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The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

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The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
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TheTonightShowStarringJohnnyCarson
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Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is an American Talk Show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise. It ran on NBC from from October 1, 1962 through Carson's retirement on May 22, 1992.It originally aired during late-night. For its first decade, Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show was based at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City, with some episodes recorded at NBC-TV's West Coast studios in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, California; on May 1, 1972, the show moved to Burbank as its main venue and remained there exclusively after May 1973 until the end. Along the way, the show's massive popularity made it the Trope Codifier for the talk show format in general, as well as a major influence on every talk show that followed it.In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked No. 12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and in 2013 it was ranked No. 22 on their list of 60 Best Series.Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })Due to the overwhelming amount of episodes over three decades, home video and digital releases have only highlighted a small handful of the show's content, and for a while when the show was rerun as Carson's Comedy Classics, it only highlighted select sketches in a half hour format. However, on January 2016, the series finally started rerunning on Antenna TVnote albeit under the title Johnny Carson, as NBC still retains the rights to the Tonight Show brand. In 2020, the series also began live streaming on Shout! Factory TV as The Johnny Carson Show, featuring episodes with particularly famous/popular guests, Joan Embry and animals from the San Diego Zoo, and the like.
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15 Minutes of Fame
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15 Minutes of Fame: Carson's Tonight Show was famous for featuring both celebrities and non-celebrities who happened to have a unique quirk (like the woman who collected potato chips that looked like famous people) or who won a contest (like spelling bee champs). Aside from Letterman's Late Show, this practice didn't really carry over to most other late night talk shows, with the hosts mostly sticking to celebrities promoting their latest movies/shows, as well as musicians and stand-up comics.note The only other talk show host to pick up this mantle is Ellen Degeneres on her daytime show, featuring kids with unusual talents and people who became viral video sensations.
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Tempting Fate
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Tempting Fate: Carson has more than once made a point to never oversell a comedy sketch for this very reason:
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The Stoic
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The Stoic: Carson nicknamed Tommy Newsom (sax player and replacement bandleader whenever Doc was out) "Mr. Excitement".
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Stealth Pun
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Stealth Pun: Occurs in some skits, such as this one from a Tea Time Movie sketch from 1986:
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Tongue-Tied
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Tongue-Tied: On a 1986 episode, Johnny called a film a "flim". Johnny was particularly tongue tied in the Carrie Fisher/Garry Shandling episode from 1983, which of course he lampshaded.
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I'm a Humanitarian
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I'm a Humanitarian: In a sketch about the 1987 stock market crash:
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Immediate Self-Contradiction
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Immediate Self-Contradiction: In 1986, Johnny interviewed four Playboy Bunnies, and some audience members snickered at a comment that could've been interpreted two ways. Johnny admonished them, saying it was a serious interview, then turned back to the Bunny and said, "Go ahead, baby."
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Ironic Echo
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Ironic Echo: Used numerous times during any interview with Charles Grodin, for comedic effect.
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Persona Non Grata
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Persona Non Grata: When Johnny paid tribute to his son Richard, who died in a car accident in 1991, on the first episode after his death, producer Fred de Cordova, noticing the show was running long, gave him the "wrap" signal. Johnny was (understandably) so outraged that he chewed him out after the show and forbid him from setting foot on the set during filming from then until Carson's run ended in 1992. Also happened with Joan Rivers, Carson's frequent guest host in The '80s. She got a deal to host her own late-night talk show opposite Carson's on another channel. Reportedly Carson wasn't as incensed by this so much as her failure to inform him about it beforehand. As per Rivers, he never spoke to her again. Dana Carvey was a frequent guest and Carson loved the impression Carvey did of him on Saturday Night Live. However, SNL then decided to do a sketch that portrayed Carson as senile, despite Carvey objecting to the idea as being too mean. As he predicted, Carson found the sketch insulting and never had Carvey on as a guest again.
