Editing Johnny Carson (section)

== ''The Tonight Show'' ==
{{Main|The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson}}
[[File:Johnny carson 1957.JPG|thumb|upright|Carson in 1957]]
[[NBC]]'s ''Tonight'' was the late-night counterpart to its early-morning show ''[[Today (American TV program)|Today]]''. Originating in 1954 with host [[Steve Allen]], ''Tonight'' was somewhat experimental at the time, as the only previous network late-night program was NBC's ''[[Broadway Open House]]'' (1950–51), which starred [[Jerry Lester]] and [[Dagmar (American actress)|Dagmar]].<ref name=BroadOPNHigger-A000>Terrace, Vincent (2011). ''Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010''. McFarland & Company, Inc. {{ISBN|978-0-7864-6477-7}}. P. 138.</ref> ''Tonight'' was successful. Allen moved to primetime comedy-variety shows in 1957 when [[Jack Paar]] became host of ''Tonight''. Paar left the show in 1962.

Carson's success on ''Who Do You Trust?'' led NBC to invite him to take over ''Tonight'' a few months before Paar's departure. Carson declined the offer because he feared the difficulty of interviewing celebrities for 105 minutes each day. [[Bob Newhart]], [[Jackie Gleason]], [[Groucho Marx]] and [[Joey Bishop]] also declined. NBC finally convinced Carson to sign by early February 1962. He can be seen discussing his upcoming job for the first time on the February 11, 1962, episode of ''[[What's My Line?]]''<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VK4jCnt3Nw&t=19m50s| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211028/0VK4jCnt3Nw| archive-date=October 28, 2021|title=What's My Line? - Toots Shor; Johnny Carson; Tony Randall & Martin Gabel [panel] (Feb 11, 1962)|date=September 1, 2014|work=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Due to Carson having six months left on his ABC contract, NBC used multiple guest hosts until he could take over. Guest hosts included Bishop, Marx, [[Merv Griffin]], [[Art Linkletter]], [[Arlene Francis]], [[Bob Cummings]], [[Jerry Lewis]], [[Donald O'Connor]] and others.{{r|pioneersoftv}}{{r|tynan19780220}}

Although he continued to have doubts about his new job, Carson became the host of ''Tonight'' (later called ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]]'') on October 1, 1962. After a difficult first year, he overcame his fears.{{r|pioneersoftv}} While ''Tonight'' under its previous hosts had been successful, especially under Paar, Carson's version eventually did very well in the ratings. [[Billy Wilder]] said of Carson:

{{blockquote|By the simple law of survival, Carson is the best. He enchants the invalids and the insomniacs as well as the people who have to get up at dawn. He is the [[Valium]] and the [[Nembutal]] of a nation. No matter what kind of dead-asses are on the show, he has to make them funny and exciting. He has to be their nurse and their surgeon. He has no conceit. He does his work and he comes prepared. If he's talking to an author, he has read the book. Even his rehearsed routines sound improvised. He's the cream of middle-class elegance, yet he's not a mannequin. He has captivated the American bourgeoisie without ever offending the highbrows, and he has never said anything that wasn't liberal or progressive. Every night, in front of millions of people, he has to do the ''salto mortale'' [circus parlance for an aerial somersault performed on the tightrope]. What's more, he does it without a net. No rewrites. No retakes. The jokes must work tonight.{{r|tynan19780220}}}}

[[File:Dick Cavett Alan King Johnny Carson Friars Club Carson roast 1968.JPG|thumb|left|Carson with [[Dick Cavett]] and [[Alan King]] in a publicity photo promoting the 1968 [[Friars Club of Beverly Hills|California Friars Club]] [[roast (comedy)|roast]] of Carson.]]
McMahon followed Carson from ''Who Do You Trust?'' as his announcer and sidekick, and [[Skitch Henderson]] was installed as the [[maestro]] of the NBC Orchestra. McMahon's famous introduction, "Heeeeere's Johnny!!!" was followed by a brief [[monologue]] by Carson. This was often followed by [[sketch comedy|comedy sketches]], interviews and live music. Carson's trademark was a phantom golf swing at the end of his monologues, aimed [[stage left]] toward the orchestra. (Guest hosts sometimes parodied that gesture. Newhart rolled an imaginary bowling ball toward the audience.)

[[Paul Anka]] wrote ''The Tonight Show''{{'}}s theme song, ("[[Johnny's Theme]]"), a reworking of his "Toot Sweet"; given lyrics, it was renamed "It's Really Love" and recorded by [[Annette Funicello]] in 1959. Before taking over ''The Tonight Show'', Carson wrote lyrics for the song, and so claimed fifty percent of the song's performance [[royalty payment|royalties]] (though the lyrics were never used). The theme is heard being played on sound recordings of Carson's first ''Tonight Show'', and it was used without interruption through to his last broadcast on May 22, 1992.

''The Tonight Show'' was originally produced at NBC's headquarters at [[30 Rockefeller Plaza]] in New York City, with occasional stints in California. The program began videotaping in advance during the Jack Paar days, although during the 1970s NBC fed the live taping from [[Burbank, California|Burbank]] to New York via satellite for editing (see [[#Carson uncensored on satellite|below]]). Carson had a talent for quick quips to deal with problems.{{r|tynan19780220}} If the opening monologue fared poorly, the band would start playing "[[Tea for Two (song)|Tea for Two]]" and Carson danced a softshoe to laughs from the studio audience. Alternatively, Carson might pull the [[Boom operator (media)|boom microphone]] close to his face and announce, "Attention [[Kmart (United States)|K-Mart]] shoppers, clean up in aisle four!"

=== Move to Burbank ===
On May 1, 1972, ''The Tonight Show'' moved from 30 Rockefeller Plaza to the [[The Burbank Studios|NBC Studios]] in Burbank, California, because of the studio's proximity to celebrities.<ref name=lnsca>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kWgzAAAAIBAJ&pg=4717%2C4323677 |newspaper=Lodi News-Sentinel |location=California |agency=UPI |title="Here's Johnny" to come to California permanently |date=March 1, 1972 |page=16 }}</ref>

From 1980, Carson stopped hosting five shows per week. Instead, Mondays featured a guest host, leaving Carson to host the other four weeknights. Shows were videotaped in Burbank at 5:30 pm, fed from there to the [[Central Time Zone|Central]] and [[Eastern Time Zone]] stations via cross-country television line at 8:30 pm [[Pacific Time Zone|Pacific time]] (11:30 pm [[Eastern Time Zone|Eastern time]]), and later sent from Burbank to the Pacific Time Zone stations at 11:30 pm Pacific time. Since only two feeds originated from Burbank, Central Time Zone stations received the Eastern feed one hour earlier at 10:30 pm local time, and [[Mountain Time Zone|Mountain time]] stations received the Pacific time zone feed one hour later, at 12:30 am local time. {{citation needed|date=August 2022}}
<!-- In the Mountain Time Zone, The Tonight Show was broadcast at 10:30 pm (12:30 ET, 9:30 PT); it was delayed just one hour from the Eastern/Central broadcast, not three hours. -->

Carson announced in April 1979 that he was leaving ''The Tonight Show'' after seventeen years hosting the program. At the time, media analysts estimated the show generated 17% of NBC's pre-tax profits. He negotiated a three-year deal to remain with the show in May 1980, reducing the program's length from ninety to sixty minutes while decreasing his workload from four to three nights each week.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lindsey |first1=Robert |title=Carson Leaving 'Tonight Show' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/04/20/archives/carson-leaving-tonight-show-setback-to-nbc-carson-tells-nbc-he-will.html |work=The New York Times |date=April 20, 1979}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Carmody |first1=John |title=Carson Signs for Three More Years On a Shorter 'Tonight' Show for NBC |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1980/05/07/carson-signs-for-three-more-years-on-a-shorter-tonight-show-for-nbc/2bf2c715-d357-49f4-b20b-9501fb835449/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=May 7, 1980}}</ref> [[Tom Snyder]]'s ''[[The Tomorrow Show|Tomorrow]]'' added a half-hour to fill the vacant time. [[Joan Rivers]] became the [[permanent guest host|"permanent" guest host]] from September 1983 until 1986. ''The Tonight Show'' then returned to using rotating guest hosts, including comics [[George Carlin]] and [[Garry Shandling]]. [[Jay Leno]] became the exclusive guest host in fall 1987, later joking that although other guest hosts had upped their fees, he had kept his low, assuring himself more bookings. Eventually, Monday night was reserved for Leno and Tuesday night was reserved for ''The Best of Carson''—rebroadcasts usually dating from a year earlier, but occasionally from the 1970s.

