Here's a question I've received a few times over the years. Dave Mackey was one of several folks who wrote to ask about an aspect of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show…
Was thinking tonight about the old Tonight Show and the comedy troupe known as The Mighty Carson Art Players came to light. And then I start searching around for who these people were, and come up pretty dry.
Here's what I know: From their involvement with the Tea Time Movie sketches, both Carol Wayne and Teresa Ganzel were members. There was also an actor named Fred Holliday who was part of the troupe; he hosted an ABC daytime show called The Girl In My Life (sort of a 70's rehash of Queen For a Day, with just as much schmaltz), and a few commercials for some auto parts company (maybe AC/Delco) with character actor Norm Alden. But who were the others?
The answer is basically that there was no actual troupe of people called The Mighty Carson Art Players. It was a way of billboarding at the top of the show that Johnny was doing a sketch later during the proceedings. The actors they hired to be in said sketch were the actors they hired for that sketch. There was no roster from which they were drawn. That said, there were performers who were used over and over like the ones you mention.
When Johnny's show as based in New York, they drew from the local talent pool there and after he moved the show to Burbank in 1972, they used actors from out here. The two Matinee Ladies you mention were probably on more than anyone else and I would guess the most frequent male player was Peter Leeds. But I don't know of any way to formally figure this out.
Originally, the Matinee Ladies in the Tea Time Movie Sketch were whatever good-looking lady was otherwise booked as a guest on that night's show. I remember Paula Prentiss doing it a number of times. At some point, Carol Wayne did it and Johnny and his writers seized on the comedy potential from a lady who had prominent breasts and an odd, clueless way of delivering whatever lines she was given. So Carol did it regularly until her death in 1985.
As I recall, once he thought enough time had passed, Johnny brought Art Fern back and did the sketch with a couple of different ladies before my pal Teresa Ganzel got the gig. I wrote about her back here but here's an excerpt for those of you too lazy to click…
Teresa had become a recurring occupant of Johnny's guest chair. She had first turned up there in 1983 when she was on to promote a situation comedy on which she was then a regular — Teachers Only, which not coincidentally was produced by Carson Productions. Johnny found her amusing and charming, and had her back several times. She fit the eye candy requirement but was smart-funny as opposed to stupid-funny.
Finally, around late '86, they tried her out as the Matinee Lady and not only kept her in that esteemed position but began using her in other sketches, including a very funny series where she and Johnny played salesfolks on a channel not unlike the Home Shopping Network and another batch where they played TV news co-anchors.
Someone wrote once to ask me why Johnny even bothered to do the Mighty Carson Art Players sketches. They were obviously a lot more work than just doing another segment chatting with some guest. Here is my understanding, gleaned from talking with several of Johnny's writers and also his long-time producer, Fred DeCordova…
Johnny grew up in an era when the highest achievement a TV comedian could reach was his own show in prime-time…like The Red Skelton Show (for which Johnny briefly wrote) or The Jack Benny Program. That was his goal and he got it in 1955. The Johnny Carson Show failed and after it was axed, Johnny became determined to get another shot at it and to not make the same mistakes. Everything he did thereafter career-wise was done with an eye towards getting another prime-time variety series.
When he took on the game show Who Do You Trust? on ABC, it was with the thought that succeeding there would improve his profile well enough to segue to a prime-time program on ABC. Then when he was offered The Tonight Show, he saw that as a better route to a better network's prime-time schedule. The idea was that he would do The Tonight Show for a few years and then tell NBC that he wanted to give it up for the series he really wanted to do. Towards that end, he insisted his Tonight Show regularly feature sketches with him playing characters.
That was how The Mighty Carson Art Players came to be. His predecessor Jack Paar never did sketches or played characters but this was Johnny's way of reminding all that he could do more than deliver a monologue and then sit behind a desk. He also at times insisted the Tonight Show promotions and the show's opening include clips not of him behind that desk but playing characters in sketches.
If I'd ever been able to interview Carson, one of the questions I would have asked him is "At what point did you realize that going from The Tonight Show to a prime-time variety hour would be a step down, not up, and a risky one?" I would guess it was some time after the move to California but I'm really not sure. I am though pretty sure that he came to that realization. He could do The Tonight Show for huge bucks and stardom for the rest of his performing career or he could risk it all on that prime-time dream and perhaps end that career in failure. Sometimes, following your longtime dream is not always your best alternative.
From that point on, the sketches were a part of the show just because they were a part of the show…and maybe because Johnny wanted to remind people that he was a comedian hosting a talk show and not someone like Merv Griffin or Mike Douglas who were talk show hosts, pure and simple. So the Mighty Carson Art Players weren't a troupe of comic actors. They were Johnny's way of reminding the world and maybe himself that he was capable of more than the monologue and interviewing the starlet of the week.
