Don Rickles on the Tonight Show 

I love how Carson can just get up like the *BOSS* he was and walk into an actual taping, red warning lights blazing, thousands of dollars being spent, a full crew on set, just to get at Rickles and get on his ass for breaking his cigarette box. *CLASSIC*

One of the rare moments Rickles was truly lost for words... and tried desperately to get back on track.

I watched that with my father on its original air date. We both laughed so hard. It was so funny watching Johhny break into Don's schtick, while Don was stammering like Bob Newhart. I also loved it when Johnny said, "Are they taping? I don't care!".

"Millions of dollars? What are you doing with the money?" ha haaa, damn Carson was as fast and witty as Mr. Rickles. Rest in peace both of you wonderful funny men.

"THEY KNOW WHO I AM!" Lost it there, lol

Rickles was speechless... I'm 53 and I remember Don so well and I can tell you, Rickles was never speechless - except this one time. Good job, Johnny!

I just love how Johnny was able to turn an unexpected moment on the show into a funny moment. He is indeed the King of Late Night.

Rest In Peace Don. This was late night tv at its best. You will be missed. Thanks for the great laughter.

I also remember when this first aired, I remember Orson Welles was on with Johnny the next night and they were talking about it and Welles said jokingly that NBC could improve their ratings by having Johnny do that to some of their other shows. Then viewers would watch every show because they wouldn't know which ones he would show up on! LOL

I saw this when it originally happened and it was NOT staged as it was on the news the following night, and Rickles has spoken about it a couple of times over the years. . I was a senior in high school. I had watched the night before when Rickles broke the box. I remember thinking at the time that Johnny was actually pissed off. The reason Carson made the comment to the black actor is because he was imitating Rickles as at the time that was Rickles's shtick. Neither of these guys were prejudice at all.

I like how at 3:26 you hear the orchestra playing "Revillie" as Carson approaches the studio. Best line from Carson: "I..I..I..I!!!! You big dummy. 'I...I...I...I.'"

There just has never been a classier act than Johnny Carson. RIP Johnny!

The comments here suggest a lot of people don't appreciate that (a) this was almost forty years ago - ideas of propriety have evolved; (b) Rickles' act was predicated on making fun of people based on every imaginable physical characteristic, including race and ethnicity, and that neither he nor Carson were racist; (c) Carson was mocking that by his interaction with Rickles' co-star; and (d) the whole thing was probably staged between the two men, anyway. Now you may carry on with your trolling and mock outrage.

"Johnny Carson everyone" ...."they know who I am!" LOL

There's a difference between being inappropriate and being racist. Neither Carson nor Rickles had a racist bone in their body. They made jokes about race and society to try and find comedy in hard times. The jokes were not made out of malice. If two men were to walk up to Rickles or Carson for an autograph; one black, one white, both would be treated equally by either star. If someone were a guest on Carson's show, regardless of race, they would be treated equally. From blacks like Flip Wilson and Eddie Murphy from Jews like Albert Brooks and Buddy Hackett. The only thing Carson discriminated against were uninteresting and unfunny guests.

"Are they on the air? I don't a damn if they're on the air!" Johnny could go wherever Johnny pleased.

One of THE funniest things on network TV I ever saw!! :-) "I don't give a damn if they're on the air or not!"

Just class. Pure class. Rickles & Carson were fantastic together.

I remember this back when it happen, it was beyond funny at time, and now a classic

Been hearing about this for a long time. RIP Mr. Warmth!

Loved how Rickles begged Johnny's forgiveness. Hilarious! ☺ !

Has to be one of the greatest moments in tv history.

The funniest moment on television!

God, this was great. They don't have moments like this in entertainment anymore.

I will never forget this it was so funny and imprompto

My question is, how did they get the front-facing camera feed from Rickles' set edited into Johnny's broadcast? Then, they decided to use the long lens shot from the camera that followed Johnny down the hall, and stuck with it til the end of the bit. Observations from a TV production geek.

man that is classic stuff...no one like that anymore

A truly treasured moment!

i love it when they go back stage like that!

Im 22 years old, my dad had this recorded on VHS and showed it to me when I was a little kid... better than Leno, Letterman, Conan, and Fallon! Maybe I was born in the wrong generation!

Somewhere on youtube, I ran across the clip of Rickles breaking the box. I've seen it only once, and now I can't seem to find it again.

