October 1, 1962-May 22, 1992.
Johnny Carson, host of NBC's network late-night "Tonight Show" reigned for 30 unprecedented years...five times the combined tenure of Steve Allen, and Jack Paar. Carson was impervious to competition, including efforts to dethrone him by Les Crane, Joey Bishop, Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett, Jack Paar, Pat Sajak, Joan Rivers, and Arsenio Hall. Sadly, very few complete "Tonight Show" broadcasts survive during Johnny Carson's first ten years of broadcasting. Around 1965, through the early 1970's, oldest tapes were first erased systematically by orders from myopic NBC executives, to be recycled for purposes of saving money. Ironically, in many cases, these older master tapes were too brittle, and portended probable drop-outs for re-use after being erased. Subsequently blank after being erased, these older questionable master 2" Quad tapes were either sparingly used or never used again for recording new programming and eventually were discarded. Saving thousands of dollars at the time (wiping master tapes for potential re-use) resulted in losing millions of dollars by NBC in today's marketplace, and more importantly wiping thousands of historic TONIGHT SHOW broadcasts, which contain precious personal anecdotes from political, show business, and sports icons of the past.
Johnny's guests are Zsa Zsa Gabor, Marlon Brando, Howard Duff, Ida Lupino, and Allan Sherman.
15-minute excerpt.
NOTE: Marlon Brando appears slightly inebriated and before long he irritates Ms. Gabor to the extent that she walks off the show.
This was Marlon Brando's first appearance on a late-night talk show. He was preceded on the panel by Zsa Zsa Gabor and when it was Brando's turn, Gabor continually interrupted his conversation with Johnny Carson. It looked like Brando might not get a word in beyond his opening remark, so Carson asked Gabor to leave the show, which she did.
On the May 11, 1968 episode of the Tonight Show, guest Marlon Brando reminisces with Johnny about the 1963 show and how he, without realizing it, drank way to much champagne prior to his guest appearance. He admits he was drunk and barley able to not trip on himself when introduced.
On the July 26, 1979, episode of the Tonight Show, Johnny tells a story about this night. After commenting that his and Ed's mugs contain only coffee and tea respectively (no alcohol.) He reminisces about when they were doing shows in California a few times a year, They had a courtesy bar set up for the guests. He says that Marlon Brando didn't come out till 20 minutes before the end of the program, and by then he had been imbibing champagne for over an hour. He laments that the episode was not on tape.
*Both of the above clips are included in this ATA#14098 air check, preceding the infamous May 15, 1963 broadcast moments. They both run a combined four minutes making this total air check 19 minutes long.
A brief clip from the May 15, 1963 Brando guest appearance is heard in the slightly under three hour biography documentary BRANDO (2007).
