Tonight Show in
a significant new direction. Each of these hosts imprinted the show
with distinctive personalities and management styles.
The contrast between Jack Paar (the previous host
of The Tonight Show) and Johnny Carson was marked. Paar was
emotional and likely to blow up - Carson was calm and unflappable.
Unlike Paar, Carson tended to avoid anything controversial and was
usually content to keep his audience amused. Carson opened each of his
NBC shows with a monologue and then spent most of the remainder of the
evening simply chatting with guests - it was like having friends over
to your place for coffee (albeit very famous friends!).
For millions of Americans, the show was a
comforting, consistent, comedic lullaby. Every night for three
decades, they'd drift off to sleep as a twinkle-eyed, silver-haired
Nebraskan swung an invisible golf club, made some alimony jokes, and
inspired throaty ho-ho-ho's from his eager
sidekick. Over the course of some 4,500 shows, Carson turned The
Tonight Show into a pre-sleep ritual, launched a thousand stand-up
careers, and reached the kind of fame where last names were
unnecessary: "Heeeeere's Johnny!" was enough.
 When
Carson started, the show originated from New York and was taped on the
same evening that it aired. Johnny was on air all five nights a week
and began his monologue when the show began, at 11:15 P.M.
On his very first show, Carson was introduced by
Groucho Marx; Johnny's first words, reacting to applause as he walked
onstage for the first time were, "Boy, you would think it was
Vice President Nixon". In February 1965 Johnny refused to do the
11:15-11:30 P.M. segment any longer, leaving that to Ed McMahon and
Skitch Henderson. On January 2, 1967 this first fifteen minutes was
dropped from the show altogether, leaving the show at 90 minutes.
The show would remain at 90 minutes in length
until 1980 when it was further cut back to only one hour. Features
that were used on his show with varying frequency included "Stump
the Band," in which members of the studio audience would ask the
band to try to play obscure songs by giving them only the titles;
"Carnac the Magnificent," with Carson as an inept magician;
"Aunt Blabby," with Carson as a gossiping little old lady;
"The Mighty Carson Art Players," spoofing movies,
commercials, TV shows, and events in the news; "Floyd R.
Turbo," with Carson as a super-patriot; and "The Art Fern
Tea Time Movie," with Carol Wayne as the original "Matinee
Lady."
 Perhaps
the most celebrated telecast, and certainly the one with the most
enormous audience, was that of December 17, 1969, on which Tiny Tim
married Miss Vicki.
In May 1972 the show was moved permanently from
New York to Burbank, California. It was also around this time that
Carson started cutting back on his appearances. He would now do the
show only four nights per week, leaving the Monday night show to a
guest host.
The most frequent guest hosts during the first 21
years were Joey Bishop (177 times), Joan Rivers (93 times), Bob
Newhart (87 times), John Davidson (87 times), David Brenner (70
times), McLean Stevenson (58 times), Jerry Lewis (52 times), and David
Letterman (51 times). Joan Rivers was the "permanent" (and
only) guest host from September 1983 until 1986. The Tonight
Show reverted to various guest hosts after Joan left, with Jay
Leno the most frequent. Leno then became the exclusive guest host in
the fall of 1987, a position he held for the remainder of Johnny's
rein.
A typical Carson moment occurred on October 16,
1987. Carson always took a special delight in people with eccentric
hobbies, and on this night he had a guest named Myrtle Young from Fort
Wayne, Indiana, whose hobby was collecting potato chips
that looked like other objects - an angry dog, a sleeping bird, a
candle . . .
While
Myrtle proudly showed off her fine (and fragile) collection, Ed
McMahon distracted her momentarily and as she was turned away there
was a resounding "crunch" from Carson. All eyes turned to
the host who has just bitten into a potato chip!
Myrtle is in a state of shock, clutching her
chest with her mouth agape and her eyes wide with shock and betrayal.
How could Johnny munch one of her works of art?!? Ever the
grand-master of timing, Carson allowed the gag to play out for a while
before assuring Myrtle and reaching down to hold up a big bowl of
chips he had behind his desk in preparation for the prank. The
laughter went on for several minutes.
Johnny's final telecast (May 22, 1992) was a
national event. A quiet reflection of the shows golden moments over
the past 30 years.
|
|
