Johnny Carson - Wikipedia. For the nest of a tree squirrel, see Drey. Johnny Carson. Carson in October 1. Birth name. John William Carson.
Born(1. 92. 5- 1. October 2. 3, 1. 92. Corning, Iowa, U. S. Died. January 2. Los Angeles, California, U. S. Nationality. American. Years active. 19.
Carson received six Emmy Awards, the Governor's Award, and a 1. Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1. Johnny Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1.
Kennedy Center Honor in 1. He adopted a casual, conversational approach with extensive interaction with guests, an approach pioneered by Arthur Godfrey and previous Tonight Show hosts Steve Allen and Jack Paar. Former late- night host and friend David Letterman cited Carson's influence.
There, Carson grew up and began developing his talent for entertaining. At the age of 1. 2, Carson found a book on magic at a friend's house and immediately purchased a mail- order magician's kit. After the purchase of the kit, Johnny Carson practiced his entertainment skills on family members with card tricks. He was known for following his family members around saying, . After graduating from high school, Carson had his first encounter with Hollywood. While in the Navy, Carson posted a 1. Carson served as a communications officer in charge of decoding encrypted messages.
He said that the high point of his military career was performing a magic trick for United States Secretary of the Navy, James V. In a conversation with Forrestal, the Secretary of the Navy asked Carson if he planned to stay in the navy after the war. Forrestal asked him to perform, and Carson responded with a card trick. He majored in journalism with the intention of becoming a comedy writer.
Instead, he switched his major to speech and drama a few months later, because he wanted to become a radio performer. It allowed him to graduate in three years. One of his routines involved interviewing pigeons on the roof of the local courthouse that would allegedly report on the political corruption they had seen. Carson supplemented his income by serving as master of ceremonies at local church dinners, attended by some of the same politicians and civic leaders that he had lampooned on the radio.
Carson joined CBS- owned Los Angeles television station KNXT. In 1. 95. 3, comic Red Skelton. In 1. 95. 4, Skelton during rehearsal accidentally knocked himself unconscious an hour before his live show began, and Carson successfully filled in for him. Carson imitated Benny and claimed that Benny had copied his gestures. Benny predicted that Carson would have a successful career as a comedian. After the prime- time The Johnny Carson Show failed, he moved to New York City to host Who Do You Trust? In 1. 95. 8, he appeared as a guest star in an episode entitled .
Ed McMahon, Actor: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Ed McMahon's first appearance before a microphone was as a 15-year-old 'caller' at a bingo game in Maine.
Edward Leo Peter 'Ed' McMahon, Jr. He is most famous for his work on. Johnny Carson, Self: The Johnny Carson Show. Johnny Carson, the legendary 'King of Late Night TV' who dominated the medium's nether hours for three decades, was born. Television Programs and Commercials: Videotapes in the Media Resources Center UC Berkeley.
On Who Do You Trust?, Carson met his future sidekick and straight man, Ed Mc. Mahon. Although he believed moving to daytime would hurt his career, Who Do You Trust? It was the first show where he could ad lib and interview guests. Originating in 1. Steve Allen, Tonight was somewhat experimental at the time, as the only previous network late- night program was NBC's Broadway Open House which starred Jerry Lester and Dagmar. Tonight was successful, and when Allen moved on to prime- time comedy- variety shows in 1.
Jack Paar replaced him as host of Tonight. Paar left the show in 1.
John William 'Johnny' Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television talk show host and comedian, best known for his 30 years as host of.
Johnny Carson's success on ABC's Who Do You Trust? Carson declined the offer because he feared the difficulty of interviewing celebrities for 1 3/4 hours (1. Bob Newhart, Jackie Gleason, Groucho Marx, and Joey Bishop all declined, as well, but NBC finally convinced Carson to sign by early February 1. Carson can be seen discussing his upcoming job for the first time on the February 1. What's My Line? Billy Wilder said of Carson: 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 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 .
What's more, he does it without a net. The jokes must work tonight.? Mc. Mahon's famous introduction, . This was often followed by comedy sketches, interviews, and music.
Carson's trademark was a phantom golf swing at the end of his monologues, aimed stage left toward the studio orchestra. Bob Newhart rolled an imaginary bowling ball toward the audience.)Paul Anka wrote the theme song, (. Before taking over The Tonight Show, Carson wrote lyrics for the song, thus claimed 5. The theme is heard being played on sound recordings of Carson's first Tonight Show and it was used without interruption through to his very last broadcast on May 2. The show was originally produced in New York City, with occasional stints in California. It was not live in its early years, although during the 1.
NBC fed the live taping from Burbank to New York via satellite for editing (see below). The program had been done .
Carson had a talent for quick quips to deal with problems. Alternatively, Carson might pull the boom microphone close to his face and announce, . Shell to chide Carson and invite him to her city to see improvements made during the early 1. Instead, Monday nights had a guest host, leaving Carson to host the other four each week. Shows were videotaped in Burbank at 5: 3. Central and Eastern time zone stations via cross- country television line at 8: 3. Pacific time (1. 1: 3.
Eastern time), and later rebroadcast again from Burbank to the Pacific time zone stations at 1. Pacific time. Since only two feeds originated from Burbank, Central time zone stations received the Eastern feed one hour earlier at 1. Mountain time stations received the Pacific time zone feed one hour later at 1. In 1. 98. 0, at Carson's request.
Joan Rivers became the . The Tonight Show returned to using rotating guest hosts, including comic George Carlin. Jay Leno then became the exclusive guest host in fall 1. Leno joked that although other guest hosts had upped their fees, he had kept his low, assuring himself more bookings. Eventually, Monday night was for Leno, Tuesday for The Best of Carson. He refused many offers to appear in films, including title roles in The Thomas Crown Affair and Gene Wilder's role in Blazing Saddles. Carson once admitted on camera that this was his favorite character, based on late- afternoon TV hosts who would deliver commercials throughout the movie.
Each sketch usually featured three long commercials interrupted by silent, four- second clips from antique 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: . The character, now permanently known as Art Fern, wore a lavish toupee, loud jackets, and a pencil mustache. Actress Carol Wayne became famous for her 1. While Art gave his spiel, she would enter the stage behind him.
Art would react to her attractive body by wincing, loudly shouting . After Carol Wayne's death in 1. 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 Matin.
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 . Another freeway routine in the same theme centered on the .
Art Fern would advise drivers to take a series of freeways until they reached the Slauson Cutoff, and would then advise them to . Carnac had a trademark entrance in which he always turned the wrong direction when coming onto stage and then tripped on the step up to Carson's desk.
Ed Mc. Mahon would hand Carnac a series of envelopes containing questions, said to have been . Then, he would read the question: . Pat Mc. Cormick wrote some of the zaniest Carnac material. The one that had Ed and Carnac nearly rolling on the floor with sustained laughter was .
Turbo, American (with no pause between words) was a stereotypical common working man, wearing a plaid hunting coat and cap, who offered . Railing against women's rights in the workplace, for example, Turbo would shout: . Often, his tricks would include an attempt to bilk money from Ed Mc. Mahon or would end with him begging the audience for a dollar, or at least bus fare.
The Maharishi, whose theme song was . In 1. 97. 6, NBC used the Satcom 2 satellite to do this, feeding the live taping (which usually took place in the early evening) directly to New York, where it would be edited prior to the normal broadcast. This live feed lasted usually from two to two- and- a- half hours a night and was uncensored and commercial- free. During the commercial breaks, the audio and picture would be left on, capturing at times risque language and other events that would certainly be edited out later going out over the feed. 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 1.