Another whole Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson with guests Orson Bean, Robert Klein and Erma Bombeck. Most of the music cues have been chopped out, presumably because money would have to be paid to include them.
The episode is from November 17, 1977. Mr. Bean plugs the animated Hobbit TV special which aired ten days later and which featured his voice as Bilbo Baggins. Then around 40:16, Robert Klein comes out to do a monologue which doesn't go very well at first. Klein was one of the best stand-up comics of his day and I think he hasn't gotten his due for braving frontiers and also for inspiring an awful lot of later comedians. In his spot, Klein manages to salvage things and to close strong…
…and then what interests me is that Johnny keeps him on, chatting on the panel, for more than two full additional segments. They had singer Kelly Garrett there, ready to do a number and Johnny elected to bump her and talk more with Klein. I didn't think Klein was doing so well that it warranted it but Johnny obviously did…