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The Shelf of Movie Languishment
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The Shelf of Movie Languishment: Invoked: Nearly every time Robert Blake was on in the late '70s and early '80s, he complained that one of his movies, Second-Hand Hearts, kept being delayed for release by the studio. Johnny agreed to show a different clip from the movie every time Robert was on, so that if he was a guest often enough, the audience would eventually see all of it.
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Resigned in Disgrace
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Resigned in Disgrace: Played for Laughs in a 1989 episode after a comedy piece doesn't go as well as Johnny liked; he slowly and quietly puts the script for the sketch in a manila folder, places it under his desk, and then announces: "I'm, uh, leaving show business..."
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Japan Takes Over the World
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Japan Takes Over the World: One sketch from 1989 called "Bootleg Tonight Show" had the intro and monologue recreated with Japanese actors playing Johnny's, Ed's and Doc's parts.
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Sex Sells
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Sex Sells: The Matinee Lady, who appears in every Art Fern sketch.
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OnceAnEpisode
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Once an Episode: Carson making fun of last night's "bad" crowd during the monologue.
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Baa-Bomb
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Baa-Bomb: "Sis boom bah!"note "Describe the sound made when a sheep explodes."
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Near-Miss Groin Attack
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Near-Miss Groin Attack: One of the more infamously hilarious bits during the prime of Johnny Carson's run. Ed Ames was trying to show Johnny how to throw a tomahawk at a cardboard target. On his first throw, Ed's ax landed just right below the groin area much to Johnny, the audience and Ed's amusement, the latter who was even surprised that happened.
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Quote Mine
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Quote Mine: Done for comedy in a recurring sketch where Johnny played a reporter at a Ronald Reagan press conference.
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Public Service Announcement
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Public Service Announcement: Parodied in a recurring sketch where Johnny would record multiple PSAs for a variety of causes in a row. Just one example:
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Bigger Than Jesus
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Bigger Than Jesus: In one of the interviews with Charles Grodin, Grodin addressed something Carson said in an earlier interview, when he said that $18.95 isn't too much for a book if you're Mother Teresa. Grodin found that "insulting", but Carson explained that Grodin isn't as famous as Teresa. Grodin asked if Carson considers himself as famous as Teresa. Carson's reply? "Of course not!... (reconsiders) I might be."
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Mood-Swinger
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Mood-Swinger: Done for laughs by Bob Newhart in one of Johnny's last shows:
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Early-Installment Weirdness
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Early Installment Weirdness: People who grew up with the Jay Leno incarnation of the show onwards might be surprised that yes, the show used to be an hour and forty-five minutes long. The show was eventually cut down to ninety minutes in 1966 after Carson learned that many affiliates were preempting the first fifteen minutes for local programming and refused to come on until later. For a while, Ed McMahon would do a solo set before introducing Johnny at the point when all the affiliates switched over to the main feed. In 1980, as part of a series of contract demands by Carson that NBC accepted, the show reduced its running time to the present sixty minutes. One example of how long it could go is in the Christmas 1979 episode, which featured a very funny opening segment of Johnny and Ed looking at popular toys of the time which took up three segments and lasted about 26 minutes. The early '60s episodes in general, because they're in black and white, whereas by the mid '60s they switched to color and stayed that way for the rest of the series's run.
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Mathematician's Answer
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Mathematician's Answer: How Tommy Newsom often answered Johnny, which got a lot of laughs. He would also answer some of Johnny's questions in ways he wasn't expecting, like when he asked Tommy where he got that suit:
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Now How Much Would You Pay
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Now How Much Would You Pay: Subverted in an Art Fern sketch from 1982:
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All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats
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All Asians Wear Conical Straw Hats: One of the gags in a G. Walter Schneer sketch at a bank had Schneer turning down a customer by pretending not to speak English. He puts on a conical straw hat:
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Game Show Appearance
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Game Show Appearance: One Mighty Carson Art Players sketch had Carson playing President Ronald Reagan as a contestant on Family Feud.
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Smells Sexy
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Smells Sexy: Johnny noted at the top of an interview with Candice Bergen that she smells good.
