Johny Carson would not have been nearly as successful as he was with out Ed, the rock, the anchor behind the man who had the greatest talk show in the history of American entertainment nor have we seen anyone come this close to such success. I literally would sneak out of my bed to watch the Johny Carson Show and glad I did.
It would be better if you had a voiceover reading the captions. I would like to listen to these, but can't keep my eyes glued to the screen for the whole time so the interview is hard to follow.
I love how Ed said that Johnny created his characters, when the truth was that he stole them. His Aunt Blabby was a rip off of Johnathon Winters Maude Fricket. His Art Fern was a rip off of Jackie Gleason's Reggie Van Gleason. His Carnak was a rip off of Steve Allen's The Answer Man. None of them challenged Carson because of how powerful Carson was.
I agree! Good observation! Seen Ed McMahon at NBC Studios in 1979 & was introduced to Johnny's brother Dick at a Honolulu nightclub in 1991! Never saw Johnny, though!
This was a great interview, but Ed was starting to lose it a bit. I"m not saying he had any type of disorder, but I don't think he would have been able to handle the rigors of doing a show anymore.
I wasn’t living in the right country, to have watched any of Carson’s shows when they aired, but watching numerous clips on RUclips I’m still struggling to work out why Ed was there. Moral support? Muscle? What? 🤷
You obviously haven’t watched enough episodes. Have you seen any of his Karnack bits? And EVERY variety show has a sidekick that the host can toss lines at. It’s required.
Announcer, side-kick, second banana, moral support, muscle (remember the leopard)... It's the classic double act, Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello, 3PO and R2, Burns and Allen, Lemon and Matthau, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In the opening of Laverne and Shirley there is a line, "schlemiel, schlimazel" one spills the paint, the other has the paint spilled on them, it works.
19:19 Ed spins the story of Johnny's retirement into a "voluntary" story of retirement, which has become the legacy story, but truth be told, Carson was FORCED into retirement by NBC executives who had lost contract negotiations to him for years, but finally were given an opening by the success of Arsenio Hall's competing late night show, which surpassed Carson in the 18-35 viewer demographic. This gave NBC Executives sound justification for wanting Carson out, and they did it by repeatedly over a two-three year period, steadily leaking rumors to industry trade papers ('Variety", "The Hollywood Reporter" and the general press) that Carson was planning to retire. The leaks were as steady as Chinese water torture and both Carson and McMahon spent over a year rebutting them on-air during Tonight show monologues but after months and month of steady leaks, the denials were becoming less believable and eventually Carson had to capitulate and set a retirement date. In 30 years at the Tonight Show, it was the only time Carson lost a showdown/negotiation with NBC Executives - he had beat the network out of a series of major financial concessions over the years. Ed McMahon was 100% correct in stating that Carson could have gone on for 5 or 10 more years doing the show...he still enjoyed the job and his position of power in the entertainment business, but Carson helped create his own Waterloo by being too narrow-minded in his choice of guests. His refusal to allow Rap, HIp-Hop, and other artists he didn't like on his show opened the door for Arsenio Hall to put these acts on-the-air opposite Carson; thus costing the Tonight Show important market demographics. This is what led NBC Executives to force Carson out and replace him with younger Jay Leno and new music leader Branford Marsalis. Carson had gotten away with it for years...being so successful and popular that not even the Network could tell him what guests to book or how to run his show. When he lost the demographics to Arsenio Hall, it was the end for Carson, probably at least 5 years earlier than he would have desired. To his credit, the first on-air appearance of Ed McMahon after he and Carson "retired" from Tonight was on the Arsenio Hall Show where Ed voice his support for Arsenio about two weeks after NBC forced them off 'Tonight." (portions of that 1992 appearance by McMahon is still available online here). Neither Carson nor McMahon ever appeared on 'the Tonight Show" after they were forced to retire from the show. The Harvard Law School case lesson of Carson's demise is that the refusal to change or adapt with the times can bring down even the most powerful among us. If you were alive back in 1990-1992, this drama played out right in front of your face every night on Tonight Show broadcasts and in Hollywood Entertainment newspaper columns. The average viewer was probably clueless as to what was actually going on, but for those who paid attention to Arsenio Hall's growing success, the consistent industry 'retirement' rumors, and Carson's seeming inability to creditably squash them, it gradually became apparent that this was going to be the one confrontation with network executives that Carson was not going to win. Such irony. The man had beat NBC for 30 years in every negotiation, winning unprecedented salary raises, Mondays and Fridays off, total creative control over the show, and the blockbuster in the early 1970's after threatening to jump to ABC - he was given complete OWNERSHIP of the show for all the episodes he worked retroactive to his first in 1962. His heirs now enjoy the millions that flow from the digital redistribution of his 30 years of 'Tonight' clips and episodes in the internet age.
