The 1986-87 season will be known in television circles as the year of the late-night talk show. Veterans Johnny Carson, David Letterman and Ted Koppel are being given a run for the ratings by Joan Rivers, Dick Cavett, Jimmy Breslin–and David Brenner, whose syndicated show is called ”Nightlife.”
Q–You`ve hosted for Johnny Carson 80 times and been a guest on his show 150 times. Which is harder, being the host or the guest?
A–The guest; you never know what`s going to be asked of you and you`re under pressure to deliver.
Q–With so many talk shows on the air this season, how will you position yours to make it different?
A–Because it`s my show, I can reach comedically into areas that I wasn`t able to before. For instance, we recently opened the show with a filmed 4 1/2- minute segment on a town without bags–no garbage bags, no grocery bags, no plastic bags. It was like a take-off on ”The Night of the Living Dead,” and it was hysterical. Very strange. Very funny.
Q–Couldn`t you have done something like that on the ”Tonight” show?
A–Sure. And Johnny would have said, ”Very nice. So how have you been, David?”
Q–Who is your dream guest?
A–God. He could do the whole half hour. I wouldn`t even do a monologue. The main thing I`d be worried about is what would happen if He sneezed.
Q–What is a host`s nightmare?
A–Having the show canceled. I don`t mind if things go wrong. Whatever happens, we can handle it. Recently we had a singer cancel on the day of the show, so we substituted a brand-new comedian, who turned out to be great. Then on the same day we had a chance to get Mike Tyson, who`s probably going to be the next heavyweight boxing champion, so we were trying to get Jake LaMotta to come on with him. LaMotta had to go into a hospital, so we didn`t know until the last minute if he`d be able to do it. It turned out that he could, but it was all touch and go.
Q–Did you ever have a guest who wouldn`t talk?
A–No, but once, on the ”Tonight” show, I had a guest who talked like a robot: Evel Knievel. He came on and for some reason did three minutes–which is an eternity on television–talking v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. I had no idea what was going on, and neither did the people in the audience. It made them very uncomfortable, and me, too. Knievel thought it was a joke. Just before a commercial break, I said something funny and broke him up, and he laughed and said he had planned to talk like that for the whole show. I said, ”W-h-y d-o- n`t y-o-u t-r-y i-t?” and went to a commercial. After that, he was fine. We had a nice conversation on why he jumps across mountains.