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Shameless Self-Promoter
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Shameless Self-Promoter: Charles Grodin in some of his interviews. In his second 1989 appearance, he stood up his latest book on Johnny's desk as he entered. Johnny laid it flat, and when Charles noticed, he propped it back up:
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Smoking Is Cool
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Smoking Is Cool: Many of Carson's celebrity guests smoked, and unashamedly lit up on the set. Carson prominently kept a wooden cigarette box on his desk (Don Rickles accidentally smashing the box's lid and Johnny subsequently berating him for it is a TV classic). There were frequent instances where five or more people on the set (Carson and McMahon included) had lighted cigarettes in hand at any one time, with ashtrays provided. By the early 1980s, with the habit becoming less socially acceptable and health risks becoming better known, Carson and McMahon stopped smoking on screen; McMahon ultimately quit, while Carson continued his pack-plus-a-day habit for most of the rest of his life, ultimately dying in 2005 of respiratory failure brought on by emphysema.
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Ambiguous Syntax
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Ambiguous Syntax: In one of the audience questions segments:
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Suddenly Shouting
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Suddenly Shouting: During Ed's introduction of Carnac, he almost always shouts "NO ONE! knows the contents of these envelopes."
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Big Brother Is Watching
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Big Brother Is Watching: For a few shows in 1984, a big eye was placed in the background, as a tribute to 1984. However, it freaked out some viewers (and others were too fixated on the eye and couldn't concentrate on Johnny's punchlines) so he got rid of it.
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Long List
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Long List: A sketch about kids' letters to Santa from 1981 had one kid who made a list of everything they wanted for Christmas, which went on for four pages.
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Off the Rails
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Off the Rails: Could occur with certain guests. See the Burt Reynolds/Dom De Luise episode from the '70s for just one instance. This Tea Time Movie segment goes off the rails in spectacular fashion when the mustache falls off. The next time they did a Tea Time Movie bit after this mishap, the mustache had extra glue on it and Johnny returned to his desk missing a bit of skin from his upper lip.
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Formula-Breaking Episode
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Formula-Breaking Episode: Whenever Ed is gone, as Doc has to take his place. It's weird seeing Doc set up the Carnac segment, for example. Taken Up to Eleven in the 9/2/74 episode: Ed was off. Doc was off. So actress Carol Wayne, famous for being the Matinee Lady in the Tea Time Movie sketches, took Ed's place. She and Johnny had a... unique comic chemistry. There's also the handful of instances when both Doc and Tommy were off; Shelly Cohen stood in for them as the bandleader. See the 5/8/87 episode for one such example. The 1988 episode where all the guests were previously bumped on earlier episodes. Not only that, but three of the four guests were stand-up comics, so this may have the most stand-up of any Carson episode. An episode from 1986 had a couple unique aspects: One of the guests was a longtime viewer who had written to the show for years asking to introduce Johnny as Ed does, and a segment where Doc cooks with Johnny. The 3/4/76 episode doesn't open with a monologue as usual; instead it starts on a western scene where Johnny and a chorus sings "Rhinestone Cowboy". It's not until after the song and a commercial that he comes out from behind the curtain as usual to do a few monologue jokes.
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Clumsy Copyright Censorship
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Clumsy Copyright Censorship: The reruns on Antenna TV omit any instance where "Tea For Two" is played by the band, replacing it with generic piano music. It's weird to see Johnny dance along to what's obviously a different song.
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Leno Device
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Leno Device: Ur-Example, though he didn't use it nearly as much as Leno did.
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Christmas Episode
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Christmas Episode: During the month of December, the regular Tonight Show set would be replaced by a wintry one.
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Vanity Plate
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Vanity Plate: The Carson Entertainment logo on the Antenna TV reruns features a coffee mug on Carson's desk while a sound bite from Carson plays, "I'm humbled by that applause."
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The Alcoholic
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The Alcoholic: A Running Gag with Ed McMahon. Just one example, during an animal segment where a kinkajou crawled on Ed:
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Head Pet
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Head Pet: Johnny's encounter with an undiapered pygmy marmoset is a blooper-reel favorite.
