The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson December 31st, 1965, with original commercials (full show) 

It cannot be overstated how important it is that not only do we have a color copy of this, but a FULL color copy of this. Thank you to the person who uploaded this, as well as whoever kept it for close to 60 years without being damaged or taped over.

It’s no wonder The Tonite Show lasted as long as it did. Johnny was the master at keeping the audience entertained and engaged with his quick wit, humor and overall down to earth demeanor. He is still the undisputed King of Late night in my opinion. We will always love and miss you Johnny.

The casual, party atmosphere is what made talk shows great.

I wasn't even a "twinkle in my Daddy's eye" when this Tonight Show aired! 😅 Thank you to the people who managed to preserve this for us to view now.

I was ten years old when this aired. I wasn't allowed to stay up long enough to see The Tonight Show except for a special occasion such as New Year's Eve. I have been hoping that someone at Comcast would discover a vault in New Jersey filled with Ampex videotapes for the first ten years of The Tonight Show. They deserve to be preserved.

What a find! You rarely, if ever see color footage of the mid 60s Tonight Show. Still in NYC with Skitch leading the band. Great stuff.

I was 7 years old. I'm sure we were all watching this. Kinda sad that those days are gone.

Those were the days. If only I could travel back 60 years to that wonderful time.

They certainly went in the right direction by putting Doc in charge of the band both from the music side and personality.

As of June 24, 2024 Gila Golan, Mimi Hines and Woody Allen are still alive.

Very nice find. Considering how many video tapes from the early days were erased and reused, this is an artifact. And in "living color," no less.

White arms length gloves worn by the stunning lady in the coffee commercial. That is basically proof that it was better times yesteryear, than current times. This early Johnny Carson full show is a gem truly. Thank you so much

This was when the Tonight Show was one hour and 45 minutes long (before it went to 90 minutes). The "first fifteen" was Ed's baby: a time for Ed to get things going and play off bandleader Skitch Henderson. It ended when enough local stations expanded their news casts from 15 to 30 minutes. It's fascinating to watch.

Carson and McMahon had no idea they would be on for the next 27 years!

I was 16 when this was broadcast, but our TV had gone on the fritz earlier so I didn't get to see it. However, we did have sound so I used to listen to the show like it was a radio show.

This must have been when Johnny was suffering from "15 minute viruses." Almost every NBC station had a 30 minute newscast but the network still insisted on starting the Tonight Show at 11:15. So he basically hid in the dressing room for those 15 minutes until NBC caved.

He's still the best after all these years.

I had just turned two months old on 12/23/65 and Mr. Carson had just turned 40 years and two months old on 12/23/65 🤭. Honored to share a birthday with the legendary Johnny Carson...albeit we're 40 years apart 😁🤗🎙.

Wild to see these early era shows in color - it’s a shame so many of them were lost, erased or destroyed. And that seat belt infomercial! Ahead of its time.

I love these old shows. They had class.

I also love the old commercials. Thanks

As the clock hit midnight, the NYC transit system went on strike. Lots of New Year revelers were caught short and had a very difficult time getting home. The strike lasted about 11 days.

Great memories, I wasn’t born yet so I dunno what I’m remembering but I used to watch this show all the time as a little kid starting in the mid 70’s, loved it.

This is tremendous! My earliest recollection of New Year's Eve Tonight Show broadcasts are from 1970 on, when the folks 'allowed' me to stay up and watch TV. Remember Johnny and Ed in their tuxes well. But this early color show? Incredible!

Its a shame that these historic shows werent saved by the NBC.

60 degrees on New Years Eve 1965. I don't remember it ever being that warm on that night

Love the shows that were live on late night, and new shows on New Years Eve if they were on a weekday. These shows were 90 minutes long as well. What a wonderful find- thank you again.

3 years in there already calling Johnny a Prince 📺👑

Yes, as soon as Gila started speaking I recognized her from the movie Our Man Flint.

Pretty incredible! And they all looked so young! Little did they know they'd still be doing the same thing 27 years later! Back when talk shows were great!

