Dick Cavett recalls what it was like to have to write jokes for the late Art Linkletter back when Art hosted The Tonight Show.
Just to be historical: There was a six-month gap between the last Jack Paar Tonight and Johnny Carson's first. Paar exited on March 29, 1962 and Carson started on October 1. This was not, as Cavett theorizes, because Johnny didn't want to follow Paar immediately, though that may have been fortunate. Carson had several months left on a current contract to host the afternoon game show called Who Do You Trust, spelled with no question mark. Johnny asked for his early release and reportedly, ABC was willing to grant this in exchange for some unknown quid pro quo they wanted from NBC. But the producer of the game show, Don Fedderson, was not. He reasoned that the departure of Johnny would hasten the demise of series…so why let him out?
Since Fedderson refused, Carson did Who Do You Trust for the balance of his contract, sprinkling the broadcasts with occasional jokes about performing under duress or being held hostage. NBC filled Paar's old slot with a rotating array of guest hosts, the first of whom was Art Linkletter. If you want to harp on technicalities, this made Art Linkletter the first host of The Tonight Show.
The series Steve Allen hosted in that time slot was called simply Tonight. He occasionally referred to it as "The Tonight Show" but that was an informal reference. Allen was followed by a short-lived series called Tonight: America After Dark. When that flopped, they brought in Paar and again, the show was called Tonight. They seem to have changed it at some point to Jack Paar Tonight, and then for a year or more, they just called it The Jack Paar Show. Around the time it became official that Paar was soon to depart, they quietly changed it back to Jack Paar Tonight…and then when the guest hosts started, it was The Tonight Show, commencing with Mr. Linkletter.
Eventually, Carson's contract ran out and he took over The Tonight Show. That worked.
His replacement on Who Do You Trust, by the way, was Woody Woodbury, who I wrote about here the other day. Mr. Woodbury kept the ship afloat for a little while. Carson's last episode was September 7, 1962 and with Woody Woodbury at the helm, the show stuck around until December 27, 1963 — not an especially swift demise but Fedderson was probably right that the show needed Johnny.
Somewhere here, I have a scan of a ticket from the Woodbury version of Who Do You Trust but I can't seem to find it. I did come across this — a ticket from Woodbury's talk show of the late sixties. I remember the show as a light, fun affair that its syndicators offered to stations for any conceivable time slot. Some ran it in the morning, some in the afternoon, some in prime time and some in late night. I think its Los Angeles station had it in several dayparts.