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Signature Laugh
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Signature Laugh: McMahon's deep belly-laugh. Hi-ho!
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Streaking
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Streaking: The show had an instance of it at the height of the streaking craze, when a guy ran through buck naked in a 1974 episode. Johnny and Ed were highly amused by it, especially since rumors were circulating all week that a streaking incident was going to happen.
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Eye Catch
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Eye Catch: "More to Come". Present on the original airings and the Antenna TV versions; absent on the Ultimate Carson Collection set and iTunes individual episodes. They're drawings of various things and don't have a specific theme related to the show.
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By-the-Book Cop
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By-the-Book Cop: A sketch from 1981, stemming from a court case that ruled taping TV shows illegal, parodied The Untouchables with Johnny as an Elliot Ness-esque character who went around busting down doors of households watching taped shows for their own personal use.
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Always Identical Twins
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Always Identical Twins: In one episode, Johnny interviewed William and Amos Caulfield, two elderly men who were identical twins.
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Hypocrisy Nod
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Hypocrisy Nod: A 1991 episode had a monologue joke about Delta Burke wanting to get paid for an episode of Designing Women she wasn't in. The punchline: "Can you imagine someone wanting to get paid for something they didn't do?"note (a bit of Self-Deprecation at how Carson would frequently take Monday shows off)
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The Bus Came Back
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The Bus Came Back: Previous host Jack Paar was invited back many times.
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Shaped Like Itself
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Shaped Like Itself: 93-year old guest Florence Hodges said she was from Dothan, Alabama, leading to this exchange:
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This Is a Work of Fiction
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This Is a Work of Fiction: A sketch from 1991 parodying America's Funniest Home Videos had Johnny preface the final clip by repeatedly stressing that the baby in the clip is just a doll, and that no actual babies were harmed in the making of it. There's a reason: The baby endures a Crush Parade all over town before landing back in its mother's arms safe and sound.
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Re-Release Soundtrack
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Re-Release Soundtrack: The Antenna TV reruns feature a different ending instrumental than the original airings. Thankfully, the iconic opening theme is intact (albeit with different visuals). Speaking of the Antenna TV reruns, the music coming back from commercials has been replaced by various stock music pieces. Once you know that, it's a little weird seeing Ed praise Doc and the NBC Orchestra, since they didn't actually play the songs.
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Who's on First?
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Who's on First?: A variant occurs in a skit where Carson played Ronald Reagan being briefed on his day's activities by his aide. One of the most memorable exchanges was Reagan reviewing his plans to go swimming with James G. Watt at the YMCA.
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Overly Long Gag
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Overly Long Gag: Carson's purposefully-long intro to Bill Clinton in 1988 might just be the absolute longest guest introduction in history, clocking in at about 2 1/2 minutes. This speech was likely a reference to Clinton's notoriously long speech at the Democratic National Convention that year to introduce candidate Michael Dukakis, which many thought would end his political career. Carnac (Carson) would often complain that Ed's explanations during the Carnac the Magnificent sketches got longer and longer each time he did them, often joking that he doesn't have enough time to do the sketch.
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Samus Is a Girl
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Samus Is a Girl: One of the most famous skits involved Johnny pretending to be a cowboy but revealing that he was a woman. Only catch is, when he removed his hat, he accidentally removed his wig with it, essentially derailing the skit and ending it early ("Screw it, let's go!").
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Casanova Wannabe
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Casanova Wannabe: Art Fern.
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Signature Transition
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Signature Transition: Ed McMahon's iconic "And now, ladies and gentlemen, heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!" was Carson's cue to come on stage to greet the crowd and begin his opening monologue. Once Carson's opening bit was done, he segued to the subsequent orchestral performance by miming swinging a golf club.
