The Flip Wilson Show with guests Johnny Cash and June Carter (1971)

Wheel of Fortune with guests James Brown, Little Richard and Weird Al Yankovic

Is this really "classic" showbiz? Yeah, I guess it is. This seems sort of like a dream you might have. Not in the "dream come true" sense but more in the "I was teaching a sheep how to tap dance last night" kind of way. Notice how the board has the word ASS on it.

The Dick Cavett Show with guests Raquel Welch and Janis Joplin (1969) - Footage Offline - 10/14/08

An odd pairing on the panel of The Dick Cavett Show in 1970. This entire episode is available on the DVD collection The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons.

The Steve Allen Show with Don Knotts

Don Knotts plays his famous nervous man character on an episode of The Steve Allen Show.

The Joe Pyne Show (1965)

The Tonight Show: Polaroid Commercials with Jack Paar and Steve Allen - Footage Offline 11/07/07

Jack Paar is forced to struggle with awkward Polaroid Camera pieces in this sequence that aired on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar. Steve Allen then takes a turn or three at shilling the Polaroid Camera with surprising sincerity - and one episode seems to be broadcasting from the newest US state of Hawaii. If someone has unearthed parts of these shows, perhaps the rest of them still exist - although it is unlikely. At the end, Jack Paar comes back for a zany spot with Jerry Lewis taking shots at the beloved sponsor. Jerry Lewis would temporarily replace Jack Paar as host of The Tonight Show until Johnny Carson came on as the new boy for the first week of October the same year.

A reader adds the details: "There was a parade of guest hosts on The Tonight Show between Paar and Carson. Jerry Lewis was scheduled for one week during the summer. It proved to be so wildly successful, he was held over for a second week, bumping Hugh Downs. That was that. I saw them all. Jerry's Tonight Show stint led directly to his five-year contract for the two-hour weekly The Jerry Lewis Show on ABC, live Saturdays in prime time, starting fall 1963. That program, unfortunately, was a dismal failure and the five years were reduced to only 13 weeks."

Dick Cavett, a stay over from Jack Paar, remained a Tonight Show writer during those limbo months, and when Carson was named permanent Tonight Show host in October, Cavett went with Lewis to work on his new show.

Next Week ... on Get Smart! - Footage Offline - 3/26/08