Although Carson's work schedule became more abbreviated, ''The Tonight Show'' remained so successful that his compensation from NBC continued to rise; by the mid-1970s, he had become the highest-paid personality on television, earning about $4 million a year (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|4000000|1978|r=-3}}}} today), not including [[nightclub]] appearances and his other businesses. Carson refused many offers to appear in films, including title roles in ''[[The Thomas Crown Affair (1968 film)|The Thomas Crown Affair]]'' and [[Gene Wilder]]'s role in ''[[Blazing Saddles]]''.{{r|tynan19780220}} He also declined director [[Martin Scorsese]]'s offer to co-star with [[Robert De Niro]] in the 1983 film ''[[The King of Comedy (film)|The King of Comedy]]'', with the role of a TV talk-show host then going to [[Jerry Lewis]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Scorsese on Scorsese|series=Directors on Directors Series|isbn=978-0-57117-827-8|date=1989|edition=1996|publisher=[[Faber & Faber]]|last=Scorsese|first=Martin|author-link=Martin Scorsese}}{{Page needed|date=November 2024}} [https://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/oct/08/extract.features Excerpt]</ref>

In recognition of his 25th anniversary on ''The Tonight Show'', Carson received a personal [[List of Peabody Award winners (1980–1989)#1985|Peabody Award]], the board saying he had "become an American institution, a household word, [and] the most widely quoted American." They also said they "felt the time had come to recognize the contributions that Johnny has made to television, to humor, and to America."<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www.peabody.uga.edu/winners/details.php?id=307 | title= Johnny Carson Personal Award | year= 1985 | publisher= [[Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication|Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication]] | access-date= April 26, 2011 | url-status=dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120126050633/http://www.peabody.uga.edu/winners/details.php?id=307 | archive-date= January 26, 2012 | df= mdy-all }}</ref>

===Uri Geller===
In 1973, television personality and self-proclaimed [[psychic]] [[Uri Geller]] appeared on ''The Tonight Show''. In the ''[[Nova (American TV program)|NOVA]]'' documentary, "James Randi – Secrets of the Psychics," magician and [[Scientific skepticism|skeptical activist]] [[James Randi]] recalls that Carson "had been a magician himself and was skeptical" of Geller's claimed [[paranormal]] powers, and so, prior to the date of taping, Randi was personally asked "to help prevent any trickery." Per Randi's advice, the show's staff prepared its own props without informing Geller and did not let Geller or his staff "anywhere near them." When Geller joined Carson on stage, he appeared surprised that he was not going to be interviewed, but instead was expected to display his abilities using the provided articles. Geller was unable to display any paranormal abilities, saying, "I don't feel strong" and expressing displeasure at feeling like he was being "pressed" to perform by Carson.<ref>{{cite web |title=Unforgettable Uri Geller Appearance on Carson Tonight Show - 08/01/1973 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD7OgAdCObs |website=Youtube.com |publisher=Official Johnny Carson YouTube channel |access-date=March 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210322185421/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD7OgAdCObs |archive-date=March 22, 2021 |date=March 19, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=James Randi - Secrets of the Psychics Documentary (Full)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MFAvH8m8aI| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130816145355/http://www.youtube.com/watch?rl=yes&v=2MFAvH8m8aI&feature=fvwrel&client=mv-google&gl=US&hl=en&guid=| archive-date=August 16, 2013|website=Youtube.com|publisher=JREF|access-date=August 25, 2017}}</ref>{{rp|8:10}} According to Adam Higginbotham's November 7, 2014, article in ''[[The New York Times]]'':

{{blockquote|text=The result was a legendary immolation, in which Geller offered up flustered excuses to his host as his abilities failed him again and again. "I sat there for 22 minutes, humiliated," Geller told me, when I spoke to him in September. "I went back to my hotel, devastated. I was about to pack up the next day and go back to [[Tel Aviv]]. I thought, That's it — I'm destroyed."<ref name =Higginbotham>{{cite news|last1=Higginbotham|first1=Adam|title=The Unbelievable Skepticism of the Amazing Randi|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/magazine/the-unbelievable-skepticism-of-the-amazing-randi.html?_r=0|website=[[The New York Times]]|date=November 7, 2014 |access-date=25 August 2017}}</ref>}}

However, ironically, this appearance on ''The Tonight Show'', which Carson and Randi had orchestrated to debunk Geller's claimed abilities, backfired. According to Higginbotham,

