Property of Various Owners
Lot 34
A collection of scripts, monologues and sketches for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
8 December 2021, 10:00 PST
Los AngelesSold for US$2,805 inc. premium
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A collection of scripts, monologues and sketches for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
A large archive from the collection of screenwriter Hal Goodman, comprising approximately 262 scripts, sketches, and monologues for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, mostly mimeographed typescript scripts with paper covers, some with minor annotations in Hal Goodman's hand, various dates 1972-1988 (some years incomplete), with approximately 130 sketches, majority 5-10 pages long, including Nude Bowling; Once in a Lifetime; Phobias; Pilots That Didn't Make It; Intro to Police Codes; Predictions; Russian Etiquette; He's Stingy If ...; How to Avoid the Flu; Visit with a Leprechaun; Defection of a Russian Comedian; Maharishi Sketch; Jaws Interview; Godfather Debate; and Flying Saucer Interview; monologues for guests including Richard Benjamin, Rob Reiner, Don Rickles; and a script for a Milton Berle Tribute, 1978; Oscar Awards, 1979, 1984 and 1980; and Burt Reynolds Dinner, 1981; and approximately 13 Carnac character sketches, 1976-1977; and 7 Aunt Blabby sketches, circa 1975.
All: 11 x 8.5 in.
All: 11 x 8.5 in.
Footnotes
Hal Goodman (1915-1997) was an Emmy® Award-winning comedic screenwriter and producer; as the LA Times obituary noted, "He put funny words in the mouths of entertainers ranging from a young Bob Hope to Johnny Carson..." He was nominated for eight Emmy® Awards and won one for The Flip Wilson Show. He began his career in radio and got his big break in television as a joke writer for Bob Hope after World War II. Along with his writing partner, Larry Klein, he wrote for Carol Burnett, Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Frank Sinatra, Milton Berle, and Steve Allen before spending the latter part of his career in the 1970s and 1980s writing for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, being responsible for many of Carson's most memorable sketches and monologues of that era. From the 1960s through the early 1990s, there wasn't a home in America whose inhabitants weren't tuned every night to Johnny Carson and his sidekicks Ed McMahon and Doc Severinsen. The show won 8 Emmy® awards before Carson retired in 1992, his last show being one of the most watched in television history.