About this season
While working as a staff writer on The Red Skelton Show, local Los Angeles television comedian 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 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".
Episodes (3)
1. The One Musketeer
Aired 19 January 1956 • 30 min
Johnny's Navy buddy disrupts the monologue from the audience, a young Jamie Farr appears with the musical group The Double Daters, and Johnny and Eva Gabor star in The One Musketeer.
3. Rudy Valle
Aired 2 February 1956 • 30 min
4. "The Park Avenue Hillbilly"
Aired 16 February 1956 • 30 min
Dr. Samuel Hoffman, podiatrist, was catapulted to fame when he played the Theremin on the soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound. He demonstrates the unusual instrument for Johnny and singer Dorothy Shay, known as "the Park Avenue Hillbilly" co-stars with Johnny in a sketch telling her life story.