Johnny Carson rarely left his post as the ‘King of Late-Night,’ but he switched places with guest Robert Blake in a 1976 interview. The results were hysterical as Johnny became the guest of Robert’s hosting.
Robert walks out in a plain white and green t-shirt and brown bell-bottom pants, and sits and smiles at Johnny, and says, “Let us go among them.” Johnny makes a joke, asking, “Would you like to go beat up a cleaning lady first? I feel a little overdressed tonight. I should’ve put on my leather outfit.”
Robert says, “You look alright.” Robert’s hair is messy, and the other guest, Burt Reynolds, asks him if he’s alright because his t-shirt is on backward. Burt asks if he was in a hurry.
Robert says he realized the shirt had writing on it, so he didn’t want to pay anything to that company and flipped it inside out. Later in the interview, Johnny and Robert switch chairs and impersonate each other.
After a commercial break, Johnny is sitting in the guest chair and has his hair all messy and his tie undone as he sits and picks his nails. Robert sits behind the desk and says, “We have one of our more interesting guests here tonight.”
Then, Johnny stands up, pulls his pants down, and sits back down for the interview with his legs crossed. Robert covers him with a newspaper. Johnny comments on Robert’s hosting, saying, “Think it’s easy, huh?”
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