{{blockquote|text=To Geller's astonishment, he was immediately booked on ''[[The Merv Griffin Show]]''. He was on his way to becoming a paranormal superstar. "That Johnny Carson show made Uri Geller," Geller said. To an enthusiastically trusting public, his failure only made his gifts seem more real: If he were performing magic tricks, they would surely work every time.<ref name =Higginbotham/>}}

=== Comic characters ===
<!-- Commented out: [[File:Carnac.jpg|thumb|Carson as the character "Carnac the Magnificent", mid-1970s]] -->
Carson played several continuing characters on sketches during the show, including:
* '''Art Fern''' was the "Tea Time Movie" announcer,<ref name=EW>{{cite magazine|last=Hibberd|first=James |url= https://ew.com/article/2012/05/14/johnny-carson-pbs-tonight-show-king-of-late-night/ |title='Johnny Carson: King of Late Night' airing tonight: Overrated royalty? A review |magazine=Entertainment Weekly|date=May 14, 2019|access-date=October 19, 2019}}</ref> whose theme song was "[[Hooray for Hollywood]]". Carson once admitted on camera that this was his favorite character, based on late-afternoon movie broadcasts and TV hosts who delivered live commercials throughout the movie. Each sketch usually featured three long commercials interrupted by four-second clips from old silent films. When the camera returned from each clip, Art was always caught off-guard and immediately reminded viewers that they were watching a film favorite. The movies always had unlikely casts and even less likely titles: "[[Slim Pickens]], [[Patti Page]], [[John Wayne|Duke Wayne]], and [[Charlton Heston]] in another classic Western: ''Kiss My Saddle Horn!'' Carson originally played the fast-talking huckster in his own voice (as Honest Bernie Schlock or Ralph Willie (parodying California used-car dealer Ralph Williams), and the sketch was called "The Big Flick."  Carson finally settled on a nasal, high-pitched, smarmy drone, reminiscent of [[Jackie Gleason]]'s "Reginald Van Gleason III" character. The sketch was renamed "Tea Time Movie" and the host became Art Fern, wearing a lavish toupee, loud jackets, and a pencil mustache. Actress [[Carol Wayne]] became famous for her 100-plus appearances (1971–1984) as Art's buxom assistant, the Matinée Lady. While Art gave his spiel, she would enter the stage behind him. Art would react to her attractive body by wincing, loudly shouting "''Ho''&nbsp;— leeeee!" and turning almost everything she said into a sexual [[double entendre]]. After Carol Wayne's accidental death in 1985, Carson kept Art Fern off the air for most of the next year, and finally hired Danuta Wesley and then [[Teresa Ganzel]] to play the Matinée Lady. Carson also used these sketches to poke fun at the intricate Los Angeles interstate system, using a pointer and map to give confusing directions to shoppers, often including points where he would unfold the cardboard map to point out, via the appropriate picture, when the shopper would arrive at "the fork in the road". Another freeway routine in the same theme centered on the "[[California State Route 90#History|Slauson Cutoff]]", a slang term Carson popularized to describe the truncated Marina Freeway (which ended abruptly at Slauson Avenue in Culver City). Art Fern would advise drivers to take a series of freeways until they reached the Slauson Cutoff, and would then advise them to "Get out of your car, cut off your slauson, get back in your car," often followed by peals of laughter from the audience, led by McMahon.
* '''[[Carnac the Magnificent]]''', a [[turban]]ed psychic, could answer questions before seeing them. The character was taken from Steve Allen's essentially identical "Answer Man", which Allen performed during his tenure as host of ''Tonight'' in the 1950s.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=28cMReggGGEC&pg=PA172 |title=The Columbia History of Television|page=172 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |date=2009| last=Edgerton| first=Gary R. |isbn=9780231121651| access-date=October 23, 2011}}</ref> As Allen acknowledged in his book ''The Question Man'', this bit had been created in Kansas City in 1951 by [[Bob Arbogast]] and used on ''The [[Tom Poston]] Show'' in New York where it eventually ended up on ''The Steve Allen Show'', much to the surprise of both Bob and Steve. Carnac had a trademark entrance in which he always turned the wrong direction when coming onstage and then tripped on the step up to Carson's desk. (In one episode, technicians rigged Carson's desk to fall apart when Carnac fell into it.) These comedic missteps were an indication of Carnac's true prescient abilities. McMahon would hand Carson a series of envelopes containing questions, said to have been "hermetically sealed and kept in a mayonnaise jar on [[Funk and Wagnalls|Funk & Wagnalls]]' porch since noon today." Carson would place each envelope against his forehead and predict the answer, such as "[[Gatorade]]". Then, he would read the question: "What does an alligator get on welfare?" Some of the jokes were feeble, and McMahon used pauses after terrible [[pun]]s and audience groans to make light of Carson's lack of comic success ("Carnac must be used to quiet surroundings"), prompting Carson to return an equal insult.  McMahon would always announce near the end, "I hold in my hand the ''last'' envelope," at which the audience would applaud wildly, prompting Carnac to pronounce a comedic "curse" on the audience, such as, "May a flock of wild geese leave a deposit on your breakfast!", "May your sister elope with a camel!", or "May a diseased yak take a liking to your sister". Staff writer [[Pat McCormick (actor)|Pat McCormick]] wrote some of the zaniest Carnac material. One joke had McMahon and Carson nearly rolling on the floor with sustained laughter. The answer was "[[Sis boom bah]]". The question: "Describe the sound made when a sheep explodes."
* '''[[Floyd R. Turbo|Floyd R. Turbo American]]''' (with no pause between words) was a stereotypical common working man, wearing a plaid hunting coat and cap, who offered "editorial responses" to left-leaning causes or news events. Railing against women's rights in the workplace, for example, Turbo would shout: "This raises the question: kiss my [[Dictaphone]]!"
* '''Aunt Blabby''', a cantankerous and sometimes amorous old lady, was an obvious copy of [[Jonathan Winters]]' most famous creation, Maude Frickert, including her black spinster dress and wig. Aunt Blabby was invariably interviewed by straight man Ed McMahon about elder affairs.<ref name=EW /> McMahon would innocently use a common expression such as "check out", only to have Aunt Blabby warn him: "Don't say 'check out' to an old person!"
* '''El Mouldo''', a mentalist, was a revival of Carson's 1960s character The Amazing Dillinger, burlesquing mentalist [[Joseph Dunninger]]. El Mouldo would attempt to perform mind-reading and mind-over-matter feats, all of which failed. Often, his tricks would include an attempt to bilk money from Ed McMahon or would end with his begging the audience for a dollar, or at least bus fare.
* '''The Maharishi''', whose theme song was "[[Sadko (opera)#Principal arias and numbers|Song of India]]", was a frizzy-haired "holy man" who spoke in a high-pitched, tranquil tone, greeted announcer McMahon with a flower, and answered philosophical questions. This was a take-off on [[Maharishi Mahesh Yogi]].
* '''Doctor Dilly''', a feeble-minded physician who dispensed rambling medical advice. Carson imitated stage and radio comedian [[Ed Wynn]] for this character, using a high, cracked voice and a silly giggle.

