Here's an interesting moment from TV history. On May 23, 1991, NBC had one of their annual "up fronts" at Carnegie Hall in New York. Owners and representatives of almost all the NBC affiliates — and a lot of folks who did serious business with NBC — were present for a day-long show/convention to present and discuss the future of NBC. Stars of their current and pending shows appeared and then, near the end, Warren Littlefield — the guy then running the show and the network — introduced a surprise guest. It was Johnny Carson, who for three decades had been making NBC tons o' cash as the host of The Tonight Show.
As it turned out, Littlefield's surprise guest had a huge surprise for Littlefield. In his speech to everyone important at NBC at the moment, Johnny casually dropped the announcement that he was retiring at the end of his current deal. In hindsight, many of those present said, "We should have known" but no one did. The ones who sensed that Carson was nearing that moment did not dream that that was how they'd find out. Johnny's deal with NBC was structured so that when he did decide it was time to go, he'd still have another year (at least) on the air. They'd thought he'd tell them in private, then some sort of joint announcement would be made.
But that ain't how Johnny wanted to do it. He was going to announce it himself in a way that made it clear he, not NBC, was deciding it was time to step down. A lot of those at NBC weren't unhappy that Carson was going to go. His ratings weren't what they had been and his demographics were skewing older and older. It was easy to think that someone younger and a lot cheaper could do better in that job. Some of them were happy that it hadn't come down to the network having to ease Mr. Carson out the door. They just didn't like how and where he announced it.
Over at Rockefeller Center, David Letterman was taping his 12:35 show which followed Johnny's. He knew Johnny was in town and would, time permitting, be dropping by for a surprise appearance in the show they were taping but that wasn't definite. The second guest, Jim Carrey then a star of the Fox series, In Living Color, might get on or he might be bumped. It depended on whether Johnny could get away from the affiliates gathering in time. During a commercial break though, Dave got the word: Johnny was en route to their studio, right on schedule. Dave was also told what Carson had announced from the stage at Carnegie Hall.
This is the segment that resulted. You'll see Dave start to introduce Jim Carrey, knowing full well a guy with the same initials is about to enter and Carrey isn't getting on. The camera even cuts to the door Johnny will be coming through just before he enters and Paul Shaffer is all primed to play Carson's theme song. It's a good piece of TV history with two men, obviously fond of each other, just chatting. Dave is prepared to ask Johnny a question about his time doing The Tonight Show in New York but most of it is pretty spontaneous.
And Johnny casually drops the info that he's heading into his last year on that show, not making a big deal out of it.
I found out about it shortly after the taping when a friend of mine on Carson's staff, Rick Scheckman, called and told me to watch and record the show that night. I would have anyway because the news was all over TV news programs before Letterman's show aired. You could kind of feel the generations shift and The Late Night Wars commence…