Carson

[RPM 26,382]

Greatest there ever was or will be.

You can watch episodes nightly on AntennaTV

Edited December 11, 2019 by RPM

[77horn 216]

Damn that was funny

[Sbbruin 21,908]

Golden age for sure.

[mdmost 43,110]

One of my favorite things as a kid is when my dad would let me stay up late with him to watch Carson. It wasn't often but it felt like a treat every time we'd watch. 

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

1 minute ago, mdmost said:

One of my favorite things as a kid is when my dad would let me stay up late with him to watch Carson. It wasn't often but it felt like a treat every time we'd watch. 

Spent many a night with the grandparents watching Mr. Johnny.

[HouTex 1,894]

From about 8 yrs old (so from around 1970) on I had a tv in my bedroom. I grew up watching Carson every night before i fell asleep. I usually was only awake for the monologue and the first guest or two. Good times.

[RoundRobin 828]

Childhood humble brag. 

[tx 3 putt 77,679]

3 hours ago, HouTex said:

From about 8 yrs old (so from around 1970) on I had a tv in my bedroom. I grew up watching Carson every night before i fell asleep. I usually was only awake for the monologue and the first guest or two. Good times.

 

fucking richie rich !

[HouTex 1,894]

Lol. It was an old black and white with rabbit ears. Cable wasn’t even available in our town until around the time I went to UT in 1980.

[WBT 20,719]

The best.

 

Edited December 11, 2019 by WBT

[Carl Spackler 3,506]

Evening news followed by Johnny Carson was SOP for my parents when I was growing up.

[Underdog 28,852]

Don't recall my folks watching him much, I sure did.  Both Dean and Bob, that's some star power there.  

 

[Gil Bang 26,071]

Great entertainer.

 

A bit of an asshole, and a mean drunk.

[RPM 26,382]

2 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

bit of an asshole, and a mean drunk.

Well, to be fair, he is from Nebraska.

[Gil Bang 26,071]

If anybody's interested, there's a great article from Vanity Fair several years ago about the Tonight Show producer, Fred de Cordova.

Motherfucker made a fortune, and blew it all throwing lavish hollywood parties on a regular basis.  It's probably on the intertubes somewhere. 

[Bevo&Pevo 5,297]

Carson was king.  Sometimes Karnack.

[Carl Spackler 3,506]

1 hour ago, Gil Bang said:

Great entertainer.

 

A bit of an asshole, and a mean drunk.

And once you were on his bad side (for whatever reason), you were screwed.  He held grudges.

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

Just now, Carl Spackler said:

And once you were on his bad side (for whatever reason), you were screwed.  He held grudges.

You say that like it's a bad thing....

[Deej 77,012]

It was a better time when Johnny was on air.

 

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

Thought you were posting the broken cigarette box incident.

[Deej 77,012]

That would be too easy. I remember watching that as a kid when it aired.

I thought his dig at Rickles was classic in this one.

"Then where would you work?"

Edited December 12, 2019 by Deej

[Deej 77,012]

 

[Iceman 2,730]

Johnny's humility while being so damned funny is what made him the best... along with his willingness to jump right in and trade shots with anyone.

[Underdog 28,852]

Joan, Joanne, Joanna.  Dude had a type. 

First vacation I ever took as an adult was out to LA with hopes of seeing a TS taping but he was on hiatus at that time, may have been during his annual trip to Wimbledon.  

 

[atomheartbevo 89,922]

Doc Severinsen is still alive. 
 

[Iceman 2,730]

1 hour ago, Underdog said:

 

First vacation I ever took as an adult was out to LA with hopes of seeing a TS taping

 

Phrasing, brother...

[WhatTheBuck 28,824]

A smattering of thoughts...

An all time great. Watching reruns on AntennaTV has been great but they don't have a huge library. You'll see repeats sooner than you think you should. But there are so many classic moments. They rerun 90 minute episodes from the 70's on Saturday and Sunday nights, hour-long episodes from the 80's until the end in '92 on weeknights. I'd like to see reruns of b&w episodes from the 60's and of episodes with guest hosts like Letterman and Shandling. 

Everyone's aware that Dean wasn't actually drunk there, right?

One of the greatest moments was when Johnny took the cameras to the studio next door and interrupted the taping of Don Rickles' show. Everytime Rickles was a guest was solid gold. Same with Charles Grodin. 

Young Susan Sarandon never wore a bra when she was a guest. 

I remember my dad falling asleep to Carson every night.

