King of Late Night Television Icon Johnny Carson

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Arsenio Hall on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, 1988.

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First appearance of Lynda Carter on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, on November 11th, 1975, right after The New, Original Wonder Woman premiered.

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Drunken Belligerence

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Elton John and Bernie Taupin pose for a portraits for the album sleeve of Elton’s album Caribou in 1974.

Photos by Ed Caraeff

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Johnny Carson with his first wife, Joan (Jody) Wolcott Carson, at a Labor Day barbecue at their home in Los Angeles, 1956.

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Johnny Carson cracks up David Letterman during an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman in 1985.  Carson had grown close to the younger host and Letterman frequently called Johnny his mentor.  When Carson decided to retire from The Tonight Show, he made it clear to NBC he wanted Letterman to replace him.  However, the network decided to go with Jay Leno instead and Letterman went to CBS to start The Late Show.

After Carson’s death in 2005 it was revealed that in his retirement he had made a habit of sending jokes to Letterman via fax which would get incorporated into Dave’s monologues, which Johnny enjoyed immensely.

David Letterman ended up breaking Carson’s record of broadcast episodes with 6,080 shows, retiring as the longest-serving late night talk show host in television history.

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Victor Buono on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson in 1973, chatting about England and some other things like lonely Huns. That’s also where this clip is from (x).

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Lucille Ball, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, 1974.

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Goldie Hawn at The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, 1969

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DuringMASH! McLean Stevenson talks about his body on Johnny Carson, 1973.

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Johnny Carson’s Hormones. 1956.

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Jim Henson and Kermit on Johnny Carson, 1974.

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Bernadette Peters during an interview with guest host Steve Martin on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, 1977.

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Frank, Sammy, and Dean getting handsy while singing Birth of the Blues

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Bernadette Peters cracking up on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1991)

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Sammy, Dean, Frank and Johnny at the Frank sinatra spectacular 1965 in St. Louis performing “the birth of the blues” . Special thanks to Dean’s and Sammy’s hands in the second gif