Overlooked moments from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

There's soooooo much that has been written about "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson." Here, now, are some lesser-known but still notable clips, in roughly chronological order.

-Almost no footage exists from "The Tonight Show" before 1972, when the show moved from New York City to Los Angeles, and began archiving episodes (videotape being very bulky and expensive back then). One episode that survived in excellent quality is from March 6, 1969, with guests Dean Martin, Bob Hope, George Gobel, Judy Carne, Buddy Rich, Carol Wayne, Biff Rose and Don Ho. This episode descended into drunken craziness early on (thanks to Dean) and kept rolling from there. The producers that it was so good, this was sent via Armed Forces Television (copied from videotape to film), and that copy survived for some reason (other episodes were sent over at times and have not survived). This appears to be a show from Los Angeles; in the NYC "Tonight" era, they would often do a few weeks of shows from L.A. each year. However, in episode guides this is listed as coming the week AFTER a recent west coast trip... which included a show on February 21, 1969, with Judy Carne and George Gobel. Maybe one of these dates is a misprint? Difficult to say.
Since much of this show has been aired in clips, I thought I would include the swinging closing credits, featuring "Up Up and Away."


-The heading is just what it says: "Aircraft Carrier Toy Crashes"... over and over. Maybe this is more interesting if you're an aviation buff.


-In 1974, Steve Martin appeared and did his two-minute encapsulation of the typical Las Vegas act... right in front of Vegas mainstay Sammy Davis, Jr. Fortunately, Sammy and Johnny almost fell out of their chairs laughing, and Davis even comes out and hugs Steve at the end. (In the 1990s, Martin was on with Jay Leno and showed the end of this clip, commenting that he had no idea Sammy was standing there to offer a hug. Steve's little dance COULD be viewed as mildly racist... if you're totally oversensitive and have no idea about social mores).


-Writer Pat McCormick was one of Johnny's favorites, and a story unto himself. In 1975, he streaked across the stage (getting a startling reaction from Carson, even though this was pre-planned). As a bonus, here's another famous streaking appearance, from the 1974 Oscar telecast (again, probably pre-planned).


-Johnny and Ed record an off-color video message for the Vick's Chemical convention of 1974. Not safe for work (the video file starts with a weird outtake from a Julie Andrews special).


-Rodney Dangerfield, August 30, 1977, with Johnny and guest Suzanne Pleshette (who can both clearly be heard laughing during Rodney's stand-up).

#snl4kidz