October 23 – TV Talk Show Host Day

Posted on October 23, 2014

One of the America's favorite TV talk shows has been The Tonight Show, which has been on as long as I've been alive. (Translation: a loooooong time!) It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the U.S. and the third longest-running show of any sort on NBC. And it owes a lot of its success to Johnny Carson, who headed the show for THIRTY years!

(Of course, other amazing talents have also headed the show: Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and now Jimmy Fallon.)

Well, today is Johnny Carson's birthday. And in honor of this most excellent of TV talk show hosts, today has been declared TV Talk Show Host Day!

One of Carson's repeating characters was
a funny "psychic" named Carnak the
Magnificent.

Johnny Carson was so many things, which is why he was such a good host: he was a comedian, writer, actor, musician, and an amateur magician. And he was a skeptic who hated religious fundamentalism and superstition. His background in magic helped him to be aware of the fact that some people who claim to have paranormal abilities are really just doing magic tricks. Magicians remind their audiences that they are creating illusions – but psychics do similar sorts of tricks AND THEN LIE ABOUT IT! Way not cool!

Carson actually helped show up some of these psychics as fakes on his show. 

For example, Carson and magician James Randi showed that Israeli so-called psychic Uri Geller was a fake; Geller was unable to do his famous spoon-bending trick because Carson supplied the spoons. 

Carson and Randi teamed up again to prove that the faith healer Peter Popoff was a charlatan. Carson also helped to support Randi's efforts to debunk junk pseudoscience and promote skepticism by donating to the James Randi Foundation and The Amazing Meetings. 

Carson also helped the field of science by sometimes inviting scientists onto the show. He invited astronomer Carl Sagan onto the show 26 times!

The fact that he helped encourage both skepticism and the popular understanding of science are my two favorite things about Johnny Carson! 

And now that he is gone, I appreciate the efforts of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert as well. Hooray for comedians as talk show hosts!

Also on this date:

Diwali 

National Mole Day 

Anniversary of the Peace Agreement on Cambodia 

iPod Day 

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• October holidays
• October birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in October
  

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• November holidays 
• November birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in November

March 9, 2013 - Joe Franklin Day

It was the first talk show ever. And it was one of the longest-running TV shows in history, with more than 28 thousand episodes and more than 300 thousand guests!

And I've never even heard of The Joe Franklin Show!

Joe Franklin started in the entertainment biz when he was just 17 years old—on the radio. In 1951, he began his long-running talk show on television. Finally, in 1993, he retired from TV and went back to radio, playing old records and interviewing celebrities. He's still at it, still entertaining people at age 87!

Franklin was born (with the name Joseph Fortgang) on this date in 1926. In addition to being a radio and TV personality, he has written 23 books and is an expert on silent films. His super-sharp brain is filled with knowledge (even trivia) about entertainment, which is why guests and audiences enjoy his show so much.

Another reason is his show would combine up-and-coming stars (Woody Allen, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, and Bill Cosby are just a few of the mega-stars who got their first TV exposure on his show), legends such as Marilyn Monroe and John Lennon, and people who were not and never would be stars such as balloon folders and unknown punk bands.

Franklin has been called the King of Entertainment and the King of Nostalgia. I wonder if he scratches his head in wonder at the way talk shows have grown and evolved—with mega-hits like The Oprah Winfrey Show, late-night shows such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The David Letterman Show, morning shows such as Good Morning America, shows that combine the talk format with comedy and fake news such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and current daytime hits such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The View. There are talk shows about politics, entertainment, issues, cars, sports, and many other topics.

A Collector of Celebrity...

Apparently, not only has Franklin been collecting knowledge and trivia for more than half a century, he's also been collecting memorabilia from his beloved celebrities.

Apparently, his collection of star stuff eventually got out of hand.

Check out this old article from a decade ago. I wonder if Franklin really did put his collection in storage? 

Also on this date:

Barbie Day

Baron Bliss Day in Belize

Navigator and mapmaker Amerigo Vespucci's birthday