The Mighty Carson Career Launches

David Brenner clearly remembers the night of Jan. 8, 1971. The comedian had $3 in his pocket and had to borrow $100 to buy a suit for his first appearance on “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.”

“I only did it as a lark,” Brenner recalled. “I wanted to get on television once. ... In 18 months as a comic, I only made $8,000.”

That all changed in less than 24 hours. “By the end of the business day after I did Carson, I had $10,000 in jobs,” Brenner said. “I took them all.”

Brenner went on to guest host for Carson countless times between 1976 and 1983 before hosting his own syndicated talk show in 1986. Brenner is one name on a long list of comedians and actors who credit their appearance on Carson’s show as an event that made their career. Their reminisces come on the occasion of the 29th “Tonight Show” anniversary program--the last before Carson retires May 22 as television’s late-night icon.

Burt Reynolds recalled that Carson himself wanted Reynolds for the show after seeing the actor’s comedic side during an appearance on “The Merv Griffin Show.”

“You have to remember in the 1960s if you went on the Carson show and really scored, the next morning you were hotter than a burning tree,” Reynolds said. “This was back when I was in New York and I was playing Indians, gangsters, detectives--not a lot of funny lines there.”

Reynolds did some homework before his appearance in 1971 and thought he came prepared. “I heard, as everybody does, all these stories that he doesn’t talk to you when the commercial comes on,” Reynolds said. “So I was prepared to talk to Ed (McMahon), and then the first commercial came up and he said, ‘Hey, do you want to host the show?’

“I was the first actor to ever host the show.”

Reynolds said he’s appeared on the Carson show every year “whether I was No. 1 at the box office or No. 83. At the lowest ebb of my career, I heard from about four people, and one of them was Johnny.”

“The Tonight Show” also brought other work to Reynolds. “I got a call from California from (director) John Boorman to come to L.A. ... I got ‘Deliverance.”’

Because most of his feature films up to that time had been forgettable, Reynolds wondered what Boorman had seen him in. To Reynolds’ surprise, Boorman was impressed with the way he handled the “Tonight” guests. “He said, ‘You were in control of three people on the show and this character (in “Deliverance”) must be in control of three people.’ ”

Insult comic Don Rickles said Carson gave him work when no one else would: “No one would come near me. I was considered Adolf Hitler’s son.”

As with Reynolds, Carson himself wanted Rickles on the show.

“It must have been 25 years ago,” Rickles remembered of his first appearance. “He had seen me at Basin Street East (then a club in Manhattan) and was a fan from the beginning. He said, ‘Let’s take a chance on Don Rickles.’ He opened doors for me which gave me the opportunity for my TV series and some movies. He was very influential.”

David Letterman said his first visit, in 1978, didn’t go so smoothly. Letterman was not joking when he recalled: “Ed had a small stroke on the couch. It was unbelievable. When I sat down he really did pitch face down. I reached over and began to do CPR. It turned out it was something he had eaten and we continued with the show.”

Since then Letterman’s association with Carson has clearly been better. “I was on the show three times when I started hosting. I got a contract to work with the Sahara Hotel in Lake Tahoe and about that time I got a deal to do a pilot at NBC.” Today Carson Productions produces “Late Night With David Letterman.”

Garry Shandling, who shared permanent co-host duties with Jay Leno until he got his own comedy series, “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” said “The Tonight Show” also was the starting point of his career, “though I didn’t get to sit down on the couch the first time (in 1981). It is sort of a benchmark to sit on the couch.

“When you go to Johnny’s house you stand the first few times you are there.”

Dick Cavett had quit his job as monologue writer for Carson and was doing stand-up in Greenwich Village when he first appeared on “Tonight” in the mid-’60s.

“The thing that helped the most was doing my act while sitting on the (couch). Having scored as a panelist (on the couch) I sat in for Carson. Through that ABC decided they should give me a talk show.”

His ABC series aired opposite Carson, but Cavett never thought he was in competition with his old boss.

“It always seemed amusing to me that I was opposite him,” he said. “It was flattering when I learned he watched the show.”

Singer-actress Bernadette Peters has been a frequent guest on the show since 1967, when she was performing off-Broadway in “Dames at Sea.”

