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Author Topic: OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...  (Read 4015 times)

TwoInchQuad

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OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...
« on: March 11, 2010, 04:38:50 AM »
...or "Trivia" as the case may be.  :^)


In any event, the question is:

"What were Johnny Carson's first words as the host of the Tonight Show?"

You have five seconds....

-Kevin
« Last Edit: March 11, 2010, 04:40:31 AM by TwoInchQuad »

Don Howard

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OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...
« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2010, 06:31:49 AM »
"Thank you".

inturnaround

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OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2010, 07:29:38 AM »
"Boy, you would think it was Vice President Nixon." -re: the applause he received
Joe Coughlin     
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arrowood20

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OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2010, 02:12:04 PM »
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you".

TwoInchQuad

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OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2010, 03:05:02 PM »
Nope-- no winners yet...  anyone else?

- Kevin

Eric Paddon

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OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...
« Reply #5 on: March 11, 2010, 03:08:47 PM »
I know he said "I want my nana" at one point in the monologue, but not the first words.

Matt Ottinger

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OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...
« Reply #6 on: March 11, 2010, 03:19:08 PM »
[quote name=\'TwoInchQuad\' post=\'237365\' date=\'Mar 11 2010, 03:05 PM\']Nope-- no winners yet...  anyone else?[/quote]
I don't claim to know, but the show's official website and many other online sources say that one of the answers above is correct.  

If you know something that the vast, vast majority of the TV trivia world doesn't (and you're certainly in a position to), then we'll happily accept whatever information you're going to share.  But if the official answer isn't the right one, I'm not sure how long you want us to throw out random words and phrases before it's obvious that we don't know.
This has been another installment of Matt Ottinger's Masters of the Obvious.
Stay tuned for all the obsessive-compulsive fun of Words Have Meanings.

TwoInchQuad

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OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...
« Reply #7 on: March 11, 2010, 03:48:38 PM »
[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'237370\' date=\'Mar 11 2010, 01:19 PM\']I don't claim to know, but the show's official website and many other online sources say that one of the answers above is correct.  

If you know something that the vast, vast majority of the TV trivia world doesn't (and you're certainly in a position to), then we'll happily accept whatever information you're going to share.  But if the official answer isn't the right one, I'm not sure how long you want us to throw out random words and phrases before it's obvious that we don't know.[/quote]

Well, I do hope everyone will pardon my self-indulgence-- but it's really not often that I get to say that the entire internet is wrong.   :^)

And I saw the reference that Matt mentioned on Carson's official website-- don't ask me how **they** got it wrong, since they're supposed to have an audio tape of the first show.

The sequence of events is that at 11:15 PM the music starts, Ed does his intros which includes the bit about "...the man you've waited six months to see..." and then, instead of Johnny, Groucho Marx comes out-- and does the entire first 15 minutes of the show!  (They were waiting for all of the network affiliates [some of whom routinely pre-empted the first 15 minutes of the program in favor of local programming], to join the broadcast before bringing out their new star.)  At 11:30, Groucho then says "And now, the permanent star of the "Tonight Show", Johnny Carson."

Thirty seconds of big applause, and the band once again plays Johnny's theme music.

Groucho:  "Boy, you'd think it was Vice-President Nixon.  [to Carson] Johnny...?"

Johnny:  "And I didn't have trouble getting the suit, I was out buying some cheese."

That line actually got laughs, so I'm guessing it's either a visual joke, or something topical that I'm not able to reference.

So there you go, folks-- now I expect all of you to go out and correct the internet for the benefit of future generations... or at least split the take with me if you win a bar bet with this information.

-Kevin
« Last Edit: March 11, 2010, 03:51:15 PM by TwoInchQuad »

Jimmy Owen

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OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...
« Reply #8 on: March 12, 2010, 07:41:37 AM »
"....It was so hot today..."
Let's Make a Deal was the first show to air on Buzzr. 6/1/15 8PM.

GrandGame1440

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OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...
« Reply #9 on: March 12, 2010, 08:15:14 AM »
[quote name=\'TwoInchQuad\' post=\'237375\' date=\'Mar 11 2010, 03:48 PM\']Groucho:  "Boy, you'd think it was Vice-President Nixon.  [to Carson] Johnny...?"

Johnny:  "And I didn't have trouble getting the suit, I was out buying some cheese."

That line actually got laughs, so I'm guessing it's either a visual joke, or something topical that I'm not able to reference.[/quote]

Groucho actually discussed an experiment scientists were doing on mice and cheese in his monolgue, that's probably why it got the laugh it did.  I only know this because the text is covered in "Here's Johnny!" by Stephen Cox.  Do you have audio of Johnny's monologe, TwoInchQuad?  I'd been wanting to hear it for years now.

