Mel Blanc and Jack Benny guest with Johnny Carson. I think the date on this is January 23, 1974 and it was one of Benny's last TV appearances. He passed away the day after Christmas of that year.
The thing that's most interesting about this clip is what an enormous fan Mr. Benny was of Mr. Blanc. Benny was apparently that way with everyone — a wonderful audience and utterly unthreatened by someone else getting the laughs or the spotlight. That was one of the reasons his radio and TV programs worked as well as they did: He was willing to let Dennis Day get the laugh or to let Don Wilson get the laugh or to let Rochester get the laugh, etc. As long as somebody got a laugh, Benny was fine with it.
There have been a lot of great comedians who wouldn't do that because they thought — wrongly — that their career hinged on them being the funny one. And not even the example of Jack Benny would dissuade them from that belief. There have also been some comedians who for emotional reasons couldn't stand still while someone else was funny.
But Jack Benny could and did…and no one was more successful. Click and see.