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Catchphrase
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Catchphrase: "Heeeeeeeeeerrrrreeee's JOHNNY!" Carson would say "It's ____ today." The audience would reply in unison: "How ____ was it??", prompting Carson to do the punchline. During the Carnac the Magnificent sketches, Ed would do a variant of this when introducing Carnac: And after Carnac's gone through a bunch of envelopes, Ed would announce: "I hold in my hand, the last envelope", prompting audience cheering. Art Fern had many phrases that he used in most every sketch: "Drive until you come to... the Fork in the Road!"; "Got no job? We don't care. Got a bad credit rating? We don't care. Got a prison record? We don't care. Don't expect to pay us? THAT'S when we care!" He would also repeatedly address the audience as "friends".
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Raging Stiffie
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Raging Stiffie: On the 1981 Christmas episode with Jim Fowler, a monkey he brought out got an erection.
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Mistaken for Pedophile
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Mistaken for Pedophile: Joked about in one of Ricky Schroder's interviews; he mentioned he was seeing an 11-year old girl (Ricky himself at the time was 14), prompting Johnny to riff: "That's slammer city."
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Added Alliterative Appeal
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Added Alliterative Appeal: One of the most famous sketches on the show involved Jack Webb, playing his Dragnet character Sgt. Joe Friday, asking Johnny about his stolen "clappers". Among the words that started with "C" (or used the "C/K" sound) used in the sketch: Clappers, caper, copper, closet, Claude Cooper, copped, Cleveland, clean, kleptomaniac, cleaning woman, Clara Clifford, clobber.
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Take That!
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Take That!: When Bette Davis was interviewed in 1988, Johnny asked her if there's any actor who she'd never work with again. Without hesitation, she replied "Faye Dunaway". She called Faye impossible, and claimed you could sit any actor in her chair and they'd say the same thing.
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Failed Future Forecast
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Failed Future Forecast: Occasionally, after a brand new comedian does their set, Johnny will say something like, "You'll be seeing them a lot". He wasn't always right; some of them faded into obscurity.
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Precision F-Strike
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Precision F-Strike: In a 1990 interview with Don Rickles, Johnny told Don to "quit bitching". Don noted that's a new word in Johnny's repertoire.
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Fun with Acronyms
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Fun with Acronyms: In one Carnac sketch:
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Couch Gag
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Couch Gag: Ed's introduction of Carnac the Magnificent always has something different for one of Carnac's previous jobs. One segment would have Johnny reading off real TV shows that are debuting in the fall or midseason, and Ed would reply in great length that those are the only new shows debuting, prompting Johnny to reply "WRONG, [insert noun] breath!" before reading the fake/comedic ones.
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Shout-Out
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Shout-Out: The Matinee Lady as portrayed by Teresa Ganzel is virtually identical to her character in National Lampoon's Movie Madness. On September 7, 1973, the Mighty Carson Art Players performed a parody of Lost Horizon. Ed introduces the segment by implying that it will be worse than the recent Box Office Bomb. The very name of the Mighty Carson Art Players was a nod to classic radio comedian Fred Allen, whose show featured sketches by the Mighty Allen Art Players.
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Cloudcuckoolander
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Cloudcuckoolander: Doc Severinsen, with his gaudy, flamboyant outfits and laid-back persona. It was particularly pronounced when Doc would sit in as announcer and Sidekick on the nights Ed McMahon was gone, bantering with Carson and taking their conversations into unexpected, sometimes bizarre directions.
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Precious Puppy
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Precious Puppy: During the early years while the show was broadcast live, Ed McMahon would do in studio advertisements for Alpo dog food, which included an eager dog waiting to eat the stuff. One night the dog ignored the food and walked offstage, leaving Johnny to quickly fill in, sitting up for Ed in one famous blooper.
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I Have Many Names
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I Have Many Names: Guest Saundra Santiago was talking about her dog, and how it has more than one name. Johnny noted that will confuse the dog and to stick to one name.
