Johnny Carson hated Cher

Carson was a world class hater.

Johnny Carson was an inveterate drunk whose antipathy towards all sorts of people was well-known. Not surprising, an attractive, "counter-cultural" female was uninterested and unwilling to fuck would set him off to the high heavens.

Cher was invited to Jack Benny’s home on election night 1972, as was Lucille Ball and Johnny Carson. Carson, a staunch supporter of Nixon, was annoyed that Cher and Lucy were hooting and hollering during Nixon’s acceptance speech. The man could hold a grudge.

Carson liked women who had what he considered class. He pursued Sally Field and Joyce DeWitt to no avail.

Ugh can you imagine Joyce De Witt in bed? Just this frenetic, whorish muppet, with a lot of mugging for the camera.

R4 Johnny Carson? Um sorry no.

Johnny was more interested in Donna Theodore.

Dyan Cannon, the one that got away.

R7 I've never even heard of her but she passed away at age 82 on June 16 2024.

Did the DL acknowledge her death in any manner?

Maybe Carson just didn't like female pedos who slept with underage boys.

[quote] Carson, a staunch supporter of Nixon

I didn't know Carson was a staunch supporter of Nixon.

R11 Neither did I.

I always heard he was a democrat.

I also heard he did an AIDS fundraiser before it became fashionable.

Nixon was Carson’s fifth cousin

In her bio the only mention of Carson is how he filled in for them in Vegas when she and Sonny cancelled a gig there.

Carson was a bleeding heart Democrat. That’s been confirmed multiple times. No way he was for Nixon.

Carson definitely had a warped view on most everything. I think being in that business and reaching the levels he did makes people get mean and distrusting of most everyone. With Carson he was your friend only as long as you were doing everything he wanted you to do and were benefiting him in some way. The second he detected you weren't 100% on his side on everything he'd drop you like you never existed.

Yes, Carson wasn’t a Nixon supporter.

r9 - I have no idea why she didn't have a bigger Broadway career.

She was *so* feminine!

Johnny Carson’s attorney, who wrote a book, did date Joyce De Witt, IIRC.

Carson would only hang out with his attorney if Joyce was there.

Yes, we have no bananas!

R3 yet the lil prick settled for my sloppy seconds

He was rude as hell to Greg Allman when he had him on, too. He let him play a song from his newest album. As soon as he sat down though, he had his band play Red Foxx on. He didn't interview him at all, and GA didn't know WTF was going on when Red Foxx suddenly appeared. It's on YouTube, sorry I don't know why I have such trouble posting videos.

Off topic but if you're using an ad blocker YouTube delays playing videos.

It's why Cher happily guested on Joan Rivers first episode of her FOX tv show

R24 That was Letterman

Please tell me that there is more to this story (for example, what did Jimmy want her to say and why did Carson hate Cher?).

Morgan Fairchild dated Johnny Carson. When they broke up, Bette Davis told Morgan: You were quite right to dump him.

r3 Carol Burnet was there with Cher and Lucy. All 3 were cutting up and it irritated Johnny.

She was a bitch

Johnny probably had ideas about how women should act.

R5- R U talking to me?

Enough with these Ann Romano photos!

I have a hunch that Johnny and Bette Midler had an intimate relationship at one point (maybe when he was between wives from 1963-1972). She made 11 appearances on his show between 1970-1992. And she was on his second-to-the-last show (the only other guest that night was Robin Williams). She called him Mr. Carson several times that night, in a flirtatious way. The chemistry between the two was obvious.

I often wonder if that’s why he held that grudge against Joan Rivers for so long because they also had an affair.

R35. I don’t think she was Johnny Carson’s type.

Well, I wouldn't think Bette Midler was his type, either.

I never thought about Joan fucking Johnny Carson, but that could be true. Joan's husband was such a pain in the ass. And Joan was dumb to make him her business manager.

R30 It was Rosalind Russell who was the third woman. Not Carol Burnett

I can picture Lucy and Cher cutting up and getting loud. Maybe Johnny thought it was not lady-like.

Bette and Joan were loud mouthed broads which was not his type.

Why did Carson always wear those faggy tennis outfits?

I remember when Joan Rivers got her own night time talk show in 1986, and the media covered the blow-up between her and Carson. One of the first things she did was go on different daytime talk shows and tell her side of the story. She explained how Carson had threatened to 'blackball' celebrities who went on her show - if they did, they could never do his show ever again. She called Carson petty and unprofessional. The host (can't recall which one it was) asked her if she was worried about celebs staying faithful to Carson, and she said 'no'.

The host of this show was one of the hosts who used to take live phone calls from viewers during the show during the interview. One of those callers was her friend Cher, and Cher congratulated her on the new show (Rivers was genuinely surprised by Cher's call). I remember Cher saying something along the lines of , "Joan, f*** (bleeped out to TV viewers) Carson. I'm so glad you have your own show now, and I don't have to go near that stupid Carson show ever again." Rivers and the audience broke out in laughter, and then Rivers asked her when she was available to do the new show. Cher said, "Whenever you want me, I'll be there. Want me for your first show ? I'll be there !" Rivers was so happy, she started to cry. When Cher hung up, Rivers said, "That is what you call a true friend." (During the rest of the show, other celebrities called in to congratulate Rivers and say they'll come on her show instead of Carson's).

I think he was genuinely fond of Bette and liked her singing. She was always good with the snappy comments and he knew the whole Divine Miss M was all shtick.

Carson wasn't very social, so I doubt the whole election night story. If Roz Russell was at that event, she would have been a Nixon supporter. She was a consistent Republican.

If Cher did the Rivers show, she would have been dead to the Carson show.

Midler performed on his farewell show, at his request, so yes he liked her at least as a performer.

Jan. 23 marks the 20th anniversary of his death. I wonder how many people under the age of 40 even know of him.

Carson, like many comedians, was a genuinely unhappy person. A rush guy like him, at the top of Hollywood, would have been able to keep a wife. Johnny was a prickly loner and almost certainly liked women that were sweet and submissive. Cher, who has her sweet moments, is anything but submissive.

Johnny was so fkin hot when he was young.

At most, he was a Nebraska, mid-century, 7.5.

R43, who were the other celebrities?

He was Caucasian, confident, and had money. Plus famous.

R50 Shannon Doherty & the Neelix guy from Star Trek Voyager.

I saw that call in show to and while I don’t remember them all, I couldn’t forget the supportive calls Joan got from Marion Lorne, Jester Hairston, and Erin Moran.

R45 Cher did end up doing the Rivers show - she was her very first guest on the premiere episode in October, as she promised (along with Elton John).

R50 After Cher, I remember Pee Wee Herman (who was a huge star at the time) phoned in and told her to book him for her show as well (he didn't want to return to Carson). Joan was so happy to hear his call. (I think he ended up on the premiere episode, too, IIRC). I remember a couple more called in after, but I can't recall who.

It seemed like once Cher made the initial call saying she was going with Joan and "F- Carson", it opened the door for a couple of others to support Rivers (and didn't care about their fate on Carson's show).

R53: Marion Lorne had been dead for 20 years by then.

Elton John was on the first show with Cher.

When Joan guest hosted the Tonight Show, she booked a lot of celebrities (usually younger and more relevant) that didn’t appear when Carson was on.

R56: The Carson Tonight show would not let Joan or other guest hosts book certain people who were reserved for Johnny. Rivers has talked about her frustration with this.

I just did some research - it was indeed Elton, Cher (as promised) and Pee Wee Herman (as promised) on her first show.

Why so many Johnny Carson threads?

They’re stealth Joyce DeWitt threads, r59.