The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson - Commercial Break with Ed McMahon

It seems so long since Johnny, Ed, and Doc graced the airwaves that I'm sure many have forgotten that Ed McMahon used to perform the sponsor's ads right from the set. If Carson Productions has its way, you'll never know it, since they seem devoted to taking a hatchet to all the classic episodes and releasing them on DVD edited to bits. They should really take a look at the success SHOUT! Factory has had with their Dick Cavett and Tom Snyder sets that leave each episode at its full length, in the same format they originally aired, blemishes and all. Johnny Carson's estate has full control over all aspects of these shows with the exception of some musical rights so this shouldn't be a problem. Okay, enough ranting, here's Ed talking about Kellogg's.

You Bet Your Life with guest Lord Buckley (1956)

This was one of the first things I ever saw on YouTube and its still one of the greatest. Cult-icon Lord Buckley, the eccentric, aristocratic sounding, beatnik-jazz comedian appears as a contestant on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime match-up. Lord Buckley was such an underground figure during his day that he could appear as a game show contestant named Richard Buckley and nobody, spare Groucho, would recognize him as anybody of note. He does a good job at the game too and you just know he needed that prize money. From October 11, 1956. 



This footage is apparently from a show called Club 7, presumably a local New York program from the early fifties. The MC gives Buckley a condescending introduction, "a rather frequent guest here on Club 7 and only because you seem to like him so much..." 



Buckley smoked pot in public, wandered around nude at parties, and had a rivalry with Lenny Bruce vying for the title of "the jazz musician's favorite comedian." His most famous routine is his hippified scat telling of "The Nazz," as in the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Here's a short clip of that routine from a 1960 performance at The Gate of Horn, Chicago:

The New Price Is Right - Pitch Film

The Price is Right first debuted on television in 1956. It lasted until 1965 and had been very popular during its initial run. In 1972, Mark Goodson had a plan to bring a primetime version of the show to CBS to be titled The New Price is Right. In order to sell his idea, he put together this pitch film. Goodson succeeded and the show became what it is today. However, watching this film, I don't know how anybody could have been sold on it. Looks pretty fucking boring if you ask me.

$20,000 Pyramid with guest David Letterman

Keeping with the Letterman in the seventies theme, here's David on two separate episodes of Dick Clark's $20,000 Pyramid. Two segments from episodes in 1978 and 1979. On the first clip we see him once again with all-purpose celebrity game show contestant Joanne Worley. Check the comments section for helpful details courtesy a friendly reader.

Another clip from a different episode, notice David's striking resemblance to Quentin Tarantino:

The Riddlers with host David Letterman (1977)

As previously mentioned, after moving to Los Angeles and working on his stand-up act every night of the week, David Letterman's next big goal was to break into television. Most stand-up comedians will jump at the chance to do absolutely anything on television when they're first starting out and Letterman was no different. In 1977, while game shows like Let's Make a Deal, The Match Game, and Hollywood Squares were still drawing ratings as high as anything else in the television world - new game shows were constantly being churned out.

As we will see in this pilot episode for The Riddlers, the panel features many stock game show faces. Joanne Worley and Joyce Bulifant were appearing on things like this all the time. History has proven that Robert Urich has done nothing but appear on panels or occasionally host shows with names like "World's Greatest Magic Tricks" during sweeps. Michael McKean probably had the most street cred at the time due to his work on Laverne and Shirley. The opening music we hear is the same tune once heard on the National Lampoon comedy LP That's Not Funny! That's Sick! in which Bill Murray played a clueless game show contestant. This pilot was never turned into a series.

"...will be competing against these five dance instructors..." Bet you didn't see that coming!

The Gong Show - Mork and Mindy - The Jacksons - with guest David Letterman

Like any struggling or aspiring comedian in the nineteen seventies, David Letterman was taking any television gig he could get while appearing in the evenings as an unknown at The Comedy Store and other clubs out and around Hollywood.

It wasn't until one of the most influential comedy agents in the business, Jack Rollins, took him on as a client that things started happening. Letterman appeared on episodes of Mork and Mindy, The Gong Show, The Jacksons and several game shows. His appearance on Mary Tyler Moore's variety program Mary has been mocked on his talk show several times over the course of the last twenty years. He even competed on an edition of The Battle of The Network Stars! I haven't seen that footage so I'm not sure what event he participated in.

The most embarrassing program David appeared on was probably The Starland Vocal Band Show, a short lived variety program that revolved around the group who had the one-hit wonder, Afternoon Delight. Apparently Letterman was even a staff writer for that relic.

As a judge on a 1976 episode of The Gong Show:

David Letterman's hero was Steve Allen. Many of Letterman's most famous bits, not to mention the whole stylistic aspect of his show, are completely derivative of Steve Allen's work. So it must have been a huge thrill for Letterman when he appeared on this episode of Mork and Mindy alongside former Tonight Show with Steve Allen regular, Tom Poston.

Letterman on an episode of The Jackson Five comedy-variety program, The Jacksons. One of the few times you'll hear David playing to canned laughter:

Kraft Music Hall: The Woody Allen Comedy Show

This sought after special was part of the weekly Kraft Music Hall which by this point had changed its format drastically from the way it was during the infancy of television and in radio.

In the late sixties and early seventies the long running KMH had a different host each week (as opposed to a permanent Bing Crosby or Perry Como). Depending on who the host was the line-up and format of the show would change. The Woody Allen Comedy Special featured a strange array of guests cavorting with Woody Allen including The Fifth Dimension, Candace Bergen, Tony Randall, Jamie Farr, and as we will see in these two clips - an interview with the Reverend Billy Graham. You can download the entire special here for a price. Word has it that Allen has been embarassed about this special for several years, in particular his opening monologue at the start. I don't have footage of that part to post, but I've seen it before and, believe me, it is extremely funny - nothing to be embarassed about. Other one-time hosts of this incarnation of KMH included Milton Berle, John Davidson, Dolly Parton, Roy Rogers, Bobby Darin, and Rock Hudson.

Part Two: