Andy Kaufman's appearances on SNL are probably his best-known work outside of playing Latka on Taxi. Less well-known are his talk show appearances. A number of his Letterman appearances are on YouTube, but his best IMHO was his first Tonight Show appearance. It's clear Johnny loves it and is surprised. He even tries to announce Andy at the end, not realizing there was one last, huge punchline to the whole appearance. The description on the video confirms this is his debut, but the video is dated March 3, 1977. Most episode guides show that as his second appearance, with the debut listed as January 21, 1977. Maybe he was listed in TV Guide for that night but got bumped?
Just for good measure, here's an exhaustive comparison of all the recreated scenes in the 1999 Kaufman biopic, "Man On the Moon." The Carson appearance is not there, but SNL and Letterman are (and it's interesting that Lorne Michaels is dressed to look just like he would have in 1975, but 1999-Dave Letterman made no attempt to look like 1983-Dave Letterman):
Oh why not... here's a link to the 1994 TV special (A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman) in five parts, which is essentially a dry run for "Man On the Moon."
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