BY STEVE MARINUCCI
Published Jan. 26, 2005, San Jose Mercury News
Watching Johnny Carson host ''The Tonight Show'' was seeing a master comic at work.
Over the years, I saw Carson do his magic in person three times -- twice on ''The Tonight Show'' and once on ''Who Do You Trust?,'' the game show he emceed (with perennial sidekick Ed McMahon as announcer) before he took over the NBC late-night show.
Watching Carson at home was, of course, like seeing an old friend. But seeing the show live was a different experience. When you were an audience member, the larger-than-life Carson heard you laugh at the jokes that were funny, as most of them were -- and your groans at the jokes that didn't quite go over. You -- we -- were the target of his witty retorts.
''Who Do You Trust?,'' which Carson -- who died Sunday of emphysema -- hosted from September 1957 to December 1963, was taped in New York. On a trip to visit an aunt in Jersey City, my dad took my sister and me -- we were in grade school -- to see several TV shows.
The ''Who Do You Trust?'' taping was filled with a lot of joking between Carson and McMahon, including a noisy mishap involving a washing machine being used in a commercial.
After the show, with no connections to anyone with pull, my dad somehow got us backstage to meet the very tall McMahon. We didn't get to meet Carson, though I recall seeing him stand a short distance from us. Little did I realize he would become the king of late-night television.
More than 15 years later, in 1977, as part of a honeymoon trip to Southern California, my wife and I managed to snag tickets to ''The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.'' After waiting a couple hours in front of the NBC Burbank studios, we were allowed in and discovered, to our surprise, how small ''The Tonight Show'' studio was in comparison to how it looked on TV. We were warned by the ushers not to yell anything out during the show, but that didn't stop the familiar sounds of ''hi-yo'' resonating when Carson walked out on the stage.
About six months later, we decided to go back to Southern California again, and because we enjoyed it so much, we figured we'd pay a return visit to ''The Tonight Show.'' We scored tickets to two shows, one on Monday, Carson's usual night off (with guest host George Carlin, a favorite of ours), and one the next night.
In the pre-show warm-up for the second show, producer Fred De Cordova announced proudly that Carson was in the building and would be hosting the show, which brought a big round of applause from the audience.
The audience got a few extras the home viewers didn't see.
The warm-up featured some extended music and jokes (often of a more risque variety than on the show) from De Cordova, McMahon, Doc Severinsen and members of the Tonight Show band. (Carson didn't appear until you heard the familiar ''He-e-e-e-e-e-re's Johnny.'')
During commercials, the lights on stage were turned off, leaving Carson and the guests in the dark.
One of the guests on that show was film star Ann-Margret. She and Carson chatted in the dark during the commercial break. With other guests, Carson might throw out the occasional ''How is everyone?'' to the audience.
But most memorable was something he apparently did at all tapings. Remember the famous golf swing he would enact after his monologue as the show faded to a commercial? Well, Carson would hold the pose, and after the camera light clicked off -- assuring he was not on the air -- he would say, ''Oh, (expletive).'' Of course, the audience, not expecting anything like that from the normally genteel Carson, burst out laughing.
That was the final time we saw ''The Tonight Show'' in person. Unfortunately, neither of the shows we saw had any moments that would have made ''best of'' compilations.
In 2001, I wrote a review for this newspaper about the newly released DVD collection of highlights from ''The Tonight Show,'' called ''The Ultimate Carson Collection Vols. 1-3.''
Though Carson himself wasn't available for interviews, his nephew, Jeff Sotzing, told me the words no Carson fan wanted to hear. ''He's retired; he's thoroughly enjoying his retirement. I don't expect him to do any new production whatsoever.''
CAPTION: PHOTO: AP FILE PHOTOGRAPH
Johnny Carson was a familiar face in 1957 as host of ''Who Do You Trust?''
PHOTO: AP FILE PHOTOGRAPH
During his ''Tonight Show'' reign, Johnny Carson, right, teamed with bandleader Doc Severinsen, left, and announcer Ed McMahon.