That's a long-winded way of saying that American culture went into the toilet and Carson didn't want to go along with it. The Arsinio Hall program lasted a whopping four years.
@@b.deville3236 - Wrong Clown...that's your short-winded hater spin. Carson "not going along with it" was his own problem and he paid the price for it by having the only thing he enjoyed doing on TV permanently taken away from him against his desires. Doubt he enjoyed those results. Arsenio Hall's program lasted only a "whopping four years" because after he displaced Carson as the leader in late night young demographic ratings, he was targeted by Networks Executives for removal, as they did not want him to be the new successful face of American late night television. As a hater, this should be a concept you readily understand and can appreciate. Think of how you felt when Obama was elected President - that's how the Hollywood late night gurus felt about Hall leading late-night. While Hall only lasted 4 years, the music and artists he brought to late night remain the most popular across America - late night or daytime. Thirty years later, Arsenio's music still permeates the late night talk shows - irrefutable evidence the issue was never the popularity of the music or programming, it was the look of the guy who was hosting it. Today's late night network programming is filled with hosts who don't look like Hall, but who extensively feature his music. Unlike Carson, Hall's program was not network owned...it was independently produced (by Hall's Production Company in conjunction with Paramount Studios) and syndicated to local stations that voluntarily picked it up nationwide because of its popularity. This syndication structure - as opposed to a network affiliate structure - made dismantling Hall's show much easier, and after Hall beat Carson off the air, Hollywood networks were in a frenzy to make moves to dislocate Hall. Networks mobilized to recruit and generously pay others to host competing late night programs and local stations across Hall's national syndication structure were "picked off" by their respective network and forced to realign with other programming. Various financial incentives to local stations helped them drop Hall's program and switch to other programming The goal was to steadily reduce the size of Hall's syndication network, thereby reducing its national reach, audience and demographic numbers, and eventually, making it infeasible to produce and distribute. Carson left the air in 1992. By 1994, Hall's syndication structure of stations had been dwindled to a fraction of its original size. This, along with an explosion of new network competitors one after the other, forced ratings down and production to halt. This is how Arsenio Hall's show ended...it wasn't the unpopularity of his music or programming; it was an orchestrated demise to get him out and get someone else in who didn't look like him. You do realized that clowns like you have said that American culture has "went into the toilet" every generation of America's existence? Go back and read newspapers from the 1800's... or the hedonism, drugs, alcohol, and Mob crime of the Roaring 1920's....or the wild swing dancing of bobbysoxers and their mates of the Big Band Era....or Elvis Presley's censored sexual hip and pelvis gyrations and his "degenerate" rock and roll music....or the "Beat Generation" of poets, hippies, and dropouts who took to the Road. There seems to be a disagreement every generation on exactly when America went into the toilet. Some could creditably claim it happened when you and your like-minded buddies and family members voted into office the only President who had six kids by three different women; who bragged on multiple radio programs about his numerous adulterous affairs and enjoyment in randomly grabbing women's pussies, and had demonstrated a lifetime of self-service instead of public service. To prove how bright you are, you are undoubtedly poised to return this serial liar, Porn Star adulterer, court-proven multi-year business tax cheat, twice impeached un-American sociopath to office so he can lean on these personality traits to "pull America out of the toilet," right? lol. Happy trails, Mack.
Undoubtedly, Mr. McMahon was and is always the greatest sidekick in US television history
Geoff the gay robot Skeleton is tied for second with Andy.
one of the admirable things about Ed was him serving as a Marine pilot in both WW2 and Korea. he retired as a Colonel.
Mr. McMahon was a Pro. He knew how to talk with people and make them feel important.
I always liked Ed!❤ he helped make the Johnny Carson show great!!!
Thank you for posting this ❤️
Carnac - I must have silence.
McMahon - You have gotten it many times.
Of all the skits those two did together, I think the Carnac ones were the best. Carson expected Ed to adlib during them, and man, did the gags flow!
Johnny and Rodney were classic shows. I miss watching those guys.
Johny Carson would not have been nearly as successful as he was with out Ed, the rock, the anchor behind the man who had the greatest talk show in the history of American entertainment nor have we seen anyone come this close to such success. I literally would sneak out of my bed to watch the Johny Carson Show and glad I did.
Hard to tell. It was one of the greatest partnerships in Television and the Entertainment Biz that is for sure.
Loved when Rickles would come on and joke with Ed and Ed would have that booming laugh. Television gold
One of the main reasons that I loved that show was to watch Ed's reaction at times and to hear his laugh.
