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Shows with favored/preferred guests

I

installLSC

Wayne and Shuster, the Canadian comedy team, are in America best known for having the most appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show. Then imagine my surprise when I looked up their IMDB page. Outside of Canadian television, they had barely any other guest appearances. So two questions:
--Specifically, why did Sullivan have such an interest in booking Wayne and Shuster and other shows have so little?
--Generally, what shows tended to favor specific guests far more than other shows in the same genre? And why?
 
This is a really interesting question. On one level, it might simply be that the host liked a particular guest, or that the show got consistently good ratings with that guest, or the guest was always a hit with the studio audience. If we focus on certain types of guests, there were some variety shows that, for instance, were a lot more rock and roll friendly than others. Dean Martin and Jackie Gleason in particular tended to shy away from rock acts, Gleason even more so. Also, back to the host liking guests, Johnny Carson had a lot of people back time and time again because he knew they would bring their A game and make his job easier. Think of Steve Martin, who had a fully developed "couch" segment ready every time he was on the show, like the bit where he read his post show notes from previous Tonight Show appearances (every one ended with "Johnny seemed flat.")
 
During his New York days, Carson was more limited with his guest list. One of the regular guests who benefited from the scarcity was comedian Corbett Monica, who even the guest hosted the show a few times. How many people remember him today?
 
installLSC said:
Wayne and Shuster, the Canadian comedy team, are in America best known for having the most appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show. Then imagine my surprise when I looked up their IMDB page. Outside of Canadian television, they had barely any other guest appearances. So two questions:
--Specifically, why did Sullivan have such an interest in booking Wayne and Shuster and other shows have so little?
--Generally, what shows tended to favor specific guests far more than other shows in the same genre? And why?
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Perhaps it was because they were funny. I remember their appearances on Sullivan when I was 8-10 years old. They were the first stand up comics or comic team that I recall liking.
 
Corky Marlowe said:
This is a really interesting question. On one level, it might simply be that the host liked a particular guest, or that the show got consistently good ratings with that guest, or the guest was always a hit with the studio audience. If we focus on certain types of guests, there were some variety shows that, for instance, were a lot more rock and roll friendly than others. Dean Martin and Jackie Gleason in particular tended to shy away from rock acts, Gleason even more so. Also, back to the host liking guests, Johnny Carson had a lot of people back time and time again because he knew they would bring their A game and make his job easier. Think of Steve Martin, who had a fully developed "couch" segment ready every time he was on the show, like the bit where he read his post show notes from previous Tonight Show appearances (every one ended with "Johnny seemed flat.")
Click to expand...

Gleason probably disliked RnR acts because he composed music which bordered on the Classical. I don't recall him ever bashing RnR music though - especially not the way Mitch Miller did.
 
Carson preferred bringing jazz artists on his show, with many lesser-known African-Americans artists probably getting their only national publicity.
 
BD Sullivan said:
Carson preferred bringing jazz artists on his show, with many lesser-known African-Americans artists probably getting their only national publicity.
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Joe Williams was one of his favorites, as was Buddy Rich. Johnny, especially late in his run, was pretty disdainful of rock and CHR pop. I remember Hall & Oates being on once, and he couldn't hide his almost Space Ghost-level of disinterest in them.
 
Corky Marlowe said:
Joe Williams was one of his favorites, as was Buddy Rich. Johnny, especially late in his run, was pretty disdainful of rock and CHR pop. I remember Hall & Oates being on once, and he couldn't hide his almost Space Ghost-level of disinterest in them.
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Yes! I immediately thought of Joe Williams (RIP). He was terrific, and he was on frequently, as you say.
 
Corky Marlowe said:
Joe Williams was one of his favorites, as was Buddy Rich. Johnny, especially late in his run, was pretty disdainful of rock and CHR pop. I remember Hall & Oates being on once, and he couldn't hide his almost Space Ghost-level of disinterest in them.
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What shocks me about about Johnny Carson is that he didn't like rock and CHR pop. That's why i liked Arsenio Hall better; he was a big fan of that kind of music. Jay Leno and David Letterman were the same way.
 
landtuna said:
Gleason probably disliked RnR acts because he composed music which bordered on the Classical. I don't recall him ever bashing RnR music though - especially not the way Mitch Miller did.[/QUOTE

Maybe but Gleason had one rock and roll star whom he liked...that was Elvis Presley !!! When he became available to do Stage Show ( with the Dorseys ) he not only was quick to sign him up but he even considered him a "Brando with a guitar !!". He liked Elvis.
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danderson6500 said:
What shocks me about about Johnny Carson is that he didn't like rock and CHR pop. That's why i liked Arsenio Hall better; he was a big fan of that kind of music. Jay Leno and David Letterman were the same way.
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Well considering Johnny was 30 when "Rock Around The Clock" came out, it's not surprising he wasn't very hip to the rock scene. There were quite a few rock acts on the "Tonight Show" on the 60s; the Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, Paul Revere and the Raiders. Unfortunately when a rock band called the Youngbloods had arguments with Johnny's production staff in 1969, Carson threw them off the show and then put out a "no rock acts" rule that lasted several years.
 