Johnny refers to Kermit as a frog at 1:13:58 which disproves the belief that Kermit wasn’t considered to be a frog until Sesame Street.

Thank you for showing this

Thank you for uploading this

Happy 1966 everybody!

What a great find! This show was wild in New York City.

I was five when this aired. Doubt that we watched it but it’s interesting to see it after 58 years.

Wow, takes me back. I was 8 back then but enjoyed the jokes & music far more than the stuff that airs today. Woody Allen was so funny too. And I found it interesting that the band played Jewish Klezmer music when Gila came on set. You don’t hear that today.

Memories of my Dad,Johnny

The first commercial spot was live within the show and it was in Black & White:. I have seen this phenomenon before on other early NBC color shows. Color cameras were often stretched thin and especially scarce when special events like New Year’s eve were taking place. In fact, you’ll notice that the segments featuring Ben Grauer were also in black-and-white from Times Square. This was a somewhat common, but still jarring affect in these early color broadcasts.

Having the guy from "Plan 9 from Outer Space" is the perfect move for your first show.

Amazing! Thanks for the upload!

Minus 6 years before I was born. Reading the rest of these comments, I feel like a kid! LOL

OMG the Tonight Show Band under Skitch Henderson was more like the Lawrence Welk band. Hahaha!

My parents and I are in that crowd somewhere. The only year we ever went. Pretty big moment for an 11 year old boy.

WHEN JOHNNY RETIRED I STOPED WATCHING THE TONIGHT SHOW NO ONE CAN REPLACE JOHNNY.

This is a real treat especially since I heard the first 10 years of the show were lost.

Amazing how we went from this to laugh in 3 years

Wow. Not just color but a live broadcast of the Tonight Show from the historic NBC studios. Johnny was 40 years old. The remotes from the roof of the Astor Hotel were black and white. I guess there were still technical limitations. The next day’s parades and bowl games were opportunities to promote live, all in color on NBC. According to NBC there were only 2,860,000 color sets.

Live from New York! This is just amazing that it still exists on color videotape. I’d like to have seen Monday’s show with Henry Morgan guest hosting. I liked his sarcastic wit and humor. Thanks so much for sharing this gem with us ❤

Only one of a handful of pre-1970 Carson Tonight Shows to survive. Let alone in color (it was always in color).

Brilliant!

Chances are, if you're watching this, you already know that the reason that Johnny Carson doesn't come out for the first 15 minutes of the broadcast was because in those days, some markets' news programs ran to 11:45pm EST. Johnny wanted the entire viewing audience to experience his entrance and monologue -- because it would seem like they'd tuned in to Carson's show too late if he came out at 11:30.pm EST.

66 , great year for garage rock!🎸

This is incredibly early. Might be the earliest I have ever seen

Love it, love it, love it!!!!!❤

Nice. The full😊 show!

Most places does The Tonight Show aired did not have this pre-show bit just between Ed and skitch. This is very rare

1:07:18 WOW!! 😮 I just realized that the music played here was composed less than 30 years before this Tonight Show broadcast. Makes me feel ancient since the earliest Beatles recordings are now over 60 years old... 😥

Criswell was off by 3 years with the Moon Landing and about 60 years with the nose rings.

I was 7 months old when this aired. WOW

Almost 60 years ago!

That music conductor was pushing it with the smirks about Johnny. Ed try to warn him😅

A treasure for all!

At that time the color cameras were RCA TK-41s, using image orthicon pickup tubes. They needed around 500 foot candles of light to make a decent pictures. Plumbicon cameras were just starting to be manufactured. The TK-41’s could not make a good picture at Times Square at night; thus the remote was in black and white. Some of the live studio commercials aired in B&W because the sponsor would have to pay more to air the ad in color. For some of these live spots the techs turned the chroma (color) off on the camera shooting these spots.

6 months and 27 days after this aired i was born. Jeeze im old. 😊

Gila Golan was always gorgeous. Loved her in Our Man Flint and The Valley of Gwangi.

53:19 Incredible to see Ellen Burstyn in that 5-Day deodorant commercial -- she looked so young! Ellen Burstyn now appears on the TV show Law & Order Organized Crime as Det. Elliot Stabler's mother.

