Johnny Carson @ The Phil Donahue Show 1970 Pt 1

Johnny Carson is into his eighth year on The Tonight Show and uh uh for almost 8 years now a millions of Americans have responded to uh two words with uh perhaps more well unprecedented enthusiasm for anybody in this business and I think you're just not going to get an argument when you talk about the specialness of this personality and it's a big kick for us to feature him on our program ladies and gentlemen here Johnny and I hope you'll join us Riddle question but I'm going to go ahead anyway are you going to leave the tonight's show um not in the foreseeable future Phil I think I'll probably I have a contract um with Ben BC the network with a heart uh I think it runs a couple of years from this April and I'll probably stay with it for a couple years do you get ancy uh after 7 years and 4 months uh same stage same routine do you kind of hope for something a little different in this business yeah there are times I think but I think that's uh goes with any job you you've got to get away from it for a while I'm taking a little more time off uh the past couple years than I did the first say four or five years only because if I don't I start falling asleep during the show which is which is bad uh but I enjoy the show uh but I think you have to get away from something like that if you're doing five a week 90 minutes and so I'm taking occasional Fridays off and I'm off next week but it kind of recharges you I read where you you're the kind of guy that gets bored in a could get bored in a lion's cage you got a real low threshold you're always moving scuba the whole thing does that pretty much describe you yeah I have a low bug point it's what my wife says I'll I'll start out with something and I'll go at it you know yeah tooth and nail and then I'll if I get to a certain point I stop I took up flying 5 years ago and I got my license and I flew for a couple hundred hours and I got bored with it so I I haven't flown for 2 years and I took up the guitar as soon as I got to a certain point I guess I got bored with it so I go to astronomy or I'll go to scuba diving I don't know that's good or bad but it works for me what's the current kick any uh you you're not too wild about golf although you play I took it up and I quit I didn't I went and I took spent a lot of money on lessons and uh went out and the first time I played golf I was I was playing in the ' 80s and I played for a couple years and I found out that everybody cheats grown men cheat on golf nice men I don't know what happens when guys get on a golf course they cheat yeah uh and I uh I just didn't enjoy it anymore and I quit and then my son is beating me uh which makes you feel you know uh bad so I I really haven't played anymore I read where uh right after the show you get in the LMO and and go home and like uh right after they run credits I think 10 minutes later you're in the apartment huh is that just about yeah uh we go up to the office and find out what we did wrong on the show that night which can keep you there for several hours sometime uh but usually uh when you've been with people all day you've been involved in the show for say five or 6 hours ahead of it you've done the show yeah um I kind of enjoy going home you you really do lose a lot of your personal freedom in a position like you have uh would you like to be able to go to Sardis without all you do that very good yes there he is uh no I I suppose that's true with anybody who uh you're well known when you go places um I think you have to give up uh a certain amount of your freedom of your privacy uh in this business it's a funny thing it's a paradox when you're first starting that's what you want right you want to be welln you want to be successful and part of being successful I suppose in the entertainment business is being recognized and people coming up to you and then after a while you realize that you pay a certain amount for that especially with children if you have kids and you go someplace I remember once we went to ice skating at Rockefeller Center and I thought GE that would be fun it turned out that it wasn't fun at all because because the people came around uh most of them are very nice but you give that up when you first signed an autograph in front of your kids uh how did they respond did they do they did it affect them in a way that undermines your ability to be their father do you feel I don't know it's hard to ask your own children I remember when I used to write for Red Skelton in about 1954 and I would be down and I also had a local show in Los Angeles at that time so you bet your wife or no this was the Red Skeleton show I was doing another disaster at that time I did a show years ago nobody here has ever seen it called earn your your vacation it was on the the CBS network Sunday after you never saw it it was terrible uh we brought people on they answered questions and we sent them on a trip if they won uh we have a couple been in Australia 11 [Music] years trying to win a trip back it's we so what I started to get to I was writing for Red Skelton at that time and I had this local show and I remember Red's children at the time his uh young son was alive you know red lost his son and uh they had the young daughter Valentina now they would come down to Red Skeleton show who's been a star for 40 years they would completely I mean he was Daddy he was just their father where they would run over to me and say Daddy guess who's here Johnny Carson and I was doing a local show in Los Angeles so it's I guess it's uh it's all relative you see your own to me my kids I'm I'm their father and that's about it I uh as you could guess take a special uh interest and involvement when I watch your show because I think I can tell more than other the other viewer when you're in trouble uh uh now wait now for you've doing this for seven years and four months five nights a week you've been on the ropes oh yes sure um have I think it's no fun it's really no fun if you don't get on the ropes right if it's all plastic and control um you have you ever how often do you look at the at the guest and you're sitting there and you say to yourself who B this are you thinking this now Phil I get the impression somehow no that happens sure you'll sit there and you you know you'll ask a question nothing happens the guest freezes up for whatever the reason uh they get nervous uh and you can tell they're nervous I can always tell when somebody's coming unglued on Me Is You usually starts with a small and you get this you ever got those my guest and then the hand is going and you know you're in trouble um but sometimes guests just get I think they get scared or something happens and they don't communicate and you wonder how you're going to bail out now on the other hand I'm impressed with the way most of your guests come out of the gate uh they come on to Applause and they sit and boom and many of them before you even have a you even have to launch it let me tell you what I happened in the way of the studio boom they do 4 minutes in now that's a great feeling isn't it that's great we we call those self starters is that well the producer really is responsible for that in a lot of ways you know the people who book or do they talk I think a lot of people want to come out and get started mhm in other words they sit back there and they maybe they've been sitting there for 25 30 minutes and they're