"Hey God, Rickles is looking for you!" Rest in peace Don. ;-)

I I I I I, you big dummy ...gotta love Carson & Rickles going at it , love these 2 togther

Geniuses at work

Those black jokes were hilarious! Too bad they couldn't do jokes like this in today's p.c. environment!

Somehow, I think Johnny Carson already knew about the cigarette box. He seemed to react a bit prematurely right before he tapped it with the pencil.

Johnny really went after Don Rickles when he found out his pencil box was broken...Don Rickles will be missed one of the best comedians from Las Vegas to Hollywood. RIP Don Rickles

I was just a kid, but I remember this night, and the night Don broke the box. Does anyone have a video of him breaking the box? We all flipped out when he went to the next studio like that! No one had ever seen that happen, it was awesome!

I just wish Johnny had been on at 10pm I would of watched him every nite , he was the best hour and a halve for years then the hour , those skits of his were great , he new how to turn a bad joke into a good one . thanks to Ed and Doc . RIP Johnny

Helen, you are so correct. I couldn't have said it better.

Don's face is priceless!!! LOL!!!!

Ha ha haha ha ha ,:) "Ladies and gentleman, Johnny Carson!"

carson was mocking rickles when he did the black thing first

How cute are they?! I miss those times...

Everybody here who is hollering "racist" about Johnny--let me set the record straight: Back in Rickles hey-day he cracked on EVERY ETHNICITY--even whites in his stage act and got laughs from EVERYONE--which is part of what made him famous. Johnny in this clip was IMITATING Rickles stage act--he is not or was not racist--and neither was Rickles. A lot of you aren't old enough to remember back to the 70's Don Rickles when he would do his Las Vegas stage schtick--but I remember it quite well. Now Michael Richards on the other hand is a different story!

One of the best of all times,

Carson was one of the few people with as sharp a wit as Rickles.

Johnny was only seven months older than Don but Don is still performing at the age of 86.

Johnny Carson was the best host ever. Everrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

That was epic 🤣

I remember watching both Don Rickles breaking the cigarette box and this clip on both its first runs. Rickles was goofing around as usually would do and the box fell on the floor in front of the Johnny's desk. When it landed, you could almost hear a pin drop and a split second later, just about everyone in the room gasped. Don was embarrassed and remorseful, of course. But, he didn't do a good enough job gluing the lid. The first night Johnny came back to work, this happened. I'll never forget the look on the pages faces when Johnny took the camera with him in tow across the studio to where CPO Sharkey was being filmed. They just didn't know what to do and looked like fish out of water. Just another one of the many moments that proved just how magical the Tonight Show was with Carson there.

I wish videos of this incident would show a clear shot of the utter look of shock on Harrison Page's face when Carson barges in. I wish there was footage of the scene he and Rickles were doing before Carson came in; I'd like to see it from that angle instead of from the Tonight Show's.

It's hard to say what line was the funniest. Best moment in TV history, thank you God for letting me grow up in the 70's and 80's. Millions of Dollars?! Well what are doing with the money, this can't be it!? LMAO!!! Hope you kept the cotton mill down south, if this show goes like the others your gonna be outta work come January!

Only Carson could get away with walking on the set during a taping and suffer no repercussions from the network...because Johnny was NBC during the 70's...

That VOA jingle at the end sounds very familiar...

only johnny could get away with this, lol

Man, you really have a vision..LOL I will see if I can find that video...If I can, I will edit it and post it. Thanks for your feedback, we updated our idents and network bumper a bit since this was posted...you can see them in the last post A COLLECTION OF ODES...

I remember this well. It was back in the days when people had thicker skins and didn't go around looking for things that "offend" them.

Johnny had so much power that he could get away with this. Anyone else and Fred de Cordova would have stopped them.

Remember when this was on the air, Johnny Carson could really put people on the spot, even Don.. This is the type of humor we could use today, but we don't have the balls to put it out unless its ToshO or South Park, too bad the networks use to have some edge here - no balls anymore. We are do afraid of pissing somebody off...

Wish they were still with us

in 1976, "stereo television" was still a few years off.....

i love it!!!

Rickles was asked about the 'offensive language' sticker on the CPO dvd set - he said 'Well, I think they’re just being cautious. But even today, in my performance, I never do anything that’s hurtful or not accepted. And by the way, it’s never been dirty. That’s for sure. The way times are today, they’re just being protective.'

