Johnny Carson had made control look easy on TV. An eyebrow arched, a just right moment of silence and the studio was his once more. At the back-stage, that power went over to the guest-list. The book, Love, Johnny Carson by Mark Malkoff, explains how a whiskey list circulated served as an unofficial document, yet a hard-to-challenge backstage fact, although denied long time, that there was any official document called a banlist. As Malkoff writes, Carson at one time banned over thirty big-name guests, and sometimes the only way they could get back on the air was to have a guest host.
1. Jay Leno’s Set That Went Cold
Jay Leno is able to win a room, until he failed to do so. A follow-up appearance in 1977, after a successful initial appearance, received so few laughs that Carson allegedly called off the experiment. According to producer Peter Lassally, Johnny simply does not like him. He doesn’t like his jokes. Having lost his liking of someone, he does not begin to like him afterwards. Leno later would rejoin the orbit several years afterward but the early chill entered the folklore of late-night TV, particularly considering the career he would have.
2. Ellen DeGeneres and the Joke She Was Not Told to Do
In 1986, Ellen DeGeneres became the first female comedian to be invited to the couch of Carson. The welcome did not last. During a later visit, she presented the material which she was expressly instructed to avoid and she was reprimanded in the green-room, which became a freeze on bookings. Talent scout Jim McCawley said, referring to such material, publicist Charlie Barrett: I told you not to do that. You won’t be back soon again, told she said to Barrett.
3. Triple Rule Break by William Shatner
The stage that Carson was working on operated under unwritten rules, and William Shatner struck many of them simultaneously. In one of his appearances in 1983, Shatner talked at length without giving Carson any opportunity to drive the rhythm, turned his back to address Buddy Hackett, and mentioned that T.J. Hooker was on ABC, which was a competing network. Although the ABC mention mentioned may have been actually silenced on air, the violation still read like an inability to be fluent in the etiquette of the show-and Carson had a long memory about that sort of thing.
4. Corrections to On-Air by Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan was not a fringe player, he was a regular; he was a guest at least twenty times. However, in 1986 when he was talking about the Halley Comet he corrected Carson-three times. The grin remained; the invitation not. This tale works because it is so tiny and so human: a host used to being the guide on live TV, and a scientist devoted to precision, going at real time.
5. Impression That Stopped Feeling Like a Compliment by Dana Carvey
Carson was in a position to enjoy a good impression till it had a bite. The parody of Dana Carvey on The Saturday Night Live is reported to have left the boundaries of being out of touch and Carson was reported to step outside the box bristling at the lines he was read. According to producer Jeff Sotzing, Carson protested, I do not talk that way. I don’t use those expressions. Then Carvey was dealt with as a permanent no.
6. Orson Welles and the Unforgivable Magic Shortcut
Among the things that Carson loved about showmanship was an absolute line of honesty in the performance. Orson Welles, who Carson was in awe of, tried a bit in the style of a mentalist assisted by enthusiastic members of the audience. When the routine backfired, the crash was of less importance than the process. According to Malkoff, the use of audience plants by a magician was unpardonable, and this was the end of the relationship that Welles had with the couch.
7. Jerry Lewis and the Crew Line He Crossed
Towards the middle of the 1970s, Jerry Lewis had a long history with the show and had appeared over 80 times or guest-hosted. The downfall was achieved in a guest-hosting week when cue card man Don Schiff declined a last-minute request. Lewis allegedly started to verbally offend and the event went directly to Carson. Malkoff in his summary of Carson is straightforward: Carson did not practice bad manners.
8. Injury Joke-and Backstage Conduct by Steve Allen
Even royalty of the Tonight Show could be trimmed down. The original host of the franchise, Steve Allen, was eventually banned because he mocked the previous injury Carson had sustained, as well as becoming angry with employees over being rude in connection with the alterations requested by colleagues of his own. As Carson heard that the crew had gone round the blow the door was shut. The staff in this world was not here to be collateral.
9. Uri Geller, the Skepticism of Carson, and a Stunt that Worked
Carson was also a skilled amateur magician, and thus, intolerant of paranormal claims of power. In 1973, Uri Geller was invited to demonstrate such claims: employees did not allow Geller to touch the props in advance, and the notorious skeptic James Randi was engaged in it. Geller was unable to do it on-air and informed Carson, I do not feel strong. He confessed many years later, I was humiliated. I said to myself, Uri Geller, you are dead man!
10. The Cancellation of Barbara Streisand
Not all of the bans were performance related; some of the bans were related to what was perceived to be disrespect. Barbra Streisand is said to have canceled a planned appearance at the last moment in 1975, which was what Carson remembered as unprofessional. On a system where tight timing and a narrower control are the order of the day, a late cancellation was interpreted as a public power move-one which Carson had no interest in rewarding with another booking.
Collectively, the tales do not indicate an innkeeper who had sent away individuals due to being notorious, but the innkeeper who responded viciously to violated regulations, expressed and understood. The through-line is not scandal, but merely the usual: timing, manners, loyalty, and the demand that the machinery of the show shall be handled with respect. Carson’s couch looked casual. The access to it never was.
