Carson Finds New Way of Introducing the Tonight Show Band, with Doc Seversinen AND Cheerleaders!

[@hankkingsley2976]

the cheers for Mr. Excitement!

[@DanGeorges]

Nice to give some time to the band. They were such a key part of that show.

[@Joeblow-ms3cv]

Indubidubly 🙂

[@collettdave]

David thank you so much for all the rare videos you post with Doc and the guys!

[@johnsjohnson448]

I loved Mr. Carson's impersonation of Bob Hope! LOL! Thanks for sharing.

[@ruprect1]

That was awesome!! I've never seen that clip before. Big fan of that band.

[@getzenfan]

Great! Reminds me that in New Orleans high school bands of yesteryear, the first chair players were more popular than the football starters.

[@alartandy]

Tommy Newsom got the biggest applause @ 5:35.

[@johnsjohnson448]

Tommy Newsom was an accomplished musician, and a very kind gentleman.

[@fff-uc5pl]

snooky - school of hard knocks, how true.

[@rudolphguarnacci197]

Excellent!

[@Joeblow-ms3cv]

Super cool 🙂

[@MrJoeybabe25]

Johnny really enjoyed doing Bob Hope here! He was great. I wonder if Hope said anything next time he was on?

[@jimlaforte1755]

Johnny is ripping on Bob Hope. Hillarious!

[@jennifer86010]

4:14 Is it me, or does Phil Perkins (Baritone Saxophone) look like David Letterman's musical twin brother?

[@mike89128]

Wright Jr College, Chicago. Also gave us Kim Novak.

[@1223baddad]

mike89128 I'm assuming that it's the old Wright JC. I worked near Belmont and Austin for 27 years.

[@TedZateslo]

Dave, John Bambridge is indeed the correct name. Bambridge wrote a lot of the charts the band played, in addition to playing sax.

[@DonTruman]

I didn't realize there were so many musicians in the band. And I wonder how Doc, Tommy, and the "assistant director" all handled directing duties.

[@bryanhenderson2235]

There were more members of the band. They rotated through different nights on the show. The 1st chair guitar player was Bob Bain. So some nights it was Bob, some nights Peter.

[@jasonwentworth4995]

Johnny does a pretty decent Bob Hope imitation here! This is a clever spoof of Hope's Christmas special segments with the AP College Football team...and like Hope's version, the gags range from decent to lame. : D

[@michaels.7886]

Although I love seeing this clip, I’m surprised and a tad disappointed that Don Ashworth, who played a variety of woodwind instruments and was with The Tonight Show orchestra for the entire run of Johnny’s tenure as the program’s host, was apparently not there the night that this sketch was performed. Viewers may remember him best offering wacky musical bits during the show’s Stump The Band segments.

[@kellycoleman715]

Hilarious.