The first guest on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” was Groucho Marx, who introduced the host (reacting to the ensuing applause, Carson said, "Boy, you would think it was Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson"). Carson's last guest was Bette Midler, who sang him out.
There was a six-month gap between Jack Paar leaving "The Tonight Show" in 1962 and Johnny Carson replacing him as the show's host. In the interim, NBC had various celebrities guest host. During that time, musician Tommy Newsom was hired to play the alto sax in the band. He remained with the band, occasionally taking over bandleader duties when Doc Severinsen was away, until Carson retired in 1992. Newsom's tenure on "The Tonight Show" was three months longer than Carson's.
“The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” remained a fixture on NBC through the administrations of seven U.S. Presidents: John Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush.
As Carson grew into the show, his comedy grew as well; he started dropping his early reliance on slightly risqué material for more substantial comedic commentary on the news of the day. Johnny's monologue became the country's most acutely observed political barometer. Johnny made fun of them all: anyone in politics or show business or public life.
After “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” moved from New York to California in May 1972, Johnny Carson took Monday nights off and the show was hosted by a guest performer. Until Joan Rivers became permanent guest host in September 1983, the most frequent of "guest hosts" 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). After Joan Rivers left in 1986, the show used various guest hosts, with Jay Leno the most frequent. Leno became the exclusive guest host in fall 1987, a position he held for the rest of Carson's reign.
To the right of Johnny Carson's desk were controls to a weather machine that made the back drop rain, snow, or cast a bolt of lightning.
As a Page at NBC Burbank, author Shelley Herman was a witness to many of the behind-the-scenes happenings on the set of "The Tonight Show" which she has written about in her best-selling tell-all memoir "My Peacock Tale: Secrets Of An NBC Page" including her experience assisting Johnny Carson when he played "Stump the Band" with audience members on an episode of the show in the 1970s.
Over the years, a number of traditions were introduced into the opening of the show and Johnny Carson's monologue, including: Ed McMahon's call "Heeeeerrrre's Johnny!", Carson swinging an imaginary golf club at the end of the monologue, Carson pulling down the boom mike to announce "Attention K-Mart shoppers!", and Carson breaking into a soft-shoe dance as the band plays "Tea for Two." These last two were usually used when jokes failed.
On December 17, 1969, Tiny Tim (Herbert Khaury) married Miss Vicki Budinger on the Tonight Show and it was one of the most watched episodes.
The show was a "cash cow", many years grossing more than $100 million and providing anywhere from 15%-20% of the profits recorded by the entire NBC network. Carson's own income quickly set the standard for television performers, reaching $1 million before he had finished a decade on the air. As his hold on the country's bedtime habits grew, so did his hold on the NBC treasury. All the leverage in future contract negotiations lay with Johnny. In the mid-'70s he passed $3 million a year.
After seven auditions during a period of three years, Joan Rivers made her first appearance on the Tonight Show with new host Johnny Carson on February 17, 1965. Rivers credited this episode to be her breakthrough, as Carson said to her on the air, "You're going to be a star." Following this appearance, she became a frequent guest (and later guest host) on the program and a close friend of Carson. River's final appearance on the Tonight Show as one of Carson's guests was on April 25th, 1986 where she where she promoted her new book and even wore the same black dress she wore on her first Tonight Show appearance a little over 21 years ago.
Joan Rivers was banned from the Tonight Show by Carson after she made a deal with Fox to host her own late-night talk show, “The Late Show” (1986) directly competing with Carson's Tonight Show. Rivers had been forbidden to talk to Carson, ever again, before his own death in 2005. When Carson left the Tonight Show, Jay Leno, who also replaced Rivers as guest host, kept Rivers banned from his version of the Tonight Show out of respect to Carson when he took over for Carson as host in 1992, although his competitor David Letterman frequently had Rivers as a guest on “Late Show with David Letterman” (1993). However, 28 years later, Rivers did get appear on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (2014) when she was one of many celebrities to do a cameo during Jimmy Fallon's first show as host and later was an interviewed guest on the March 27th, 2014 episode. Rivers died 5 months after that appearance.
When the show first aired, virtually everyone, including Johnny Carson, smoked on-camera. By the mid-'80s smoking openly on television was a thing of the past, but Carson's cigarette box remained on his desk until his final broadcast.
Johnny Carson regularly played with pencils at his "Tonight Show" desk. To avoid on set accidents, the pencils had erasers at both ends.
When he announced his impending retirement, there was fierce competition between David Letterman and Jay Leno to be his "Tonight Show" successor. Leno eventually won the coveted spot, and an angry Letterman moved over to rival network CBS to host a competing show.
When he retired in 1992, he held the record for hosting the same network series for the longest time: 29 years, 7 months, 21 days. The record was broken by Bob Barker on “The Price Is Right” in 2002.
Bob Hope, commenting on Carson's retirement, said it was like "a head falling off Mt. Rushmore. He's had a profound impact on millions of lives. He changed people's sleeping habits, sex habits and their midnight eating habits."
Voted #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
Carson was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1987.
Trivia items from IMDB
