I'm posting all kinds of cool footage from the old Tonight Show in one full swoop today, because if one waits too long, the Carson lawyers will have this stuff taken down. So enjoy it while it lasts. First up it's the biggest movie star in the world, a man who loves to chew gum, run moonshine and pose naked on bear skin rugs: Burt Reynolds. Burt Appears with Johnny on September 26th, 1974 to promote the Robert Aldrich picture The Longest Yard. Leather pants, whipped cream, Dom Deluise on panel ... this is a whole lotta fun.
From the same episode, Dom Deluise engages Johnny in some tom foolery with plenty of egg yolk. In reality, this part of the show occurs prior to Reynolds coming out ... but y'know ... I wanted to start with Reynolds. Is that okay with you?
Johnny's opening monologue from October 14th, 1982. The policeman gag has to do with his recent tabloid-style arrest for drinking and driving - this was his first appearance on television after the incident.
Jazz musician and stand-up comedian or stand-up comedian and jazz musician, Pete Barbutti appeared as a regular guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Barbutti is still around, performing and living in Las Vegas. He also had a weird Canadian cooking show for a while in the early eighties called Celebrity Microwaves (!). Despite that sad side project, he always had a real sharp, smarmy persona, one that constantly made fun of silly showbiz cliches (However, his website greets you with loud scary music more suited for a nineteen eighties corporate training video than for a jazz musican). This appearance is from March 12th, 1992 - it's what the specialthing.com kids of today would refer to as "alternative comedy" although there wasn't such a term in Barbutti's day.
And from an earlier Barbutti - Carson appearance (looks like the late seventies) it's Barbutti giving us some jazz with the comedy.
Burt Reynolds was one of the all-time great Carson guests. And as one of the biggest, if not the biggest, stars of that era, it's surprising he came on after Dom DeLouise. Anyway, great clip. I remember when that show aired. Or at least I thought I did. I see you say it aired in 1974. I would have been 12, so maybe I only remember it from Carson's anniversary shows later on.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, too, that the film clip of The Longest Yard was over two minutes long! It reminded me of when SCTV would satirize talk shows and the 'clip' would be practically the whole movie. And in Reynold's film clip, did you notice the sargeant from Hill Street Blues as well as Lurch from The Addams Family, as well as Jaws from Moonraker?
Good stuff.
PS It's "one fell swoop", not "one full swoop".