Clip: The Tonight Show Starring Jerry Lewis

[hubcity]

Echoing Mark Evanier's blog post about this, I'm also amazed this even exists. In that post, Evanier explains the context of this clip from Jerry Lewis' short stint hosting The Tonight Show.

For my part, I see that Hugh Downs continued in his announcer role, held over from his time with Jack Paar, and he appears tolerant (barely?) of the shenanigans Jerry Lewis and Jack Carson get on with.

So much for context; if you want to just dive right in, here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nwgPJMVdDs

 

[wbhist]

As Bart Andrews and Brad Dunning noted in their 1980 book The Worst TV Shows Ever, it was his guest hosting on The Tonight Show in-between Jack Paar's departure and Johnny Carson's arrival that led to a chain of events that culminated in Lewis' ultimately ill-fated 2-hour Saturday night talk/variety show on ABC that lasted all of three months in 1963 (and the theatre where it was based subsequently becoming the home of the 1964-70 Hollywood Palace).

(Oh, and B.T.W., per Evanier's speculation, the Andrews/Dunning book also fingered producer Don Fedderson as the reason why Carson was still tied to Who Do You Trust? during the period of this clip.)

 

[hubcity]

For a while, the entire first episode of the ABC's "The Jerry Lewis Show" was up on YouTube.

Boy...what a mess.

 

[Ultimajock]

As Bart Andrews and Brad Dunning noted in their 1980 book The Worst TV Shows Ever, it was his guest hosting on The Tonight Show in-between Jack Paar's departure and Johnny Carson's arrival that led to a chain of events that culminated in Lewis' ultimately ill-fated 2-hour Saturday night talk/variety show on ABC that lasted all of three months in 1963 (and the theatre where it was based subsequently becoming the home of the 1964-70 Hollywood Palace).

...in addition to that, it was during the Tonight Show pinch hit in '62 that Lewis first encountered Dick Cavett, then a writer and guest booker for the show from the Paar days; when The Jerry Lewis Show cranked up, Lewis convinced Cavett to come out to Hollywood from New York and work for him...

 

[cspotrun]

Jerry lewis can be a Train wreck, and doing a talk show just wasn't his thing. but, did you know, between Paar & Carson, Merv Griffin also filled in, and was so well recieved and comfortable behind the desk, NBC nearly picked him over Carson. from what i've read, carson's first few weeks hosting didn't go well, he was very nervous and nearly backed out of the whole deal because of it.

 

[Legend City]

Wow...I really don't like Jerry and really really don't like Jack Carter.

Trainwreck....

 

[Ultimajock]

Jerry lewis can be a Train wreck, and doing a talk show just wasn't his thing. but, did you know, between Paar & Carson, Merv Griffin also filled in, and was so well recieved and comfortable behind the desk, NBC nearly picked him over Carson. from what i've read, carson's first few weeks hosting didn't go well, he was very nervous and nearly backed out of the whole deal because of it.

...another of the interim hosts had been Bill Cullen. Anyone who'd seen Cullen's work on I've Got a Secret might think his conversational style of questioning there would translate well to The Tonight Show, but it turned out that Cullen himself didn't feel comfortable behind that desk, so he never tried to do another celebrity chat show after that...

 

[dhett]

Manic comics and talk shows are a bad mix. As I was watching the clip, I was thinking that that's exactly how things would have gone had Robin Williams tried to host a talk show in his younger days. Today, I think Williams would be calm enough to be an effective host. Obviously, Jerry Lewis calmed down, as he did a good job over the years with his telethon.

 

[cspotrun]

oddly enough, Don Rickels guest hosted The Tonight Show during the Carson era and did rather well. just thinking back, most all of the people who tried hosting a talk show against carson ended up guest hosting, joey bishop, merv, cavett, i think even steve allen came back for awhile, maybe you can think of others. johnny had alot of time off, i think during the last 10-15 yrs he worked only 3 days a week.

 

[onairb]

Steve Allen was apparently 'banned' from the 'Tonight Show' around 1980, after an offhand remark in a newspaper interview that ran the day after he guest-hosted. Allen was asked how the show had changed since his era, and, while making the basic point that things weren't radically different, he said that 'a trained chimpanzee' could host the show, and the ratings would still be high.
Allen did appear on the show as a guest later in the '80s, along with Jack Paar, but was never asked to host again.

 

[bpatrick]

I think the critics were amazed that Jerry could carry on an
intelligent conversation at all, and that ABC, badly in need
of some big-name firepower, took it seriously and signed Jerry
to that Saturday-night two-hour thing that, even after almost
50 years, still lives on as a textbook example of how not to do
a television show.