One time-honored routine was used whenever Carson and a guest toasted each other with glasses of water on the air. Carson would telegraph the joke to the guest: "The king is dead!" Then both would shout "Long live the king!" and take a mouthful of water. Offscreen, Ed McMahon cried, "The king lives!", prompting Carson and the guest to do a [[spit-take]] in mock terror. [[Don Adams]], [[Don Rickles]], [[Mel Brooks]], and [[Dom DeLuise]] engaged in this routine; one of Adams's ''[[Get Smart]]'' episodes was even titled "The King Lives?"

=== Carson uncensored on satellite ===
Although Carson's program moved to Burbank in 1972, NBC's editing and production services for the show remained in New York, requiring that the program be transmitted between the two cities. In 1976, NBC used the [[Satcom (satellite)|Satcom]] 2 satellite to achieve this, feeding the live taping (which started around 5:30 pm local time) directly to New York, where it would be edited prior to the late-night broadcast. This live feed lasted usually for two to two-and-a-half hours a night and was both uncensored and commercial-free. During the slots for commercial breaks, the audio and picture feed would continue, capturing at times risqué language and other events that would be edited out before transmission.

At the same time, satellite ground stations owned by individuals began appearing, and some found the live feed. Satellite dish owners began to document their sightings in technical journals, giving viewers knowledge of things they were not meant to see. Carson and his production staff grew concerned about this and pressured NBC into ceasing the satellite transmissions of the live taping in the early 1980s. The satellite link was replaced by microwave transmission until the show's editing facilities were moved to Burbank.<ref>{{cite video|people=Cooper, Jr., Robert B.|title=Television's Pirates: Hiding Behind Your Picture Tube|date=2006}}</ref>