The Johnny Carson Show

The Johnny Carson Show was a 1955-56 half hour prime time television variety show starring Johnny Carson. While working as a staff writer on The Red Skelton Show , local Los Angeles television comedian Johnny Carson filled in as host when Skelton was injured during a show rehearsal. As a result of Carson’s performance, CBS created the primetime variety program The Johnny Carson Show, a traditional potpourri of comedy, music, dance, skits and mono... more

The Johnny Carson Show was a 1955-56 half hour prime time television variety show starring Johnny Carson. While working as a staff writer on The Red Skelton Show , local Los Angeles television comedian Johnny Carson filled in as host when Skelton was injured during a show rehearsal. As a result of Carson’s performance, CBS created the primetime variety program The Johnny Carson Show, a traditional potpourri of comedy, music, dance, skits and monologues. The shows were produced at CBS Studio 52 in New York City. The short-lived 1955-56 series served as a precursor of what would come later for Carson, planting the seeds for sketches he would perform on the later The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson such as "Mighty Carson Art Players". However, the show flopped in the ratings and was quickly cancelled. In a 1978 profile of Carson in The New Yorker, Kenneth Tynan described the Johnny Carson Show as "a half-hour program that goes through seven directors, eight writers, and thirty-nine... less