Remembering Joan Rivers: Joan and Lucy

It takes a great comedienne to know one, as we see here from the great camaraderie between Joan Rivers and Lucille Ball, circa 1984, on these two appearances on The Tonight Show:






In 1973 Joan Rivers made a guest appearance on an episode of Here's Lucy playing Lucy's fellow juror:

Nose-Talgia: "Tonight Show" with Jack Paar and Blossom Dearie

At a time when singing on TV seems to be mostly endless runs of annoying and pretentious melisma, don't you sometimes long for just a simple and charming rendition of a terrific song, done by a master of the art?  I was surfing around and found this utterly wonderful clip of the late, great singer Blossom Dearie, introduced by the erudite and witty Jack Paar as host of The Tonight Show (which was often referred to as just The Jack Paar Show.)  This is maybe unlike anything you've heard before, but once you get an earful of Blossom Dearie you'll want to seek out her recordings and clips on YouTube.  She is delightful, and I guarantee that nobody's ever sung about that surrey from "Oklahoma" in quite the same way.

Veteran TV Announcer and Sidekick Ed McMahon Dies

You've probably heard by now that the ailing Ed McMahon has just passed away, at the age of 86. Best remembered for his years co-hosting the Tonight show with Johnny Carson, he was for a generation the very model of a television emcee, his amiable presence as comfortable as an old shoe.

You should read his obits and his bio (a good one on Wikipedia here), but most of all it's good at a time to watch him in action. To that end, let's look at a few clips showing the many sides of Ed McMahon.

First up is a clip from Tonight, with Johnny Carson sharing some memories and footage of a slightly tipsy and amusing McMahon:

McMahon, post-Tonight, hosted the talent competition show Star Search in the mid-1980s; here's the opening to the show.

McMahon also frequently co-hosted and did announcing duties on the annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, and here's a clip of them singing together on the 2000 show.

As a longtime spokesman for Budweiser Beer, McMahon frequently showed up in commercials for the product, including this one co-starring Frank Sinatra.

And here's an appearance by Ed on an episode of The Tom Green Show where he talks about making that Sinatra commercial.

There's also an eight-part interview from the Archive of American Television with McMahon, where he discusses his long career in television. Part One is here, and you can access the others from this page, too. You might also enjoy this nice article and interview with him from the pages of Entertainment Weekly magazine, from 2005.

Ed McMahon was one of those ubiquitous performers who always seemed to be busy working, and who also always seemed to have a good sense of humor about himself, enabling him to adapt to the changing times and make himself relevant to many different age groups. That's one reason why the fairly recent publicity about McMahon's money woes made the news at all -- by this point in his life he was like everybody's elderly relative, and our sympathies were with him.

He's gone now, but his legacy as the consummate sidekick survives, and The Flaming Nose salutes Ed McMahon's life and his achievements on this sad day for his family, friends and fans.

Conan O'Brien Debuts as "The Tonight Show" Host...Tonight!

We'd be remiss if we didn't wish best of luck to the hilarious and talented Conan O'Brien as he takes over Jay Leno's slot as host of The Tonight Show. If you were a Leno fan (really? you were? really?!) and hate to see him leave, don't worry, you'll be seeing plenty of him this fall at 10pm every weeknight.

But rejoice! We're lucky to now have undoubtedly the most accomplished comedian in the show's host role since Steve Allen started the show in 1953, plus now we've got the equally hilarious Andy Richter along as his sidekick.

This is a beautiful thing, folks, great for late-night TV, great for comedy, and great for NBC! Here's a little video of the preparations as Conan's show moved West.