Johnny Carson's Tonight Show - Dec. 1963 - part 1 of 2!

[TheArtlloyd]

This selection of clips comes from a complete show in a friends archive. He did send the whole show to Johnny who was delighted with it. Another show from one month later was sent to him as well.

[xander7ful]

The band sounds really pathetic. And the audience doesn't seem to be in a mood to laugh. This must have been a tough one to host.

[caitlinjane92]

@xander7ful Well, as the description of this video says, everyone was pretty mellowed down from the sudden shock of President Kennedy's assassination.

[xander7ful]

Did he do this show as a fill-in for Jack Paar? Because I just heard him say (on another video) that he didn't come out to CA until 1972. (I remember my mother saying that Regis Philbin was a host until the network decided on Johnny Carson.)

[galesayers]

@xander7ful The show was shot in New York originally. Johnny moved to CA to make travel easier for Hollywood guests.

[observer9670]

With Jack Paar, the Tonight Show was an interview/performance show with some comedy. Johnny Carson changed it to a comedy show with some interviews and performances.

[gent11763]

Johnny would have loved to have seen this since NBC destroyed all the old shows...

[observer9670]

@gent11763 A few from 1962-72 survive either on kinescope (as this one was) or on videotape. NBC did save a few shows for weekend reruns. NBC ran Tonight Show reruns on weekends until 1975. Some affiliates ran them on Saturdays, some on Sundays and others not at all.

[gent11763]

@observer9670 NBC and other networks, unfortunately, in order to save library space, had the policy of re-recording over old shows to reuse the video reels for repeat of episodes. Many of the early Carson tonight shows were lost as a result of this practice. Carson had commented on this many times on the show when doing the annual retrospectives, especially the famous premiere episode that featured Grouch Marx introducing Carson in 1962 (the audio survived thankfully).

[MrDavearama]

@gregboyds -You are back door buggering fool too. Your inane posts prove that.

[SuperJM1980]

@gregboyds no he was just shy.

[emperorkang]

this video is older than me. I feel like I'm traveling way back in time....

[HelenRuth31]

Where is a link to the opening theme music an instrumental that played on this show???

[jd55192]

Top Tonight hosts in descending order:

Carson, Allen, Paar, O'Brien, Leno, and Leno again.

If that mediocre, pandering shell of a man Jay wouldn't have gotten it the first time, Letterman would be between Steve and Jack.

A legendary American institution tarnished forever. For shame.

[caitlinjane92]

@jd55192 You forgot Ed Sullivan in the higher rank. ;)

[xtrmsprts]

Even in those early years of experimentation with t.v. comedy and trial and error , Johnny's way better Lenon. Letterman and Conan are pretty original and standup guys, very entertaining fellas

[6motion6]

Thanks for posting. Where did you find this?

[videoholicreturns]

I got this in a video trade many, many years ago.

[6motion6]

What a deal! I thought he controlled what shows were out there and had a bunch stored in some vault. I'm always amazed at some of the music and TV videos that end up on You Tube.

I'm sure you've seen some of his 50s shows on You Tube, if not, there are several before he did Tonight.

[utube44439]

Who's the chick next to Henny? They called her "Annie". Annie who?

[Wheelbrain]

It's Annie Farge.

[whenmonkeysattack16]

Man, genius here, and genius now (or a couple of weeks ago). Almost everyone who has been a host for this show has been a genius. (Notice I wrote ALMOST...I'm talkin' to you Mr. Leno)