getting in their mind what they're going to say which sometimes is good and bad MH because they're all preset what they're going to do when they get out there so they may come out there and you're all ready to say something like how are you and they launch right off they're they're going to say what they have to say no matter what you say so sometimes they going to work the other way you know you could say I hear your grandmother died they said you know I was in Chicago the other day and they wouldn't hear you at all yeah but usually it works um does the uh this is s one of those uh this is a heavy question so stay with me just for a second do you are you concerned about the ability to translate phenomenal popularity at 11:30 to 1 in the morning into Prime Time programming Concepts I don't quite follow that is it difficult has it par did not necessarily was not Gang Busters when he left no no i' no Jack and I are friends not the closest friends but uh no I've never said anything patronizing to Jack par because he took a show that at that time on NBC quite a few years ago that was absolutely nothing uh the Mary had followed that Fiasco America after dark and was responsible for really bringing the show around mhm well it just occurs to me that the American public uh demands that that you they sort of demand that you uh they own you in this programming concept or subliminally this is the feeling and to attempt to do anything else in a special way at 9:00 in a you know with a big production High budget situation is sort of lean back a little bit they want they want good old Johnny back on the I think you leave yourself open we did a show from Monsanto a couple of months ago and people either crucified us or they liked it mhm there was absolutely no in between because the show was somewhat different and we did some things that we knew were kind of dangerous in certain areas but certain critics were kind of waiting saying okay here comes the guy who sits at the desk 11:30 and now you're on and you're doing an hour show and they kind of get ready for you I think sometimes may be unfairly but I don't think critics are that important I don't think critics make a television show or do they break it I think it's the audience that watches and critics can say the show is terrible they've never been able to take a show off the air and they've never really been able to save a show uh if it's good if the audience doesn't watch It ultimately I think it comes up to the people who watch does Ed McMahon drink is the popea Catholic uh Ed has been known Ed's on a diet now is he he's in the intensy fat unit at uh at Bell no Ed has a propensity to go heavy he's big he's uh he's Irish uh and he likes to have his small beaker uh once in a while and it all goes to to weight you know some people can do that and it the metabolism I guess Burns it up Ed no your uh trim do you work at it or is it just happen for you I think it runs in the family my grandfather was 95 years old January the 7th and uh I think he weighs 165 lb that's what I weigh my dad's still living weighs 165 I can't take any credit for it I think that just is a genetic thing we'll uh find out what uh the folks would like to wrap with you about Johnny Johnny Carson Our Guest on this program back in just a [Music] moment I know why you and Dick C are good friends I didn't know you did VM I thought you were going to pick us up and talk no no this is yes sir go right ahead I know you and uh dick Cav are good friends how do you feel about him being on late night uh TV with you dick yes Dick's very clever he used to write for the tonight's show uh I hate to be hypocrite and say that I would be a hypocrite if I say I wish him tremendously well since he's opposite us uh because I don't know whether the three late night shows can be opposite each other the same night and all three of them remain successful you think one of them is going to go off I would guess seriously mhm you think it'll shake out to two I think probably it will eventually just two then I would guess so okay okay thanks for calling thank you Johnny Carson on the line hi hi Johnny um I'd like to know how he got to be host of the tonight's show I ran an ad uh no that's not true uh NBC just asked me after Jack par decided to to quit after 5 years uh I was doing that daytime show and they asked me if I would care to do it originally I turned it down I didn't know yeah originally I turned it down because it was kind of comfortable in the afternoon at 3:30 and there wasn't any great uh problems going into do the show and you leave and it was kind of a nice comfortable living but I think if you're going to perform you have to kind of take a whack at it and say I want to I want to try this so uh on second thought I did take the show do you uh well I I thought I didn't know that you had turned it down first I originally I did um so I thought You' be able to tell us the story about the when you got the phone call and how great you felt and Etc that's not the way it happened well I was really out of town and my manager at that time called me and said they wanted me to to take over and I realized what a tremendous success Jack par had made out of that show which he had it was very controversial show Jack's a unique personality there was a lot of emotion involved with the show and I said Gee that's a tough thing to try to go in because you have to overcome that it's like any young actress who had to overcome Marilyn Monroe for a while the inevitable comparison of the way you do the show and I thought maybe it'd be a little dangerous it might be the wrong move but then I think they figured well you're really going to want to entertain you want to be in this business you've got to take a a good run at it so on second thought I I took it 7 years and four months later number one thanks for calling okay thank you hi Johnny Carson on the line hello hello hi is this Mr Carson yeah oh yes ma'am well the reason I called was I wanted to find out do you uh ever have an opportunity to read any of the mail that comes into your office yes do you ever read any of it oh sure you do well the reason why I ask um I uh read an article in TV Guide some time ago how people people uh fight to sit next to the throne of the Majesty Mr Carson yes and so I sent you a painting uh a photograph of a painting that I made called a man's a man M I thought you might appreciate and I received a letter back from your secretary oh saying how much you'd appreciate it but I it wasn't signed by you and now wait a minute let's find out do you understand the article you are you familiar with the article referring to yes I know what you're talking about uh well brief us on that people everybody wants up front or down close to uh no I didn't understand that point I thought she was talking about the letter no I sent a letter um I sent a picture a photograph of a painting that I made a man's a man which I thought um uh would give you idea what I meant concerning this article in TV guy you I don't believe I did see it you didn't no I don't believe so that sometimes does happen because I no I imagine that the tonight she'll probably gets four or 5,000 pieces of well this wasn't on The Tonight from the tonight show oh uh

Channel: MyInnerEyeInterview2

Views: 121,632

Keywords: Johnny, Carson, The, Phil, Donahue, Show, Pt, 1970

Id: _mIjtDy3WNw

Length: 15min 1sec (901 seconds)

Published: Sun May 06 2012