For three decades, Johnny Carson was the king of late-night comedy. Throughout the beloved host's
time on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, one might’ve assumed that Johnny and frequent
guest Bob Hope were good friends due to the number of appearances that the legendary comedian made
on the program. However, it now appears as if this couldn’t have been further from the truth!
Join Facts Verse as we explore why Johnny Carson hated this Tonight Show guest more than anyone.
Johnny Carson was the host of The Tonight Show Starring Carson for three decades, from 1962
to 1992. Over that time period, the beloved entertainer had a wide variety of guests. Many
of the guests that appeared on the program were burgeoning comedians that received their first
mainstream notoriety thanks to their performances on the show. Some of the most notable figures that
caught their big breaks thanks to Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show include Jerry Seinfeld and
Joan Rivers. In addition to these burgeoning stars, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
often featured A-list stars, such as Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope.
Throughout Johnny Carson's time at NBC, the host grew to be one of the most bankable
stars on the network. However, he never quite grew to surpass legendary comedian Bob Hope in
stature. Bob Hope was always one step ahead of Johnny at the NBC offices, having previously
occupied the very stage that Johnny used for his time on The Tonight Show. According to legend,
Bob could essentially book himself on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson whenever
he wanted to. Bob would often request an appearance on the program when he had a
new special to promote. When Bob asked for the opportunity to make an appearance, Johnny
understandably accepted. However, it now appears as if Johnny never enjoyed having him on.
Sadly, it appears as if the on-screen relationship between Johnny Carson and
Bob Hope was completely fake. Johnny actually despised the comedian, and only allowed him on
the show so often because he felt that he had no other option. There were numerous
reasons that Johnny disliked Bob Hope, and he grew to dislike him even more as the years
went on. By the time Johnny had finished his tenure on The Tonight Show in 1992,
he had arguably grown to dislike comedian Bob Hope more than any other guest.
One of the biggest reasons that Johnny Carson couldn’t stand Bob Hope was that Bob
was completely incapable of improvisation. Johnny was quick on his feet and liked to
have spontaneous banter with his guests. Given that Bob was a legendary comedian,
one might’ve assumed that the celebrity figure would’ve had some wit of his own. However, it
appears that this wasn’t the case. Even at Bob’s physical peak, it appears that he had to rely on
his team of comedy writers in order to come up with anything funny to say. In his later years,
his reliance on his writers grew to the point where he had to rely on them to even understand
what was going on! Unlike Johnny Carson, who retired as soon as his health started failing,
Bob pushed beyond his years and continued attempting to perform when he barely could.
Due to Bob Hope’s lack of improvisational skills,
Johnny Carson grew to consider the legendary comedian to be a bad guest. However,
he continued having him on the show because he felt that he couldn’t turn him down. Johnny grew
incredibly bored of the comedian’s scripted routines and resented the fact that Bob’s
stature at NBC made it so that he had no ability to deny his requests to appear.
Oftentimes, Bob Hope’s appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson would be
staged to appear spontaneous. However, according to Johnny, there wasn’t a single thing about the
comedian that was actually spontaneous. These fake surprise appearances would typically result in Bob
rattling off a few scripted jokes and making way for a reel of footage from an upcoming special.
According to Johnny Carson, these reels of footage would often be poorly cut and much
longer than Bob had initially promised. If Bob claimed he only needed two minutes, the footage
would generally run five minutes. This was another thing about Bob that rubbed Johnny the wrong way.
One time, Bob Hope was a guest on The Tonight Show and he noticed that the audience was
laughing exceptionally loud at the host’s monologue. This led Bob to ask Johnny if he
could use some recordings of the laughter as the canned laughter on his upcoming special.
Johnny agreed to the request but was once again taken aback by Bob's forwardness.
