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Events on October 1 in history

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962Oct, 1

First broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the Tonight Show franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, 1992. Ed McMahon served as Carson's sidekick and the show's announcer.

For its first decade, Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show was based at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City, with some episodes recorded at NBC Studios in Burbank, California; on May 1, 1972, the show moved to Burbank as its main venue and remained there exclusively after May 1973 until Carson's retirement. The show's house band, the NBC Orchestra, was led by Skitch Henderson, until 1966 when Milton Delugg took over, who was succeeded by Doc Severinsen less than a year later.

The series has been considered the best version of the show by many Tonight Show enthusiasts, and it has been ranked as one of the greatest TV shows of all time in polls from both 2002 and 2013.

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Events on 1962

  • 5Feb

    Charles de Gaulle

    French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.
  • 5Aug

    Nelson Mandela

    Apartheid in South Africa: Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.
  • 15Sep

    Cuban Missile Crisis

    The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.
  • 18Sep

    Jamaica

    Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations.
  • 6Nov

    Apartheid

    The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's apartheid policies and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.