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Must Have Nicotine
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Must Have Nicotine: Due to the changing views towards smoking, Carson eventually stopped smoking on screen. That didn't mean he stopped smoking on set. He would hold a lit cigarette on his lap and take discreet puffs whenever the monitor showed that he wasn't in the shot, exhaling upwards to keep the smoke from showing on screen. His desk even had a special fan installed to draw away the smoke from his hidden cigarette.
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Vitriolic Best Buds
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Vitriolic Best Buds: Johnny Carson and Charles Grodin.
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Spin-Off
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Spin-Off: Of sorts. In July of 2013 Turner Classic Movies aired a five-part series hosted by Conan O'Brien called Carson on TCM; each episode consisting of five classic Carson Tonight Show interviews with stars such as George Burns, Elizabeth Taylor, and Henry Fonda.
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A Rare Sentence
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A Rare Sentence: Used for a joke. "There's the banjo player's Porsche." Subverted when he used the joke so many times it wasn't rare anymore.
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Award Show
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Award Show: The Sniveling Weasel Awards, where Johnny's lovely assistant would let loose a weasel to choose between five food bowls representing Academy Award nominees. This sketch would find a Spiritual Successor on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with "Puppy Predictions", about the Super Bowl.
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Interrupted Intimacy
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Interrupted Intimacy: A Running Gag on the Tea Time Movie sketches: Art Fern would signal the return to the movie they're interrupting, it cuts to the movie for a couple seconds, and then back to Art and his co-host, who are kissing.
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Calling the Old Man Out
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Calling the Old Man Out: Charles Grodin frequently accused Carson of not caring about the questions he asked, and often refused to answer them without a lot of goading.
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Expy
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Expy: It was well-documented that Carson liked to borrow concepts from other comedians and put his own spin on them. His own stage persona was clearly influenced by Jack Benny (especially his fondness for the Aside Glance). Carnac the Magnificent was a pomped-up version of Steve Allen's Answer Man routine. Aunt Blabby was based on Jonathan Winters' Maude Frickert character. And Tea Time Movie host Art Fern was inspired by Jackie Gleason's Reginald Van Gleason III.
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Taps
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Taps: The band plays Taps whenever an attempted comic bit dies.
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Sidekick
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Sidekick: Ed McMahon.
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Biting-the-Hand Humor
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Biting-the-Hand Humor: Johnny frequently took shots at NBC. Just one example, in a sketch where Johnny played a fruit fly:
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Groin Attack
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Groin Attack: Accidentally carried out on a wooden target by actor Ed Ames during an axe-throwing demonstration. The entire audience went into hysterics for over a minute, and their efforts to stop laughing were not at all aided by a circumcision joke from Johnny in its wake that ensured the segment's immortality as a high point in his career.
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Too Much Information
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Too Much Information: Johnny asked Charles Grodin what the worst time in his life was, and Grodin agreed to answer if Johnny answered. Johnny replied: "When I first got divorced." Grodin snarked, "See, I would never reveal anything that personal."
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Product Placement
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Product Placement: One skit involved Carson as Hamlet, reciting the famous Alas, Poor Yorick monologue, except inserting product plugs after certain words. Among the items Hamlet plugged included AAMCO, Mentholatum deep heating rub, Preparation H, and American Express.
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Running Gag
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Running Gag: In the Raquel Welch 1988 episode, Johnny makes a reference to Ed Sullivan, namely how people don't remember him much anymore. Ed Sullivan references become a running gag in the rest of the episode. The Alan Thicke/Rosanna Arquette/Oprah Winfrey episode had Johnny getting Tongue-Tied and calling a "film" a "flim". He requested the crew to find out what it's called when you mix up letters in a word;note (for the record, it's metathesis) throughout the episode there are other unknown words or phenomenon that Johnny asks the crew to find. Johnny's multiple divorces became fodder for jokes by Carson himself as well as Doc and Ed, and occasionally even the guests.
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Ugly Slavic Women
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Ugly Slavic Women: Watch some old (uncensored) monologues — at least once a week Carson would make a joke about how mind-numbingly ugly Slavic women were. And, since he was the most respected comedian in America, everyone copied him.
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The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

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