The website selling Johnny Carson videos (www.johnnycarson.com) has added a database of guest appearances on The Tonight Show, which — if you're as big a fan of the show as I am — makes for fun browsing. From it, I learned that the Rod Hull/Richard Pryor encounter, which I discussed in this column, took place on 6/9/83. But there are a few caveats to using this wonderful trivia tool. One is that it only lists the episodes for which a videotape still exists in the Carson vaults. Ergo, almost nothing before 1970 is in it, and some since are absent. Also, it appears to be based on the available contract info in some cases — which means that bit players in sketches or pre-taped bits — are listed, but in others, only "billboarded" guests are itemized. Also, they've included a number of episodes which had guest hosts…but they don't mention the guest hosts.
One other thing: On the history page of the website, they refer to Ernie Kovacs as Steve Allen's "regular sidekick." That's really wrong. If anyone was Steve Allen's "regular sidekick," it was Gene Rayburn. Ernie Kovacs was Allen's frequent guest host…and eventually, Kovacs hosted the show regularly for two nights a week. If he was ever on with Steverino, it was only as a guest.