Dick Cavett, IIRC, wrote a monologue on spec and took it straight
to Jack Paar, who was impressed and gave him a job. Cavett did
write for "The Jerry Lewis Show" and recalls that every time he tried
to point out where the show needed fixing, somebody would tell him,
in effect, to--in his words--sharpen some pencils and stay out of the
direct sunlight.

Bill Cullen did make one other appearance as a talk-show host: a week
on "ABC's Nightlife," the show which replaced Les Crane (remember him?)
and which Crane eventually returned to host just before it was cancelled
in the fall of 1965. Game-show hosts don't necessarily make the best
talk-show hosts for some reason, given that both require a certain amount
of ad-libbing ability. Johnny and Merv, of course, came out of games, and
Paar emceed a couple; on the other hand, Allen Ludden and Tom Kennedy were also unsuccessful
talk-show hosts. One game-show host I do think could have made it as a talk-show
host was George DeWitt, host of the original "Name That Tune." I've seen at least
one of those shows on YouTube and his rapport with the contestants was incredible.
When Jim Aubrey put him on the shelf, so to speak, having him host pilots Aubrey had
no intention of putting on the air, DeWitt should have gotten himself a good lawyer and
gotten out of his contract with CBS, then made himself available to ABC, NBC, or a
syndicator such as Group W or Metromedia.

Gil Fates, in his book on "What's My Line?", frequently digresses into "I've Got A Secret"
and says that Steve Allen was never as good as Garry Moore as host of that show, that
Steve's stream-of-consciousness brand of humor did not mix with a show with rules and
a set format. Henry Morgan always thought that Steve was trying to upstage the
panel, rather than let the panel and contestants have the spotlight as Garry always did;
Betsy Palmer has said she agrees about that.

 

[F.M.Hertz]

As much as I liked Steve Allen, I think he seemed to talk over a lot of people, and at times became a little pompous. Granted, he practically invented the talk show format, but yes, the stream of consciousness stuff doesn't work to well in late night. Allen wouldn't be afraid to take on the Mafia or devote an entire show to the poetry of Carl Sandburg's when he hosted "Tonight." Back then it was groundbreaking, but Carson realized that people tuning in at 11:30 just wanted to be entertained. In a sense, "why have all these things to think about before going to bed?"

It is interesting to point out that Carson wanted to develop a talk show in the early 80s to replace Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow." His producers contacted Allen who while on vacation, immediately flew back to L.A. for meetings with them. After a week or so, the hour with Allen was nixed by Carson Productions. They decided to develop a show for a weatherman/comedican from Indiana by the name of Letterman.

...and now you know the .........rrrrrrrest of the story.

 

[bpatrick]

Nor did Johnny ever get into the flights of controversy
still associated with Paar, such as the time Paar walked
off "The Tonight Show" because the censors bleeped a
tame (by today's standards) joke about a water closet,
or his "feud" with Ed Sullivan over performers' fees.

I think the most telling statement Johnny ever made about
his role as a host was something he said about not taking
political stands. He once told TV Guide that he was in a
position to make his opinions heard, but he didn't voice them
on the air; "if I did," he said, "I'd lose half my audience."

 

[Stanislav]

Surprised no one has mentioned the irony of Lewis a couple of decades later playing an obviously Carsonesque talk show host in "The King of Comedy." (One of my fave flicks, and undeservedly underrated.)

 

[Mark Giardina]

The problem with Jerry Lewis is that he believed his own press clippings.

Granted from the time he first teamed with Dean Martin and then from 1957-1965, Lewis was dubbed a comedic genius and did come up with some funny and innovated movies. However going from movies to a weekly TV talk program is a whole different ballgame.

Having viewed clips of Lewis' ill-fated talk show on You Tube I can understand why the viewing audience grew tired of him very quickly. It was interesting to read how then writer of the show Dick Cavett tried to offer helpful suggestions, only to be told to get lost. I guess when one works for a living legend, one does not offer suggestions.

Meanwhile Dean Martin, the person almost everyone in Hollywood thought would disappear into oblivion following the Martin/Lewis split, proved to be the real talent of the duo. He could sing, star in movies, and had one of the highest rated variety shows on television for many years.

I've read a couple of books and seen Jerry Lewis' version about the break-up of the Martin/Lewis team. Personally I tend to believe Arthur Marx's book, which claimed that Martin was fed up with Lewis garnering all the publicity while he, Martin, was treated as a second-class citizen. Martin was especially upset that Lewis cast him in the role of a policeman, with a uniform, in a movie. That is when Dean reportedly had enough and bid the team farewell.

 

[Ultimajock]

The problem with Jerry Lewis is that he believed his own press clippings.

