It is so great to be able to watch these clips of Johnny. Didn’t mind Jay Leno as host but he wasn’t in Johnny’s league. No one is……….but Jimmy Fallon’s show, even though I like him , is for me unwatchable. It is impossible to believe that in May it will be thirty years since the last show Johnny hosted. Time flies by ❤️🌈👍
Another thing perhaps not a lot of you know is that Tommy Newsome was an incredibly gifted musician, and wrote the scores for original numbers the the band performed and a lot more. Taking over when Doc was out of town was a piece-of-cake for him. Obviously he was pretty reserved, but I'm sure he enjoyed being the butt of many jokes on the show.
I went to see Doc Severinsen in concert when I was in high school and Doc made a point of playing an arrangement of Tommy’s and mentioning his arrangement talent. I think Doc and the OP of this comment felt it was worth pointing out that Tommy Newsom’s willingness to be seen as dull (but still quietly witty) was an add-on to his status as a highly successful technician. We know about Tommy and he didn’t have to know about us, so I guess that’s a given, but for some reason people from Doc on down wanted to share his behind the scenes value.
Johnny could always adapt at a moments notice and go for the ride, whether he was the brunt of the joke or not. No one since Johnny has come close to being this good.
Typical Carson -- took that pause, allowed others to shine, then had that mother-in-law look of frustration sans speaking one word. ** BRILLIANT AND UNBELIEVABLY CLASSIC **. Bravo J.C. - from: Coolavoohig, county Cork, Ireland.
Carson's biggest strength was making things seem spontaneous and off the cuff. There's no way this wasn't a prepared bit. The director knew what was coming, the backstage area was perfectly lit and all of a sudden these massive cameras had enough mobility to follow him across the studio floor? It makes for great television, all the same.
This was back when the Tonight Show was actually good- Johnny and the guys made it feel like cocktail hour, especially when they had hot broads on as guests.
Those who are so-called late night shows cannot garner enough people to watch their junk and they all together cannot get the audience that Johnny Carson would get in one night. I still laugh so hard watching these old clips.
This kind of highlights something that I noticed over the years. Johnny knew NOTHING about baseball. When he was a guest panelist on To Tell The Truth and Roger Maris's wife was a subject, he literally tanked his entire questioning round. When he would have baseball guests on like Joe Garagiola he tended to ask grade-school generic stuff and that was in part one reason why when A's owner Charley Finley went on the show in 1976 at the height of his feud with Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, he knew he wasn't going to get tough, knowledgable questions from Johnny. This whole bit reveals how little Johnny really knew compared to real baseball fans (and I'm not saying that as a knock on Johnny, it's just something that over the years I tended to notice after watching so much of him).
Carson‘s frozen dead pan stare stage right, one of the funniest moments on his television show ever. Just goes to show you less is more, pity the late night host these days don’t realize that.
@@civwar054 I remember (barely) watching Steve Allen on my daddy's knee, specifically with "Jose Jimenez" as a ski jumper [EDIT or maybe a high diver… oh, never mind]