I can't hear Criswell without laughing at "Plan 9 from Outer Space".

12/31/1965 to 01/01/1966 👍

I was a month old when this aired. Mom was probably feeding me as she watched. 👶

The man behind Ed is Don Ashworth, who was with Carson from day one. Tommy Newsom was there from the beginning as well.

The Kermit Bit was gloriously funny. Henson And Oz - TRUE GENIUSES

I have seen excerpts of this show elsewhere on YT. Tonight was in color from 1960 on, so it's possible this was color videotape, and not colorized. I remember Carson used to mourn the fact that so many shows pre-1970 were lost, but I don't remember him making active offers for donations from private collections like this. Technically, the images were and remain properties of the producers/rights holders as far as broadcast is concerned. So I am not sure if there were ever any discussions about sharing these for broadcast on any of the later anniversary shows. I'm not even sure whether someone like Jeff Sotzing could have these pulled down - probably not, as Carson Productions didn't have ownership of the show prior to...1980? when the show went to 1 hour? But Comcast/NBC probably could, as if they cared at this point. As more competition showed up in the 1980s, I'm not sure Carson wanted to remind the audience how long he'd been around and how youthful he had looked. Now that I am officially older than Carson was when he retired, I can understand that. How about that set from 1965? Very Piet Mondrian-inspired.

Criswell was the weird announcer in Plan Nine from Outer Space.

Wow! I can't believe I was 6 months old when this aired.

I have never (until now) seen the first 15 minutes of the hour and 45 minute version. This is quite interesting. If I recall correctly many some stations during the early years only did 15 minutes of news at 11 and they would join early.

The one couple managing to dance to the music at 44:35 is a hoot.

The "Mike Quill" joke reference was that he was the head of the subway workers' union in NYC. They were striking at the time. He died 4 weeks after this show, January 28, 1966.

Kermit has different feet from the later familiar version, and he has Ernie's laugh.

I was 7 when this came out and my older sister was playing The Beatles' latest album Rubber Soul and the Huntley/Brinkley news hour was posting some of the first casualty statistics from Vietnam.

Always loved Johnny and his show...really miss the tv ads back then...tv ads at present are ridiculously stupid..

I was four when this aired.

Live? Omg!

WOW !!!

Amazing how they played up the music so much in beginning here

The only live shows Johnny did were the New Year's shows from NY. On the 11 PM local channel 4 news before the "Live" show Johnny would usually surprise weatherman Frank Field on air.

53:38 future Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn on a commercial

The Plan 9 guy.

I was 7 and not old enough to understand it. I started watching when they moved to LA.

A Skitch Henderson sighting! IN COLOR!

Wherrrrrrrres Johnny!

Skitch Henderson! I was 6 years old & probably sound asleep when this originally aired.

Some may wonder why there's that weird 15-minute prologue with Ed and Skitch. Historically, The Tonight Show started at 11:15 p.m., following the 15-minute late-night local news. But by the mid-1960s nearly all major markets had switched to half-hour nightly newscasts, which meant Johnny's monologue was not seen in those towns. Hence, Johnny said, in effect "Go ahead and start the show at 11:15. See ya at 11:30."

References to Mike Quill and the first term for John Lindsay in the opening. Wow oh wow.

Golan: "I never met a man I didn't like" Unknown band member: Criswell!

Ben Grauer talking about people feeling hopeful about 1966 because of the peace talks going on, OK that makes me a little sad

Love the original commercials. I was just a teenager back then and lived with drunks and junkies. Whenever his show came on, I knew the drunken step-father would be coming through the door and the horrible fights would begin. But, even now, I don't think he is funny, but the commercials are epic. This was a great upload though, thank you. New sub.

I met Criswell in 1977...I tried to talk to him but he kept saying "I knew you were going too say that!"

I notice in the TV ad, the "Just for the taste of it" headline for L&M cigarettes was reused for Diet Coke in '83 or '84. Everything old is new again (write that down).

I was born 16 days later, I feel old.