Carson introduced me to standup comedy and he was a champion of the medium. Without even realizing it at the time I watched comedians like Garry Shandling and Jerry Seinfeld evolve as artists over the years. That's why I was watching Seinfeld starting with the first episode. He really wasn't a big name when the show first started. Carson launched the careers for a lot of comedians. 

Drew Carey's debut was one of the best. I'm glad he's set for life with his gig on The Price is Right. I miss his comedy. 

Rewatching old episodes of Carson gave me a new appreciation for how much The Larry Sanders Show was modeled after it. There are just so many parallels, it's hysterical. 

How great would it be if modern late night talk shows kept all the guests on the couch for the whole show and created an actual conversation? Or something less but still pretty wild like when they had to deal with an actually drunk Glen Campbell?

 

[HouTex 1,894]

^^. Yep, the word was that Dean Martin’s glass always had apple juice in it rather than whiskey.

[RPM 26,382]

Ed on the other hand...

 

[tx 3 putt 77,679]

21 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

If anybody's interested, there's a great article from Vanity Fair several years ago about the Tonight Show producer, Fred de Cordova.

Motherfucker made a fortune, and blew it all throwing lavish hollywood parties on a regular basis.  It's probably on the intertubes somewhere. 

 

very interesting read 

[RPM 26,382]

21 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

If anybody's interested, there's a great article from Vanity Fair several years ago about the Tonight Show producer, Fred de Cordova.

Motherfucker made a fortune, and blew it all throwing lavish hollywood parties on a regular basis.  It's probably on the intertubes somewhere. 

Larry Sanders Show's Artie was a kinder, gentler version of Fred.

[EastTexan 662]

I'm a sucker anytime there's a Carson thread. Went down the rabbit hole for too long watching other tapes. When I was a kid (teenager) Steve Allen was the big deal. Would stay up about every night watching him and his shtick. I thought he was brilliant.

 Don't care for today's late night shows. Guess I'm too old.

[WhatTheBuck 28,824]

On December 11, 2019 at 7:52 PM, Gil Bang said:

If anybody's interested, there's a great article from Vanity Fair several years ago about the Tonight Show producer, Fred de Cordova.

Motherfucker made a fortune, and blew it all throwing lavish hollywood parties on a regular basis.  It's probably on the intertubes somewhere. 

That's a value judgment that maybe not everyone shares. 

[WhatTheBuck 28,824]

15 hours ago, RPM said:

Larry Sanders Show's Artie was a kinder, gentler version of Fred.

Yeah, the Artie character was based on Fred. I think about Artie whenever I see Angie Dickinson as a guest on Carson. I don't know if there was anything up with her and anyone on that show but she just exuded sexuality and it's easy to see how any man would've been motivated. I always wondered if there was a subtext to the Artie & Angie storyline in Sanders. 

There was a subtext to the storyline about Darlene posing for Playboy on The Larry Sanders Show. I didn't know until after Sanders had aired that, A) Carol Wayne, the buxom 'blonde' who appeared in lots of Carson skits (The Mighty Carson Art Players), once did a spread in Playboy, or that B) Linda Doucett, the actress who played Darlene on Sanders and was Garry Shandling's girlfriend in real life, also did a spread in Playboy. Weird, wild stuff. 

Was Artie kinder and gentler than Fred? Did Fred ever shoot a man in Korea?

Edited December 13, 2019 by WhatTheBuck

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

4 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Yeah, the Artie character was based on Fred. I think about Artie whenever I see Angie Dickinson as a guest on Carson. I don't know if there was anything up with her and anyone on that show but she just exuded sexuality and it's easy to see how any man would've been motivated. I always wondered if there was a subtext to the Artie & Angie storyline in Sanders. 

There was a subtext to the storyline about Darlene posing for Playboy on The Larry Sanders Show. I didn't know until after Sanders had aired that, A) Carol Wayne, the buxom 'blonde' who appeared in lots of Carson skits (The Mighty Carson Art Players), once did a spread in Playboy, or that B) Linda Doucett, the actress who played Darlene on Sanders and was Garry Shandling's girlfriend in real life, also did a spread in Playboy. Weird, wild stuff. 

Was Artie kinder and gentler than Fred? Did Fred ever shoot a man in Korea?

Ed was a Marine pilot trainer in WWII, and flew active missions in Korea, not sure if any were actually front line combat missions.

[RPM 26,382]

2 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

I think about Artie whenever I see Angie Dickinson as a guest on Carson. I don't know if there was anything up with her and anyone on that show but she just exuded sexuality and it's easy to see how any man would've been motivated. I always wondered if there was a subtext to the Artie & Angie storyline in Sanders. 