TwoInchQuad

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OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...
« Reply #10 on: March 12, 2010, 03:07:05 PM »
[quote name=\'GrandGame1440\' post=\'237438\' date=\'Mar 12 2010, 06:15 AM\']Groucho actually discussed an experiment scientists were doing on mice and cheese in his monolgue, that's probably why it got the laugh it did.  I only know this because the text is covered in "Here's Johnny!" by Stephen Cox.  Do you have audio of Johnny's monologe, TwoInchQuad?  I'd been wanting to hear it for years now.[/quote]

Yes.  I found it a couple of days ago on a reel of audio tape that was part of a set that I picked up about 2 years ago-- I was after some recordings on the **other** reels in the set (all of which appear to have been dubbed in the early 70s), and never really got around to looking at this one.  That'll teach me!

The kicker is that the person who did this dub probably had the whole show-- I got pieces of the the show opening, a few words from Groucho and then my copy cuts to Groucho's intro of Johnny and the interplay between the two of them, followed by Johnny's first monologue.  The dub stays with the monologue up to where he's going to intro the first commercial, and then there's an abrupt cut to the final minute or so of the show, with Mel Brooks cheerleading for the new host, followed by Johnny's goodnights to everyone.

All in all, quite the unexpected treat-- even though it's something that isn't really "lost" per se, it's something that I didn't really ever expect to hear.  You should have seen the look on my face when I read that tape box!

Thanks very much for the explanation of Johnny's joke-- did you ever try to Google "cheese" "Nixon" and "September 1962"... when you aren't sure what you're looking for in the first place???    :^)

-Kevin
« Last Edit: March 12, 2010, 03:08:21 PM by TwoInchQuad »

TwoInchQuad

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OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...
« Reply #11 on: March 13, 2010, 03:19:49 PM »
Someone on another forum was kind enough to type out the story that Groucho was telling before Johnny's entrance, which puts Johnny's opening joke in context.  Here it is:

************************

Groucho Marx:  Don't be alarmed, I'm only going to be out here for a few minutes. The fact is, I happened to be walking past, and Johnny Carson sent his suit out to be cleaned and pressed. It didn't get back yet, so he asked me if I'd come out here.

This is a kind of jump from what I was talking about, which was nothing, but they're doing some very interesting experiments now, scientific research, at the University of Chicago. I think they have a lot of time for this now because they've abolished football there. They don't play any of the big universities. They have what they call "intermural games." They play against each other every Saturday. Last week, the girls won. So this gives them a lot of time for scientific research. Now, I don't mean because they play the girls, I mean they do a lot of research in Chicago, at the university.

Perhaps I can explain it better this way: They did an interesting experiment last year on a very important subject. It's something we should all know something about. They put a female mouse in a little maze that has a trap door on it, and there's also a male mouse. Then, they have another cage that's filled with mouse food. Mouse food, whatevere that is, I don't know what mice eat...maybe they eat other mice. It's probably cheese, or something like that.

Now the male mouse hasn't had any contact with the female mouse in some time. I don't know exactly what the time is with mice. Anyway, any information for me is purely academic. They had the male mouse, the female mouse, and cheese - whatever they eat at Twenty-One. You know, I had a cheese sandwich there last week, and it was two and a half dollars. And then they charge you extra for the bread and the cheese.

Where was I? I had a female mouse in one trap and a male mouse in others. It remained this way for three days, and then they opened up the two cages simultaneously. They then opened the cage with the male mouse and let him run around. Now, I'm going to ask you, because< i'm interested in your reaction to this, which do you think that the male mouse went for first - the cheese or the female mouse?

[Audience: The cheese!]

The cheese? You're wrong. Your contact with sex must be less than mine. I'm not trying to be funny, and I don't think I am, but this is fundamentally true. It's the law of retaining the sex of the human being or mice or whatever it happens to be. So the first thing is that sex is the most important thing of all. If it wasn't for that, the whole nation, the universe, would disappear. Might not be a bad idea, either.

So they go for that first, and then they go for the cheese. In some homes, this isn't much difference. I think the men in the audience tonight, when you go home, ought to try it themselves. Put your wife on one cage and some cheese in the other, and see which one you're going to go for...

And now the permanent star of The Tonight Show: Johnny Carson.

************************

And now you know... the **rest** of the story!

-Kevin

GrandGame1440

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OK, players-- the topic is "Ultimate TV Nerd Triva"...
« Reply #12 on: March 13, 2010, 04:25:17 PM »
Thanks again for that, I would have done it had I had enough time.  I'd love to hear Johnny's full monologue.  If you can't post the audio, could you give us a transcript at some point?  I usually don't beg for clips, but I'd be grateful for a few highlights if nothing else.