The Youngbloods incident took place in the early Fall of 1969 and sounds bizarre: they refused to do the show because the producers insisted on giving their appearance a psychedelic look. The band's leader, Jesse Young, was reportedly told, that doing it straight "wasn't in the rock group image," and after being told to just perform the songs, he used the always-popular two-word phrase that begins with F. Carson then aggravated the situation in explaining on the air why they weren't appearing: After first describing them as "a day and a half old," he then said, "we wiped their noses and sent them home."
 
BD Sullivan said:
The Youngbloods incident took place in the early Fall of 1969 and sounds bizarre: they refused to do the show because the producers insisted on giving their appearance a psychedelic look. The band's leader, Jesse Young, was reportedly told, that doing it straight "wasn't in the rock group image," and after being told to just perform the songs, he used the always-popular two-word phrase that begins with F. Carson then aggravated the situation in explaining on the air why they weren't appearing: After first describing them as "a day and a half old," he then said, "we wiped their noses and sent them home."
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Too bad - because I doubt it had anything to do with being a rock group. Jesse Colin Young was known as a bit of a 'diva.' In the 70s and 80s, I lived in the same town as Young. He was considered a rather unpleasant person.
 
What surprised me was when Jay Leno was the guest host, he always seemed to have more contemporary musical guests than Carson did. That carried over to when he replaced Johnny.
 
BD Sullivan said:
During his New York days, Carson was more limited with his guest list. One of the regular guests who benefited from the scarcity was comedian Corbett Monica, who even the guest hosted the show a few times. How many people remember him today?
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Corbett Monica appeared as Larry Corbett in 73 episodes in seasons 2-4 of "The Joey Bishop Show" (1961-1965), a sitcom on NBC (seasons 1-3), then CBS (season 4). Similar to "Hazel," season 1 was in B&W, starting in season 2 it was in color. But unlike "Hazel," when it moved to CBS for its last season, it reverted to B&W. Reruns are currently on Antenna TV, weekdays from 1-2 PM ET (double-run).
 
Was there anyone on TV back in the 50s and 60s who were fans of rock and roll ?? Even Dick Clark wasn't exactly a fan in those days. For that matter what about country music ?? Mitch Miller while not a fan of rock and roll he also was not a fan of country music back then either. Most of the old country music videos such as Patsy Cline back then I have seen came from either WLAC or WSM in Nashville or Ed Sullivan.
 
installLSC said:
You're very right, but occasionally one would break through. Here's some performances by the Allman Brothers, and Carson does seem legitimately enthused.
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Cyndi Lauper was on Carson's show twice in 1984 and Johnny looked like he was really having fun. Of course, that might have been all about Cyndi's goofy personality than the music. She sang "She Bop" on that second appearance and I can't imagine Carson approving of the song or its subject matter.
 
oldiesfan6479 said:
Corbett Monica appeared as Larry Corbett in 73 episodes in seasons 2-4 of "The Joey Bishop Show" (1961-1965), a sitcom on NBC (seasons 1-3), then CBS (season 4). Similar to "Hazel," season 1 was in B&W, starting in season 2 it was in color. But unlike "Hazel," when it moved to CBS for its last season, it reverted to B&W. Reruns are currently on Antenna TV, weekdays from 1-2 PM ET (double-run).
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Monica's friendship with Sinatra and Bishop made him kind of a secondary member of the Rat Pack. He was the quintessential opening-act comedian. He opened for just about every big act that played Vegas. Fortunately for him, the 2 seasons (the last on NBC and the lone CBS season) he was on the disaster area that was The Joey Bishop Show didn't hurt his career, although I don't believe he ever had a regular role on any TV show after 1965.

BTW, the show's CBS season was 1964-65. That's why it was in B&W. CBS didn't switch to full color until the fall of '65, when Hazel moved there.
 
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