Word: comic
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Jack Paar, but since Carson took over in 1962, it has become brighter, smoother and more sophisticated. Carson's opening six-minute monologue is generally humorous, despite an unfortunate preoccupation with bathroom jokes. The rest of the bill is filled with two or three musical turns, a guest comic's bit or a mildly satirical skit, and-best of all-engaging conversations with guests who range in celebrity from Vice President Hubert Humphrey to people who are merely interesting-an Australian stowaway, a clearly spurious seer, a subway conductor turned poet...
Meanwhile, ABC signed Nightclub Comic Joey Bishop as host of a copycat show opposite Tonight, but Bishop is being clobbered in the ratings by nearly 3 to 1. The even newer syndicated Las Vegas Show with Bill Dana scarcely excites a quaver on the Nielsen meters. Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. has two talk-variety entries-Mike Douglas in 142 cities, Merv Griffin in 90. But Carson is considered so formidable that Griffin opposes him head-on in only one market, New York City, while Douglas is programmed nowhere after...
...running on 46 stations. David Susskind's discussion show hits 17 stations. William F. Buckley Jr., on 20 stations, commands one of the more intelligent talk shows. Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty is a regular chatterbox on local TV, joshing away with Pierre Salinger or George Jessel, and Comic Mort Sahl has found a Los Angeles TV soapbox from which to harangue an avid following with his prophecies of Armageddon...
...formulate the next question that you can say, 'I just murdered your sister, and am planning to rape your grandmother,' and they'd say, 'That's great, A1. Now . . . ' Moreover, Johnny does not step in to kill his guests' lines. Says Comic Woody Allen: "He appears to be most pleased when the guest scores. He feels no compulsion to top me." Adds Actor George Segal, another Tonight veteran: "Johnny always makes people look good." Carson describes that talent as "an affinity for editing and pacing"-putting together the right combination of guests, switching...
Hope does his best to get something risible visible, but halfway through he drowns in second banana oil. Winters' country-cozen dialect is familiar, and Phyllis Diller attacks her customary fright-wig role with the comic appeal of a black-widow spider putting away a fly. The kids are selfconscious, lending the film the aura of a mass-produced TV situation comedy. All that is missing is the commercials-and the energetic plugs for name-brand cereals and soaps more than compensate...