@@kennethrussell1158 you are right sir !!! Yeah Ed's laugh at the joke could be funnier than the joke.
It would be better if you had a voiceover reading the captions. I would like to listen to these, but can't keep my eyes glued to the screen for the whole time so the interview is hard to follow.
I saw him at a mall in Clearwater Florida about 30 years ago. He was still hosting Star search.
Alanis Morissette got her start on "You Can't Do That On Television"
Then never be two guys like that ever they were awesome together
I love how Ed said that Johnny created his characters, when the truth was that he stole them. His Aunt Blabby was a rip off of Johnathon Winters Maude Fricket. His Art Fern was a rip off of Jackie Gleason's Reggie Van Gleason. His Carnak was a rip off of Steve Allen's The Answer Man. None of them challenged Carson because of how powerful Carson was.
I agree! Good observation! Seen Ed McMahon at NBC Studios in 1979 & was introduced to Johnny's
brother Dick at a Honolulu nightclub in 1991! Never saw Johnny, though!
Well said. Similar to Dave Letterman, who got his aesthetic and stunts from Steve Allen.
They all credited each other.@@robf6105
@@robf6105 Steve Allen was the MAN multi talented , genius !
Ed did a ton of charity work in his life. He gave up a lot of his time to support so many different charities.
"Ed did a ton of charity work." But enough about the women he married. lol
great guy , may he be resting in peace ...
Dennis Day, not Dennis James! Singer on Jack Benny show.
This was a great interview, but Ed was starting to lose it a bit. I"m not saying he had any type of disorder, but I don't think he would have been able to handle the rigors of doing a show anymore.
I wasn’t living in the right country, to have watched any of Carson’s shows when they aired, but watching numerous clips on RUclips I’m still struggling to work out why Ed was there. Moral support? Muscle? What? 🤷
You obviously haven’t watched enough episodes. Have you seen any of his Karnack bits?
And EVERY variety show has a sidekick that the host can toss lines at. It’s required.
Announcer, side-kick, second banana, moral support, muscle (remember the leopard)...
It's the classic double act, Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello, 3PO and R2, Burns and Allen, Lemon and Matthau, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
In the opening of Laverne and Shirley there is a line, "schlemiel, schlimazel" one spills the paint, the other has the paint spilled on them, it works.
I hated The Arsenio Hall Show and Jay Leno. I never watched either.
I loved Jay Leno, but lost respect for Arsenio Hall when he had Louis Farrakhan on.
@@Glen.Danielsen You and I Danielsen, after that particular show I stopped watching his show.
@@MarjorainMD Bobcat Goldthwaite ripping up the set on the last show was pure gold.
Haha Ed is just an announcer. Period. Another, right place at the right time story
19:19 Ed spins the story of Johnny's retirement into a "voluntary" story of retirement, which has become the legacy story, but truth be told, Carson was FORCED into retirement by NBC executives who had lost contract negotiations to him for years, but finally were given an opening by the success of Arsenio Hall's competing late night show, which surpassed Carson in the 18-35 viewer demographic. This gave NBC Executives sound justification for wanting Carson out, and they did it by repeatedly over a two-three year period, steadily leaking rumors to industry trade papers ('Variety", "The Hollywood Reporter" and the general press) that Carson was planning to retire.
The leaks were as steady as Chinese water torture and both Carson and McMahon spent over a year rebutting them on-air during Tonight show monologues but after months and month of steady leaks, the denials were becoming less believable and eventually Carson had to capitulate and set a retirement date. In 30 years at the Tonight Show, it was the only time Carson lost a showdown/negotiation with NBC Executives - he had beat the network out of a series of major financial concessions over the years. Ed McMahon was 100% correct in stating that Carson could have gone on for 5 or 10 more years doing the show...he still enjoyed the job and his position of power in the entertainment business, but Carson helped create his own Waterloo by being too narrow-minded in his choice of guests. His refusal to allow Rap, HIp-Hop, and other artists he didn't like on his show opened the door for Arsenio Hall to put these acts on-the-air opposite Carson; thus costing the Tonight Show important market demographics. This is what led NBC Executives to force Carson out and replace him with younger Jay Leno and new music leader Branford Marsalis.
Carson had gotten away with it for years...being so successful and popular that not even the Network could tell him what guests to book or how to run his show. When he lost the demographics to Arsenio Hall, it was the end for Carson, probably at least 5 years earlier than he would have desired. To his credit, the first on-air appearance of Ed McMahon after he and Carson "retired" from Tonight was on the Arsenio Hall Show where Ed voice his support for Arsenio about two weeks after NBC forced them off 'Tonight." (portions of that 1992 appearance by McMahon is still available online here). Neither Carson nor McMahon ever appeared on 'the Tonight Show" after they were forced to retire from the show.
