Another full episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, this one from 11/13/79. Well, they're almost full: There are some music edits in these, no doubt due to the understandable wishes of Carson Productions not to pay high usage fees for certain tunes. There's a glaring edit in this one when comedian Pete Barbutti makes his entrance but do watch his spot. I know Pete and he's one of the funniest humans I've ever been around. I wish someone would do the kind of talk show where they could just have him on for an hour and let him tell some of the anecdotes he told me when we were hanging out in Vegas.
This episode also features the first appearance with Johnny by Arnold Schwarzenegger. I believe Arnold's first time on the Tonight Show was with Guest Host McLean Stevenson and it was so early in Arnold's career that they were able to get him to take his shirt off and flex for the camera. McLean interviewed him for a while with shirt on, then sent him backstage to remove it. Then McLean did something I can't imagine would ever be done by any human being who in the last decade or so has had the job description of Talk Show Host. Mr. Stevenson took his own shirt off to demonstrate what a "normal" male physique looked like. Then on came Arnold, stripped to the waist, and the two of them did side-by-side muscleman posing. It was kind of a forerunner to that Saturday Night Live sketch where Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze played Chippendale dancers auditioning except McLean was bony, not flabby. He was very funny that night with Arnold and I'll bet it was his idea. How fast would a writer have gotten himself fired if he'd suggested it to any other host?
Anyway: Heeeeere's, as Mr. McMahon used to say, Johnny…
