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Johnny Carson was America’s ultimate late-night host.
The comedian’s most beloved gig was hosting “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” for 30 seasons from 1962 until his retirement in 1992.
His nephew, Jeff Sotzing, worked alongside his uncle, starting off as a receptionist in 1977, before becoming a producer on the show by ’92.
“I think he’d be flattered,” the television producer exclusively told The Post of how the late star would think of the current “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
“It has so many elements that the ‘Tonight Show’ that I worked on did not have because of the technology. It is this analog, so you can’t roll tape into the show. … It’s this very fast-paced [show]. I think he’d be fine with it. I think he’d be proud of it, actually. It’s a good franchise.”
Sotzing also touched on the biggest challenge he and Carson faced while producing the show.
“Oh, [John F.] Kennedy assassination. Ronald Reagan was shot,” he expressed. “It’s just all those things Johnny had to put up with and figure out and decide whether or not to do the show. When there’s tragedy in the United States, the show actually turned out to be a nice relief for people.”
Added Sotzing, “They wanted to go to bed happy and entertained, so that was kind of his deal. This is going to be fun, as I say, it’s not meant to press. And I think he worked on that all those years. Seven different presidents over 30 years.”
Over those 30 years, Carson had on a variety of guests, from Robin Williams and Jane Fonda to musical acts such as Ella Fitzgerald and Elton John. Many attribute their performances on “The Tonight Show” stage to starting their careers.
But much like any good host, Carson didn’t choose favorites.
“He doesn’t have a favorite guest, but he loved people who were prepared,” Sotzing revealed. “So Steve Martin and Bette Midler, even Tony Randall who would come on and just tell stories. Orson Bean. He liked people like that. Anybody who was prepared.”
During a sit-down event at the Hilton in Woodland Hills, the pilot ran through a typical day on “The Tonight Show” set — which started long before the on-air sign lit up at 5:30 pm.
“So every morning at 9 o’clock, there were a number of writers that would put together a monologue. There was four or five maybe at one time,” the Carson Entertainment Group President recounted to the crowd. “Then we put them in an envelope and we had to call a messenger, and a messenger would pick up the envelope with the monologues, and they’d drive it out to Johnny’s house in Malibu.”
Once delivered to the ocean side property, Carson would go over the monologues and “circle the ones that he wanted, put them in order, and bring them to the studio and give them to the cue card guy and they put them on cue cards.”
The job was far from over, as “then the bookers would come in and they would have a booking meeting from 10 to 11, and we would have a production meeting at 11 o’ clock to 12. We had a lunch hour and the rehearsal for either sketch or performers and band rehearsal and then we do the show at 5:30 and it was over at 6:30 or 7. It was amazing, just incredible.”
Living so far from the studio, which was located in Burbank, made for a rough commute — especially when Carson was known for his punctuality.
At one point Sotzing thought he found the perfect solution for his uncle.
“Towards the end of the show, he drove in from Malibu. It took him two hours to get there from Malibu and it was just a nightmare — heavy rainstorms. And I said to him, ‘You know, I bet you can get a helicopter to come to Malibu, pick you up like at the Sheriff’s station, and land at the NBC lot here and we could do that on a daily basis.’ And he said, ‘Could you check on that for me?’ And since I’m a pilot I said ‘Yeah, I’ll do that.’”
Sotzing then went to Van Nuys and found a helicopter rental company.
“I flew out to Malibu. I timed it, we flew back to NBC, it was great. A quick 15 minutes. A couple days later, he says to me, ‘Did you ever find out about that helicopter?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I did. It’s amazing. They pick you up at 2:15, you’re in the studio at 2:30. You finish the show at 7 o’clock, you’re home at 7:20.’ He goes, ‘That’s great! What’s that cost?’ I said, ‘It’s $300 each way.’ He went, ‘What?’ I said ‘it’s $300 each way.’ He says, ‘Jeff, who spends $600 a day to go to work? What kind of person does that?’”
Despite making $20 to 30 million a year, he wouldn’t budge.
Sotzing quipped, “So he didn’t do that, because that was just outrageous to him.” It’s unclear, however, if Carson did use a helicopter at times to travel for his job — which is still possible.
Although making the trek to work took some time, Carson truly loved his decades-long run. He was a man of the people — bringing on every day folk to showcase their talent, or, in some cases, their animals!
“Everybody relates to him,” Sotzing explained during the event. “People thought he was their best friend. They had no problem coming up to him and telling him how much they liked him and he just loved that. He thought that was just terrific.”
The iconic stage was home to not only Carson, but to his right hand man, Ed McMahon, and the studio’s live band “Doc Severinsen and the NBC Orchestra.”
“Ed McMahon was really a mainstay of the show,” Chuck Street, President of the Hollywood Media Professionals, and the event host said to Sotzing. “But also, your band leader, Doc Severinsen. He was a brilliant musician.”
“In the 60s, every network had to have a full orchestra out if you did a special like a ‘Dean Martin Roast’ or ‘The Carol Burnett Show,’ the NBC or the CBS or the ABC orchestra would back you up,” Sotzing explained.
“So when the show moved to California in ’72, NBC said we don’t want to pay these 18 guys every night to come and do the show. We could get a four piece band, like a rock band. That’ll be more contemporary.”
Carson, however, had a different idea.
“Johnny said, ‘No, no. I want a big band. I want a big band.’ And since he was in a position of power, he was able to keep that big band and he had it for 20 more years. If you talk to those guys, they’ll tell you how that was the greatest gig in the world!” Sotzing recalled. “They come in at 2 o’clock. They do rehearsal, they back people up, they’re done at 6 o’clock and they can do another gig. And they were all just incredible musicians.”
The final “Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” aired on May 22, 1992 with a whopping 60 million people tuning in to watch.
“It was incredible for me to go from watching my uncle start the show and then being with him when the show ended,” reflected Sotzing. “And they never had standing ovations. It’s kind of like a forced lay-down. It was kind of like nobody stands up. But the audience stood for the last month when he came out. And every day it was longer and longer and longer.”
Carson knew just how special that was.
“The overwhelming support for him and honor to him was just incredible,” shared Sotzing. “He said, after having a standing ovation of like five minutes on the next to last show, he said, ‘I can’t do this. How am I going to do this? It’s just too tough.’ It was unbelievable. It was wonderful, really wonderful. Then for him to do the last show, he said I’m just going to sit on a stool and tell people goodbye and then I’m going to leave.”