...Larry King claims to have asked Jackie Gleason what caused the change in Lewis' career. Gleason's short response: "Simple. He found taste"...

 

[bpatrick]

Dean was really the creative half of the team; it's just that Jerry
could do the things Dean came up with, garnered the critical praise,
and left Dean feeling understandably unappreciated.

While "The Nutty Professor" is my favorite of Jerry's comic roles,
"The King of Comedy," where he's absolutely straight, is my favorite
of all his roles--he's really not a bad serious actor when you come right
down to it. And does anyone remember the story arc he did on CBS's
"Wiseguy" in the 1980s? I remember my dad saying Jerry ought to give up
comedy and concentrate on straight acting.

Just a thought, but it's interesting how many comics can (or could) do
credible serious roles; think, besides Jerry, of Dean in "The Young Lions,"
Andy Griffith in "A Face In The Crowd," Dick Van Dyke in "The Morning After"
(where he went public with his battle with alcohol), Lucille Ball with "Stone
Pillow," and, of course, Gleason in "The Hustler," "Requiem For A Heavyweight,"
and "Gigot."

 

[Mark Giardina]

The problem with Jerry Lewis is that he believed his own press clippings.

...Larry King claims to have asked Jackie Gleason what caused the change in Lewis' career. Gleason's short response: "Simple. He found taste"...

When did Lewis find "taste?" The guy is in his mid 80s and is still doing some of the shame routines he did when he was a teenager.

With regards to Jackie Gleason: If it wasn't for The Honeymooners along with Art Carney, he never would have been the success he was in the early days of TV. Reggie Van Gleason was not amusing; neither was Joe the Bartender. However Carney's "Ed Norton" teamed up with Ralph Kramden was pure comedic genius.

I read there was a period of time where Gleason and Carney's friendship was strained because Carney went on to achieve success after The Honeymooners.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Dean was really the creative half of the team; it's just that Jerry
could do the things Dean came up with, garnered the critical praise,
and left Dean feeling understandably unappreciated.

While "The Nutty Professor" is my favorite of Jerry's comic roles,
"The King of Comedy," where he's absolutely straight, is my favorite
of all his roles--he's really not a bad serious actor when you come right
down to it. And does anyone remember the story arc he did on CBS's
"Wiseguy" in the 1980s? I remember my dad saying Jerry ought to give up
comedy and concentrate on straight acting.

Just a thought, but it's interesting how many comics can (or could) do
credible serious roles; think, besides Jerry, of Dean in "The Young Lions,"
Andy Griffith in "A Face In The Crowd," Dick Van Dyke in "The Morning After"
(where he went public with his battle with alcohol), Lucille Ball with "Stone
Pillow," and, of course, Gleason in "The Hustler," "Requiem For A Heavyweight,"
and "Gigot."

Jerry also proved his talent for drama when he guest starred on Ben Casey back in the early 1960s.

Don't get me wrong, the man had talent. However I think, like many in Hollywood, Jerry's ego overtook his artistic abilities. Plus it doesn't help when an entertainer is surrounded by people always praising their abilities and refusing to be critical for fear of losing their jobs.

These "parasites" that hang on to entertainers just for a paycheck are the lowest of scum.

 

[bpatrick]

The problem with Jerry Lewis is that he believed his own press clippings.

...Larry King claims to have asked Jackie Gleason what caused the change in Lewis' career. Gleason's short response: "Simple. He found taste"...

When did Lewis find "taste?" The guy is in his mid 80s and is still doing some of the shame routines he did when he was a teenager.

With regards to Jackie Gleason: If it wasn't for The Honeymooners along with Art Carney, he never would have been the success he was in the early days of TV. Reggie Van Gleason was not amusing; neither was Joe the Bartender. However Carney's "Ed Norton" teamed up with Ralph Kramden was pure comedic genius.

I read there was a period of time where Gleason and Carney's friendship was strained because Carney went on to achieve success after The Honeymooners.

For me, anyway, what made the Joe the Bartender skits work was Frank Fontaine as Crazy Guggenheim, and when I was a kid I always looked forward to Saturday nights to see him. Art Carney deserved the reputation he got as both a comic and dramatic actor; he was also one of the best-liked people in show business by all accounts (I've even read that he refused to display the awards he won over the years). Gleason, like Jerry, was not devoid of ego, and it's understandable if Gleason resented Carney's ability to get out from under his large (in more ways than one) shadow.

Back to Jerry: I wonder how he felt about Dean's nine-year run on NBC, or the popularity of the Dean Martin Roasts afterwards, when Jerry lasted thirteen weeks on ABC and two years (1967-69) on NBC.