Johnny Carson: The Early Years…CBS, Part 2

In the rare clip below, we see what is thought to be Barbara Eden’s first television appearance with Johnny Carson and his guest Rudy Vallee on ‘The Johnny Carson Show’ from CBS Television City.

The show ran from June of 1955 till March of ’56 and was a half hour prime time television variety show starring Johnny Carson that aired on Thursday nights at 10 PM.

While working as a staff writer on The Red Skelton Show, local Los Angeles television comedian Johnny Carson filled in as host when Skelton was injured during a show rehearsal. As a result of Carson’s performance, CBS created the primetime variety program The Johnny Carson Show, a traditional potpourri of comedy, music, dance, skits and monologues.

The short-lived series served as a precursor of what would come later for Carson, planting the seeds for sketches he would perform on the later The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson such as “Mighty Carson Art Players”. However, the show flopped in the ratings and was quickly cancelled.

In a 1978 profile of Carson in The New Yorker, Kenneth Tynan described the Johnny Carson Show as “a half-hour program that goes through seven directors, eight writers, and thirty-nine weeks of worsening health before expiring, in the spring of 1956.” Carson wound up hosting a daytime game show called Who Do You Trust? (1957–62) until he was tapped by NBC to replace the departing Jack Paar as host of The Tonight Show in 1962.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5VpEjqX3Us

One of Barbara Eden’s first TV appearances, still credited as Barbara Huffman or Barbara Morehead. Please visit www.barbara-eden-online.com for more rare pho…

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