The Harvard Law School case lesson of Carson's demise is that the refusal to change or adapt with the times can bring down even the most powerful among us. If you were alive back in 1990-1992, this drama played out right in front of your face every night on Tonight Show broadcasts and in Hollywood Entertainment newspaper columns. The average viewer was probably clueless as to what was actually going on, but for those who paid attention to Arsenio Hall's growing success, the consistent industry 'retirement' rumors, and Carson's seeming inability to creditably squash them, it gradually became apparent that this was going to be the one confrontation with network executives that Carson was not going to win. Such irony. The man had beat NBC for 30 years in every negotiation, winning unprecedented salary raises, Mondays and Fridays off, total creative control over the show, and the blockbuster in the early 1970's after threatening to jump to ABC - he was given complete OWNERSHIP of the show for all the episodes he worked retroactive to his first in 1962. His heirs now enjoy the millions that flow from the digital redistribution of his 30 years of 'Tonight' clips and episodes in the internet age.
*months and months
That's a long-winded way of saying that American culture went into the toilet and Carson didn't want to go along with it. The Arsinio Hall program lasted a whopping four years.
@@b.deville3236 - Wrong Clown...that's your short-winded hater spin. Carson "not going along with it" was his own problem and he paid the price for it by having the only thing he enjoyed doing on TV permanently taken away from him against his desires. Doubt he enjoyed those results.
Arsenio Hall's program lasted only a "whopping four years" because after he displaced Carson as the leader in late night young demographic ratings, he was targeted by Networks Executives for removal, as they did not want him to be the new successful face of American late night television. As a hater, this should be a concept you readily understand and can appreciate. Think of how you felt when Obama was elected President - that's how the Hollywood late night gurus felt about Hall leading late-night. While Hall only lasted 4 years, the music and artists he brought to late night remain the most popular across America - late night or daytime. Thirty years later, Arsenio's music still permeates the late night talk shows - irrefutable evidence the issue was never the popularity of the music or programming, it was the look of the guy who was hosting it. Today's late night network programming is filled with hosts who don't look like Hall, but who extensively feature his music.
Unlike Carson, Hall's program was not network owned...it was independently produced (by Hall's Production Company in conjunction with Paramount Studios) and syndicated to local stations that voluntarily picked it up nationwide because of its popularity. This syndication structure - as opposed to a network affiliate structure - made dismantling Hall's show much easier, and after Hall beat Carson off the air, Hollywood networks were in a frenzy to make moves to dislocate Hall. Networks mobilized to recruit and generously pay others to host competing late night programs and local stations across Hall's national syndication structure were "picked off" by their respective network and forced to realign with other programming. Various financial incentives to local stations helped them drop Hall's program and switch to other programming The goal was to steadily reduce the size of Hall's syndication network, thereby reducing its national reach, audience and demographic numbers, and eventually, making it infeasible to produce and distribute. Carson left the air in 1992. By 1994, Hall's syndication structure of stations had been dwindled to a fraction of its original size. This, along with an explosion of new network competitors one after the other, forced ratings down and production to halt.
This is how Arsenio Hall's show ended...it wasn't the unpopularity of his music or programming; it was an orchestrated demise to get him out and get someone else in who didn't look like him.
You do realized that clowns like you have said that American culture has "went into the toilet" every generation of America's existence? Go back and read newspapers from the 1800's... or the hedonism, drugs, alcohol, and Mob crime of the Roaring 1920's....or the wild swing dancing of bobbysoxers and their mates of the Big Band Era....or Elvis Presley's censored sexual hip and pelvis gyrations and his "degenerate" rock and roll music....or the "Beat Generation" of poets, hippies, and dropouts who took to the Road.
There seems to be a disagreement every generation on exactly when America went into the toilet. Some could creditably claim it happened when you and your like-minded buddies and family members voted into office the only President who had six kids by three different women; who bragged on multiple radio programs about his numerous adulterous affairs and enjoyment in randomly grabbing women's pussies, and had demonstrated a lifetime of self-service instead of public service. To prove how bright you are, you are undoubtedly poised to return this serial liar, Porn Star adulterer, court-proven multi-year business tax cheat, twice impeached un-American sociopath to office so he can lean on these personality traits to "pull America out of the toilet," right? lol. Happy trails, Mack.
@@waldolydecker8118 Can I get a side of dressing with that word salad?
@@b.deville3236 - anything to help enlighten a hapless ignoramus.