MovieChat Forums > The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) Discussion > Carson smoking on set.

Carson smoking on set.

posted 9 years ago by wordsatplaytoday
3 replies | jump to latest

I never knew that Johnny smoked on set. You can tell that he has a lit cigarette from the smoke rising from his desk but I have not seen him take a drag. But obviously he lit up during the interview.

Did the cameras not show him taking a drag or is that something that Antenna TV would censor out since the sensitivity and PC crap related to smoking?
(I understand a movie now gets an R rating if we see someone smoking a tobacco cig., which I think is BS.)

And did smoking cause the illness that caused Johnny's death?
If it did, even though he probably would have died by now, it's still a shame that his life may have been cut shorter due to smoking.

Answer and discuss.



[–] tmaj48 9 years ago

Johnny would smoke during commercial breaks and would take a quick drag during the show; one recent rerun on Antenna TV showed him taking a puff as he introduced
a guest and returning the ciggie to an ashtray or something under the surface of his desk. Johnny was a little more discreet about puffing directly in front of guests,
as it was the 1970s by then and cigarette ads had already been banned from TV. Contrast his show with episodes of Edward R. Murrow's show, during which he and guests such as Rod Serling would smoke like chimneys on camera, and sitcoms such as I Love Lucy, which was sponsored by a cigarette company that wanted Lucy and Desi to occasionally smoke during episodes. All these people ended up with
smoking-related illnesses.
Carson exercised regularly and was in pretty good shape otherwise, but the emphysema that led to his death was almost certainly the result of his smoking.
In the American Masters episode about Carson, Doc Severinsen mentions how
he went swimming with Johnny after he retired, and how surprised and disturbed Doc was to see that Johnny, once an energetic swimmer even in his older years, could
no longer endure swimming for long periods because of his shortness of breath.

I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!

Hewwo.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] MrBlondNYC 9 years ago

He would smoke during the 60s episodes. In the famous interview with Bob Hope, Dean Martin, and George Gobel ("Ever feel like the world is a tuxedo and you're a pair of brown shoes?"), he, Gobel, and Martin are smoking.

In the 70s and 80s, if you had satellite, you could watch the live feed of the Tonight Show being taped. You could see Johnny smoking during the commercial breaks. I believe he stopped smoking on the set during the final years.

George Carlin: It's all bullsh-t and it's bad for ya.