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Bob Hope’s appearances on The Tonight Show were irritating for Johnny Carson at the best of times,
but they became even more annoying for the beloved host once the legendary comedian’s health began
failing. If Bob had a hard time improvising when he was at peak health, the act proved completely
impossible during his later years. According to Johnny Carson, Bob Hope would have no idea
what he was talking about unless the host stayed completely on the script. If Johnny read the wrong
question from his card, Bob Hope was liable to give the answer to a completely different
question! Seeing Bob in this state was one of the reasons that Johnny chose to retire before
his own health began failing. According to legend, Johnny turned to his crew after one of Bob’s later
performances and told them to shoot him if he ever ended up like the venerated comedian had.
Bob Hope was certainly one of the most frequent guests that The Tonight
Show Starring Johnny Carson ever had. However, he’s not the only frequent
guest that ever rubbed the beloved host the wrong way. Another frequent guest on The
Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was Joan Rivers. Johnny and Joan memorably developed
a feud over the decades of Johnny’s tenure on the program. Joan had gotten her big break performing
on the show with Johnny as a host, and their chemistry had been a big hit with audiences.
After Joan Rivers initial appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, its host
memorably made the comment that he thought Joan Rivers was going to become a star. Joan
certainly did become a star, and also continued appearing on The Tonight Show for many, many
years. It got to the point where Joan Rivers was called in whenever NBC needed someone to replace
Johnny Carson, whether the latter figure was on vacation or just not feeling well.
Like with Johnny Carson and Bob Hope, one might’ve assumed the fact that Joan Rivers was
such a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson meant that she was actually close
friends with its host. Sadly, it appears that Johnny and Joan’s on-screen chemistry was once
again a façade for the cameras. Johnny treated Joan like a business asset, and the two never
developed a true friendship when the cameras weren’t rolling. When Joan Rivers was given an
opportunity to host her own show in the 1980s, Johnny went to war with the female comedian.
According to the late Joan Rivers, the reason Johnny Carson was so
mad about her getting a gig hosting a competing talk show was that she was a
woman. Johnny Carson put out the word that anyone who appeared as a guest on Joan’s show wouldn’t be
allowed on his. Because of this, Joan’s show ended up failing very early on. Though Joan
later found some success as a daytime talk show host, she never again returned to hosting late
night television. In fact, she couldn’t return to The Tonight Show until shortly before her death,
when Jimmy Fallon had taken over as host. Jay Leno had been Johnny’s replacement,
and he had refused to let Joan on during his time as host out of respect for Johnny.
While feuds are typical in Hollywood, the stars involved in them will oftentimes let them go as
they’re lying on their deathbeds. However, this wasn’t the case for either Johnny Carson or
Joan Rivers. Johnny went first, and he and Joan never patched things up before his death. In
Joan Rivers’ last remaining years after his death, she never changed her tune and continued
saying disparaging things about the late talk show host. According to Joan, Johnny had been
her professional mentor and he had acted very unprofessionally when he started the ridiculous
feud. Because of this, she had completely lost respect for him by the time of his death.
If Bob Hope and Joan Rivers were guests that Johnny Carson grew to hate throughout his tenure
on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Don Rickles was a frequent guest that managed
to stay on the beloved host’s good side. Like Bob Hope, Don Rickles was a legendary comedian
that often appeared on The Tonight Show. However, unlike Bob Hope, the visits were always met with
a warm reception by host Johnny Carson. If Johnny and Bob had no authentic chemistry, Johnny didn’t
have this problem with Don. Not only did Johnny find Don Rickles authentically funny, but he also
had no problem improvising with the comedian and developing interesting comedic banter.
Although one might’ve assumed that Johnny Carson and Bob Hope were friends due to
the frequent appearances that the latter figure made on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,
it appears that this couldn’t have been further from the truth! Now it’s time to hear from you:
did you know that Johnny Carson couldn’t stand having Bob Hope as a guest on The Tonight Show,
or did you think that Bob’s frequent appearances meant that they were friends? As always, like this
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