I saw an interview with Angie once a long time ago and she said straight out pretty much anytime, anywhere she was DTF. She liked macho men, was there to please them and gave zero fucks what anyone thought. I'm sure there's a long and distinguished list of eskimo brothers in Hollywood because of her.

[WhatTheBuck 28,824]

One other thing, the night before this thread was posted I watched an episode where Jack Paar was Johnny's only guest. That was pretty cool. Jack was strong with the storytelling and Johnny was appropriately enthralled. 

Another parallel to Sanders...one of the reasons the final season was so strong was that they had history as a guide. Larry watches Jack Paar's final episode as he's trying to plan his own, and the gag with Clint Black singing to Larry like Bette Midler did to Carson on his final episode was brilliant, imo. (Seriously, best final episode ever.)

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

1 minute ago, RPM said:

I saw an interview with Angie once a long time ago and she said straight out pretty much anytime, anywhere she was DTF. She liked macho men, was there to please them and gave zero fucks what anyone thought. I'm sure there's a long and distinguished list of eskimo brothers in Hollywood because of her.

God I admire her......

[WhatTheBuck 28,824]

1 hour ago, EastTexan said:

Don't care for today's late night shows. Guess I'm too old.

They're all better than Leno. 

[RPM 26,382]

Colbert is the best of the 10:30 hosts. Seth Meyers is the 11:30 leader. Have to give a shoutout to Conan on TBS. He reformatted his show to 30 minutes so he could budget more Conan Without Borders specials.

If there was anyone that was screwed harder than David Letterman by Leno & NBC, it was Conan O'Brien.

[lateshow 1,308]

2 hours ago, RPM said:

I saw an interview with Angie once a long time ago and she said straight out pretty much anytime, anywhere she was DTF. She liked macho men, was there to please them and gave zero fucks what anyone thought. I'm sure there's a long and distinguished list of eskimo brothers in Hollywood because of her.

[WhatTheBuck 28,824]

10 hours ago, lateshow said:

Username checks out. 

Tonight is an episode from '82 with guests Jimmy Stewart and Garry Shandling. 

[RPM 26,382]

Watching an old Christmas time episode and right after Sally Field talks about getting her cherry popped at 14 there's a segment with plant expert Thalassa Cruso on Christmas tree care. Holy shit this is funny and timeless. Old lady gives zero fucks about being on television and Johnny is losing his shit.

 

[RPM 26,382]

Jack Mayberry was highly underrated.

 

[WBT 20,719]

 

[Rabidhorn 121]

On 12/13/2019 at 6:36 AM, EastTexan said:

I'm a sucker anytime there's a Carson thread. Went down the rabbit hole for too long watching other tapes. When I was a kid (teenager) Steve Allen was the big deal. Would stay up about every night watching him and his shtick. I thought he was brilliant.

 Don't care for today's late night shows. Guess I'm too old.

Problem is current late night shows waste 30 minutes with bullshit then squeeze three guests in between commercials, add that to none of them are good interviewers.

[Rabidhorn 121]

On 12/18/2019 at 4:01 AM, RPM said:

Watching an old Christmas time episode and right after Sally Field talks about getting her cherry popped at 14 there's a segment with plant expert Thalassa Cruso on Christmas tree care. Holy shit this is funny and timeless. Old lady gives zero fucks about being on television and Johnny is losing his shit.

 

 The lady with the talking bird that did not talk was funny shit, they would close the curtain he would talk, open the curtain he would shut up, Carson was pissed off.

[WhatTheBuck 28,824]

2 hours ago, Rabidhorn said:

Problem is current late night shows waste 30 minutes with bullshit then squeeze three guests in between commercials, add that to none of them are good interviewers.

Get your stopwatch out and watch a Carson rerun. See how much time elapses before he introduces his first guest. 

[MrPhlegm 3,413]

From about 8 yrs old (so from around 1970) on I had a tv in my bedroom. I grew up watching Carson every night before i fell asleep. I usually was only awake for the monologue and the first guest or two. Good times.

oh lord. I watched The Tonight show when Steve Allen and then Jack Paar were hosts.

[MrPhlegm 3,413]

I saw an interview with Angie once a long time ago and she said straight out pretty much anytime, anywhere she was DTF. She liked macho men, was there to please them and gave zero fucks what anyone thought. I'm sure there's a long and distinguished list of eskimo brothers in Hollywood because of her.

her best line on Carson was when asked if she dressed for men she said "I dress for women I undress for men."