The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

Anecdotes and trivia

• Carson's announcer and first guest was Groucho Marx, who had been one of many substitute hosts following the departure of Jack Paar.
• No video of Carson's first appearance on The Tonight Show is known to exist. However, an audio recording of the broadcast has been played on television. Carson began his first monologue by crying "I want my na-na!"
• Perhaps the most celebrated example of Johnny being quick-on-his feet was the "Ed Ames tomahawk" incident. This was a black-and-white kinescope film clip thankfully saved from the New York years. Ames was then playing a Native American on the "Daniel Boone" TV series, starring Fess Parker. Ames was attempting to demonstrate how to throw a hatchet in the air to hit a target, the outline of a cowboy on a piece of plywood. The throw hit the figure square in the crotch, and the audience burst into laughter and applause. Ames instinctively started to go retrieve the hatchet, but Carson smoothly held him back. When the laughter had almost died down, Carson remarked, "I didn't even know you were Jewish!" and the audience burst into applause again.
• Zoologists such as Joan Embery and Jim Fowler were recurring guests who would bring with them often exotic animals that he could interact with to comedic effect. In one frequently-shown clip, he leaned over a little too closely to the cage of a panther, which swiped its claws at him. Carson ran across the stage and jumped into Ed McMahon's arms.
• Carson and Paul Anka are both credited with co-writing "Johnny's Theme," the well-known title music for his show. Anka later revealed that Carson and his management demanded a 50% cut of the song's publishing in exchange for choosing it as the theme song. Both men collected millions of dollars on the arrangement.
• The Tonight Show received an enormous audience on December 17, 1969, when Tiny Tim married Miss Vicki during the show.
• In 1973, Carson had a legendary run-in with popular psychic Uri Geller when he invited Geller to appear on his show. Carson, an experienced stage magician, wanted a neutral demonstration of Geller's alleged abilities, so, at the advice of his friend and fellow magician James Randi, he gave Geller several spoons out of his desk drawer and asked him to bend them. Geller proved unable to do so, and that appearance has since been regarded as the beginning of Geller's fall from glory.
• A monologue tradition evolved over the years in which Carson would say a phrase in his monologue such as "It was so (hot/cold/dark/etc.)..." someone in the audience would invariably call out "How ---- was it?" which would set up Carson's rejoinder "It was so ----, that ...." and complete the joke.