Ed McMahon on guest hosts on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson"

well new heart would just host a lot I love to work with new heart Rickles would do a trickle would be a disaster he'd be so nervous and worried but he would be great David Brenner was wonderful David Brenner got his own talk show out of guest hosting their Garry Shandling was great as a guest host he was once considered to be the heir apparent and he did want it he didn't want that job but he could have had the Leno job early on Joan Rivers was a guest host and all kinds of people I worked that show with guess I was running from Orson Welles to Kermit the Frog well you can't go that there's there's a spread there right and and I think Joan Rivers at one point became a permanent guest yes right she um she was she would have been the airport parent she could have been the heir apparent and then she got her show on Fox and that kind of watered that down so it was not as viable a situation as it was before she did that when she did that around that time was was there at that point discussion about someone succeeding well it was always that thought you know he would always renew for a while he would renew for three years though always have thought that at the end of the three years that he would walk away there was always that that thought and that was a big moment when that came up when that negotiation time came up the heavyweights would get involved I mean it was Tartikoff Abbott article was Fred Silverman and be Fred it's Brandon Tartikoff Fred Silverman or Bob Wright who ran the network would get involved I mean he would you know he became very they're very close friends he and Johnny but they they get involved this was a big moneymaker you know this made an awful lot of money this show for NBC and they didn't want anything to happen to it so there was a lot of worry when the three years were running out that he had signed or when he signed for two years or eventually was signing for one year you know by the time you sign you're ready to think about what are we gonna do to get him to sign another year and it that was always that worries oh that would always talk about who would replace Johnny if he left when he left and David Letterman sat in that chair a bunch of times yes mm-hmm Letterman was there a lot Leno was there a lot I think they both coveted that chair they wanted to do that Letterman there's a big big fan of Johnnie's and their neighbors they have Letterman has a house on the west coast right near where Johnny's permanent home is and they see each other you know not vain so that's gave him a little favoritism with Johnny but Letterman style is somewhat like Johnny's jazz a little more than Leno's but Leno had done an awful lot of things for the NBC crowd the affiliates all the stations you know he would do benefit performances for them black-tie events you know fundraisers or just entertainment things and he got to be very well liked by the NBC network people so it was one of those you know you even heard the story all of they the possibilities but while Johnny was doing this show there was always the thing who's gonna replace Johnny Carson you know they would have it sometime it happened too soon for a lot of people but it was gonna happen sometimes

Channel: FoundationINTERVIEWS

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Keywords: Interviews, tv, Emmy TV Legends, emmytvlegends, Ed McMahon, The Television Academy InterviewsTelevision history, academy, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Interviews

Id: ldXyW3QziuU

Length: 3min 31sec (211 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 06 2018