Video: 'Tonight Show with Johnny Carson final episode - May 22, 1992 (1080p60)'
(Friday, May 22, 1992, aired at 11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. EDT) — After a reign lasting nearly 30 years, Johnny Carson hosted NBC’s late-night talk show The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for the final time tonight from Burbank, California, the show’s home base since 1972 ( (Jay Leno would take over as host three days later).
Carson had no guests on his final episode, which was instead a retrospective show taped before an invitation-only studio audience of family, friends, and crew. More than fifty million people tuned in for this finale, which ended with Carson sitting on a stool alone at center stage, similar to Jack Paar’s last show.
He said these final words in conclusion: “And so it has come to this: I, uh… am one of the lucky people in the world; I found something I always wanted to do and I have enjoyed every single minute of it. I want to thank the gentlemen who’ve shared this stage with me for thirty years. Mr. Ed McMahon, Mr. Doc Severinsen, and you people watching. I can only tell you that it has been an honor and a privilege to come into your homes all these years and entertain you. And I hope when I find something that I want to do and I think you would like and come back, that you’ll be as gracious in inviting me into your home as you have been. I bid you a very heartfelt good night.”
Tonight’s show marked the end of Carson’s extraordinarily successful reign over nighttime television, which began on Oct. 1, 1962, with Groucho Marx, Joan Crawford, Mel Brooks, Rudy Vallee, and Tony Bennett as his guests. Brooks and Bennett — the only surviving guests of the inaugural show — were among the guests this week.
Video: 'The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson - KSDK 5/21/1992'
Carson had hosted his penultimate show, featuring guests Robin Williams and Bette Midler, the night before. The atmosphere was electric and Carson was greeted with a sustained, two-minute intense standing ovation. Williams was especially uninhibited with his trademark manic energy and stream-of-consciousness lunacy.
Midler was more emotional. When the conversation turned to Johnny’s favorite songs, “I’ll Be Seeing You” and “Here’s That Rainy Day,” Midler mentioned that she knew a chorus of the latter. She began singing the song, and after the first line, Carson joined in and turned it into an impromptu duet. Midler finished her appearance from center stage, where she slowly sang the pop standard “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road).”
Carson became unexpectedly tearful, and a shot of the two of them was captured by a camera angle from across the set that had never before been used on the show. The audience became tearful as well and called the three performers out for a second bow after the taping was completed. This show was immediately recognized as a television classic that Midler considered one of the most emotional moments of her life and eventually won an Emmy for her role in it.