OMG. If that show took place in 2019, NBC Burbank would be picketed today. "Hey, a black man" and "the gin mills down south." Carson was awesome !!!!!

Don Rickles Hosts the "Tonight" Show - 1978 - part 1. Don Rickles Hosts the "Tonight" Show - 1978 - part 2. It happens during the end of part 2 while interviewing Carroll O'Connor.

While that's somewhat true, you have to remember Letterman used to walk on to other people's shows on NBC from time to time himself specifically BECAUSE he just wanted to interrupt it. He also did this several times when he moved to CBS. Only in that case he would interrupt Conan's NBC show without warning during tapings, usually providing rather hilarious comedy.

It must have been great sitting in the audience of CPO Sharkey when Carson came in.

This seems to be a edited version on what happen and was said.

johnny carson .. I know, super popular and respected but I've never found him particularly funny ... rickles on the other hand ... classic!

Does anyone have the clip of him braking the box?

Hey a black man, Hey yo black man, Hows it goin lol thats the funniest part to me

Do they have the box clip of it being broken at all?

Actually the guest host was Bob Newhart. Don was the guest.

I believe the Tonight Show was taped at 5:30pm then broadcast at 11:30 pm. Also, I believe this was 1978 and not 1976. I saw this "live" and remember busting out laughing at the whole thing. I was in college.

Yeah, I'm fully aware of when it was taped. I watched Johnny for as long as I can remember. I remember when hmmm it was either Jay Silverheels or Ed Ames was on his show in the early 60's and threw the hatchet and nailed the drawing of a man on the wood plank right between the twins and Johnny's response, "I Had no idea you were Jewish" even at that young age it was hysterical. Such a shame he had to give it up and even more so his passing.

Does anyone have the show where rickles actually bike the box?

Its all in good humor, god, johnny had a quick wit, and said whatever came to mind..

wow he sure had rickles' style in hand!

The date is correct, you can verify this on Wikipedia, search: CPO Sharkey. and the comment the stereo TV was years away is correct. I just used that opener as it was available.

Carson was not making a racist comment. He was mocking Rickles and the black actor was breaking up.

It has been revealed that this terrific comedy scene had to be partly planned out, mostly for technical reasons. ( Producers had to be sure that hand-held cameras, with lights, and long camera and microphone leads were immediately available, and there was no commercial break, etc. ). As few people as possible (Johnny, both show producers, and the Master Control room, etc., but almost nobody else ) knew what was going to happen. Even the cameramen weren't told. It is unknown if Doc or Ed knew, either. The dialogues were not planned, and were made up on the spot. By happy co-incidence, Rickles was taping in an ajoining studio the following night. Johnny and others knew that. That's why some inventive writer or producer ( ? ) or other person suggested this skit be done. The most important item is that Rickles, almost all other persons on both sets, all the actors, the set production crews, and both studio audiences did not know what was going to happen. And that's what make this absolute magic. Love it !

CLASSIC

Classic!!!

you mean the VOA pirated content "network". Network, lololololol

Also doc's clothing is different from the show beginning bow, and when he is on the couch.

god damn i laughed so hard at this and at the roast of dean martin i just finished watching that i Lost my voice a bit XD....

It kinda pissed me off at first too.But I think Johnny was correcting himself by saying "hanging".Because he said "How's it going " instead of " How's it hanging"

At 4:27 did Carson say 'hang him'?

RIP Mr. Warmth.

this is when comedy was king

I'm pretty sure I'm aware of when it was taped but if this is done through some company, "whoever this VOA is they could have cleaned it up." But chose not to.

The studios are that close together ?

Thanks for contributing, kiddo.

You can tell Johnny Carson is genuinely pisst, it’s so funny

Does anyone know if the actual breaking of the box by Rickles is on youtube, or is it forever lost?

Johnny's longtime producer Fred DeCordova is visible behind Johnny about 3:15 here.

Gilbert & Frank sent me here.

RIP Don. God speed you hockey puck.

Letterman might have done the same thing...But Letterman didn't hold someone career in the palm of their hand like Johnny...One word from Johnny and NBC would jump...He was NBC Television in the 70's. NBC was a distant third in the ratings, with shows like CPO Sharkey, Supertrain (Which almost bankrupt NBC), and Real People. NBC in the 70's had a limited number of "hits"...but they ruled the after 11:30pm ratings with Carson, SNL and the Midnight Special.