March 28, 1985. Johnny Carson has on five members of the L.A.-based improv troupe, The Groundlings. I believe someone — I dunno who — told me this was an experiment. Mr. Carson and/or his staff were thinking it might attract some of the Saturday Night Live audience to his program if he had on a group like this on a regular basis. I guess he ultimately decided against it.
The Groundlings started in 1974 as sort of a local answer to the Second City group in Chicago. It soon evolved into a local fixture with shows and classes…and you can still attend either or both in their theater over on Melrose Avenue. The list of performers who passed through that group and went onto some amount of stardom includes Laraine Newman, Will Ferrell, Ana Gasteyer, Kathy Griffin, Lisa Kudrow, Julia Sweeney, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Pat Morita, Cheri Oteri, Chris Kattan, Edie McClurg, Chris Parnell, Tress MacNeille, Paul Reubens, Cassandra Peterson, Kristen Wiig and on and on and on.
This video features five then-current members: Jon Lovitz (doing the bit and character that would soon land him on SNL), Tim Stack, Mindy Sterling, Don Woodward and Kate Benton. I saw (and sometimes worked with) an awful lot of talented performers in that theater over the years. I would hate to have been the person who had to decide which five of the then-current troupe got to appear on The Tonight Show…