“It really made a difference,” she said. “You are in a little show in New York and just the people in New York get to see it. Then they bring you on national television and all over the country, people get an idea of who you are.”

“It was a huge thing in my life,” said comic Steven Wright. “It was like going through the looking glass in ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ ”

The show’s producer, Peter Lassally, had seen Wright’s stand-up act in Boston. “He was in Boston looking for a school for his kids and he went into a club and three weeks later I was on. I was on Aug. 6, 1982, and then Aug. 12, 1982. It was a complete fairy tale. It changed everything. From that I got ‘Letterman,’ ‘Saturday Night Live,’ HBO specials and a record deal with Warner Bros.”

The San Diego Zoo’s Joan Embrey recalls she made her first appearance more than 20 years ago with a baby elephant named Carol.

“I had no intention of working in television,” she said. She has since appeared with Carson close to 70 times.

“Over the years, he’s had a marmoset on his head and an aardvark in front of his desk,” Embrey said. “He’s always in control of the situation. Working with Johnny has always been great. It’s funny. I have done all the game shows, sitcoms, series and yet I have never gotten away from that statement: ‘Joan Embrey of “The Tonight Show” and the San Diego Zoo.’ ”

Paul Reiser said, “Appearing on Carson is very validating for a comic. It is a huge stamp of approval for family and friends.”

Part of the joy, Reiser said, is that Carson allows guests, especially comics, “to bounce material off of him. The most fun I have is when you start playing with him. I made Johnny laugh personally and it is a great sense of accomplishment.”

Cavett agreed: “There was a terrific feeling when I broke him up. It was at the end of the show and everyone was giving a plug. I had nothing to plug. He said, ‘Dick, what are you working on?’ And I said, ‘I have been working on a new idea for a series--it’s a humorous version of ‘Gilligan’s Island.’ And he just exploded.”

“He makes the moment happen,” Peters said. “He is spontaneous. He will go with it and run with it.”

“He’s not looking to get the laugh,” Wright added. “He wants you to get the laugh.”

Discuss Carson’s impending retirement with these regulars and friends and inevitably the conversation turns to one of sadness and a sense of loss.

“It’s sort of like a head falling off Mt. Rushmore,” said Bob Hope.

“I think he’s had enough and he wants to relax. He’s walking out and Ed McMahon and Doc (Severinsen) are going with him. I think Jay Leno is captain of the Titanic.”

Shandling said he became disoriented when Carson announced he was going to retire and that Leno would take his place. “I am going to miss him very much,” he said. “It was an unsettling feeling for me that Johnny was leaving. I will have to get used to it.”

“I hate it,” Brenner said. “Believe me, I will be there for Jay Leno, but it is like your professor is leaving and you know he will never be in that classroom again. Everything I own and everything I did and every joy I gave my parents has been because of ‘The Tonight Show.’ ”

Brenner said, though, he wishes he could thank Carson.

“Here is a guy you want to throw your arms around and you know you can’t,” Brenner said. “This isn’t an Italian-Jewish guy from the neighborhood. That is a frustration.”

Reynolds said he discovered during his last appearance, in August, that Carson has become “looser” since announcing his retirement.

“It’s like he’s saying, ‘I am leaving the show and letting it all hang out.’ Though they would say, ‘Don’t touch Johnny,’ I would always come out and hug him. I noticed when I came out the last time he kissed me on the cheek and I thought, ‘Wow.’ He had done that when I had dinner at his house, but I have never seen that kind of thing on the show. I almost couldn’t talk for a while.”

Despite his grousing on “Late Night” that he wasn’t named successor to Carson, Letterman couldn’t say enough about his mentor.

“I know from my own perspective how hard it is to get through an hour when I am on,” Letterman said. “So when I watch his show and see him be so effortless, it gives me a huge feeling of insignificance. I can’t watch him.

“To me, it’s a real symbol of success in show business to maintain a relationship and friendship with this man. Our relationship is one of the few things that has meant anything to me. He has always been there and he has always been great. So what now?”

“The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: 29th Anniversary” airs Thursday at 9:30 p.m. on NBC.