The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1975)

[HarryCarter]

Lucy on The Tonight Show promoting Three for Two. 
 

 

[Freddie2]

Lucy seems pretty relaxed here- at least very genuine. And isn’t everything Johnny said in his introduction so true? There are bits and pieces here that seem a lot like how Gary described Lucy in her personal life.

[RodMcK1]

I wonder why no clip from the special was shown.

[Luvsbway]

Loved this. Johnny commenting on her laugh I just love.

Not smoking for 7 weeks. Hope Gary had a lot of golf dates then, that couldn't have been a picnic to live with.

Lucy has this thing on talk shows about asking every host about their sex life. She did it to Dinah Shore too. 

The section about Lucy not wanting to live long got brought up after this interview.

 “It put the whole family and half the country in an uproar. I got a lot of letters and wires. I should stop saying it, I guess. Naturally I know what I have to be grateful for. I don’t know. I suppose it’s the loss of so many people around me that were with me. And the changing of what I liked. The children growing up. Nothing that I want to do particularly. I don’t say I’m without ambition or plans-at the moment I have a lot going, more than I can handle. But…I don’t know. They sent me right after that show to a doctor-because the doctor was incensed, he called. I said I’m all right, I’m sorry, I apologize. I should be grateful. But I really mean it. My mother’s 84 and she’s happy as a bug. My family’s all right, my brother’s all right and all his kids, everything’s okay. If I had a lot I guess I wouldn’t feel like that. But everything’s okay. What do I need 20 more years for? It came to me in my subconscious. I’m not unhappy. I’m embarrassed that I’ve got things so good. I don’t know. I’ve got my house in order.”  

 

[HarryCarter]

Lucy was later asked in a Joan Rivers interview how long she would like to live. She didn’t give a number, but she said that now that she had grandchildren, she stretched it. It’s interesting that five years and one week after this interview, where she said she only wanted to live five years, her first grandchild was born. 

[Luvsbway]

2 hours ago, HarryCarter said:

Lucy was later asked in a Joan Rivers interview how long she would like to live. She didn’t give a number, but she said that now that she had grandchildren, she stretched it. It’s interesting that five years and one week after this interview, where she said she only wanted to live five years, her first grandchild was born. 

In another Carson after this death came up again, she kidded Johnny about being to a funeral that week. If I recall correctly she just knew she didn't want to be around 10 years or more from that time. 

[JoeySanJoaquin]

Thanks for this, can't believe I've never seen it before! One of my (now) favorite Lucy interviews, particularly with Carson, whom along with Merv Griffin, always flattered her. 

So enjoyable. Loved the "may I leave early?" at the end (like that's not pre-planned!).  So many great moments in this 20-plus minutes.

Wundaful!

[Neil]

I do remember seeing this---and NOT liking the "5 more years" quote.  Lucy is so deadpan that I always thought she was dour and sour.  (And she was ALWAYS picking at herself...adjusting some article of clothing.  There was that one time she took out her compact and worked on her makeup.  I think that was a Merv).  Now I realize she was trying to be funny, albeit DRYLY.   Her hair: closer to blonde than red.  Johnny's got an odd comb-over--to cover up his receding hairline.   This is 6 years after "Lucy and Johnny Carson".  He went gray fast.  Bittersweet reference to belly-whopping 83-year-old Dede who would die at 84.   I think "3 for 2" did quite well in the ratings.  It was a disappointment, one of Lucy's experimental forays into "dramady"  that was a bit too dull for what was expected of the only teaming of two of TV's greatest comedy stars.  (not counting Jackie's "Jack Benny/Palm Springs" cameo).  Seeing the DVD after all these years: it's not bad.  Just unmemorable.   I lost the VHS copy I had of "3for2".  In that version, Gary had a LAUGH TRACK added.   It was meant for foreign distribution, I think.   In this Tonight Show, you can hear Gary's high-pitched loud cackle-laugh coming from the wings.  At least he didn't walk on and join in like he did so many other times.  IMO: an unwelcome addition.   It would interesting to speculate just where lounge comic Gary Morton would have been in 1976 had he not married Lucy.   I don't know of any equivalents: a stand up comic from the 1950s who worked steadily then, to hear him tell it anyway, but in relative obscurity as far as the national audience was concerned.  Someday someone is going to dig up the facts and write The Gary Morton Story, pre-1961.  There's something mysterious about his past.  Annulled marriage and all.  

[Luvsbway]

10 minutes ago, Neil said:

I  It would interesting to speculate just where lounge comic Gary Morton would have been in 1976 had he not married Lucy.   I don't know of any equivalents: a stand up comic from the 1950s who worked steadily then, to hear him tell it anyway, but in relative obscurity as far as the national audience was concerned.  Someday someone is going to dig up the facts and write The Gary Morton Story, pre-1961.  There's something mysterious about his past.  Annulled marriage and all.  

I want to know so much more about why that marriage was annulled. I've found that the marriage seemed to run it's course in a year. 

As a fan of the Marvelous Mrs Maisel I've noticed some tie-ins to Gary and the comic circuit depicted on that show. Second season they were in the Catskills. And this season they were at the FlountainBlu in Miami. Two places that we know Gary played in 1959/19650, right when the show is set. Too bad Madge didn't run into a Gary coming off stage from his opening act for someone else. 

I think the National Comedy Center should do an exhibit on the comics of the Catskills. I wonder how much Gary stuff they have in the archives. 

[Will]

Lucy is better here than other Carson interviews and appears to be having fun.   However,  I think her best interviewer was Dinah Shore.  Her hair is blonde here maybe it's the film

[Neil]

Re: Lucy's question "How long have you been on?".   One piece of trivia neither Lucy or Carson were probably aware of:  Johnny took over the Tonight Show and "The Lucy Show" premiered on the same night Oct. 1, 1962.