Johnny Carson EXPOSED His 9 CREEPIEST Guests of All Time (You Won't Believe Who!)

Stateside Gossip

Johnny Carson interviewed thousands of stars, but who were the ones that truly unnerved him? In this video, we reveal the 9 Golden Age Hollywood guests that Johnny Carson himself found to be the absolute creepiest. Go behind the scenes of "The Tonight Show" as we uncover the awkward, unsettling, and downright strange celebrity interviews that left the king of late night TV speechless.  These are the untold Hollywood stories and celebrity secrets from a man who saw it all. From bizarre behavior to uncomfortable moments, find out which stars made the list of his worst guests ever.  🔔 SUBSCRIBE for more classic television history and Hollywood secrets! 👍 LIKE the video if you miss the Johnny Carson era! 💬 COMMENT below with the most awkward celebrity interview you've ever seen!  #oldhollywood #thetonightshow #classic_tv #celebrityinterviews #hollywood  #johnnycarson

Transcript

00:00okay seriously can we just jump right into the craziest story johnny carson the guy who never

00:06broke a sweat actually walking off his own show right i mean that's the moment carson saw everything

00:12handled everyone for what 30 years presidents movie stars comedians bombing for him to physically

00:18leave his desk mid-interview it tells you right away this wasn't just someone being difficult or

00:23you know a diva this was something else something genuinely unsettling totally broke the reality of

00:29the show yeah and that's exactly what we're digging into today yeah for everyone tuning in you're

00:33listening to the latest celebrity gossip and we are diving deep into what the reports are saying

00:39about apparently nine specific guests who really got under johnny carson's skin on the tonight show

00:45and it wasn't just about being argumentative carson can handle that right he loved sparring sometimes

00:49oh absolutely but these nine the vibe was different it was like um this weird energy sometimes super

00:57intense sometimes disturbingly quiet like they weren't quite playing by the same rules of you

01:03know reality okay so let's start with the walk-off itself andy kaufman but not as andy kaufman as

01:09tony clifton oh tony clifton the ultimate agent of chaos and this was deliberate right kaufman designed

01:15clifton to be appalling totally he shows up he's loud he's immediately insulting ed mcmahon

01:21smells like cheap cologne apparently just belligerent ignoring cues interrupting making

01:26crude jokes the character was just pure uh weaponized obnoxiousness but kaufman himself was a big star

01:35carson liked him the audience liked him letting clifton on was the gamble and that's the creepy part

01:40according to the staff back then it wasn't just an act you could switch off the commitment was so total

01:46it felt unnerving like where did andy end and tony begin it was this complete refusal to just be in

01:52the room like a normal guest and it all blew up when clifton uh picked up a glass of water and threw

01:57it towards doc severinson the band leader yep that was it carson just stood up no big speech just

02:03walked away left ed mcmahon hanging there while security literally dragged clifton off during the

02:08commercial break and looking back it feels like carson wasn't just walking away from rudeness he was

02:13walking away from someone who as he apparently put it later existed in an entirely different universe

02:17he was trying to protect the basic shared reality of the show that makes sense when someone refuses to

02:23connect at all what can you do exactly and clifton the character was banned for life from the show after

02:29that okay so that's intentional chaos but then you have guests who felt like a genuine almost physical

02:35threat right let's pivot to that we got to talk about the german actor klaus kinski when he was on in the

02:41late 70s oh boy the reports said the energy was just electric but in a scary way yeah they talk about

02:48his physical presence this crackling dangerous energy wild eyes apparently never blinking just

02:55staring intensely and trembling like visibly vibrating with intensity or rage or something

03:00and carson who usually leaned in was actually leaning back trying to create distance and kinski wasn't just

03:07plugging a movie right he went on totally off script started rambling about death the apocalypse

03:13religion just this intense almost incoherent rant the tension was supposedly so thick you could cut

03:21it with a knife pretty much production staff were apparently briefing security seriously wondering if

03:26they'd have to cut the feed for carson's safety whoa carson apparently said later it felt like sitting

03:31next to a bomb that could explode at any second the goal wasn't an interview anymore it was just

03:35contain the situation okay so kinski's explosive rage but they have robert blake which sounds like

03:41the total opposite cold hostility exactly blake came on and instead of kinski's wild energy it was this

03:50chilling calm but underneath it pure antagonism had that dead-eyed stare right yeah locked onto carson and

03:57he wouldn't just answer questions he'd challenge them like carson would ask something basic and blake

04:01would shoot back why would you ask me that just radiating this quiet cold anger so it wasn't loud

04:07it was still but menacingly still yeah that's exactly what reportedly unnerved carson that stillness

04:15he told someone later it didn't feel like an interview it felt like he was being sized up by a

04:20predator oof that's intense it was calculated you know controlled not chaotic like kinski but deliberate

04:29menace and that got blake banned for life too okay so moving from physical or psychological threats

04:36to something maybe weirder conceptually creepy like guests who seemed disconnected from reality itself

04:44truman capote yeah capote's later appearances were apparently really tough he'd been this witty charming

04:49guest early on but as his addiction problems got worse it became quite disturbing and the unsettling part

04:55wasn't just that he was you know intoxicated it was how he spoke right this wispy barely audible voice

05:01he'd start a sentence and just trail off silence sometimes for like a minute then he'd pick up the

05:06thought like no time had passed at all that sounds incredibly difficult to interview carson apparently

05:11found it profoundly unsettling he supposedly compared it to interviewing a ghost who kept fading in and out

05:15of our dimension ghost during one really bad appearance around 75 capote was rambling about

05:22death and secrets looking frail the producers actually cut the segment short highly unusual the

05:28discomfort was just too much carson even said something like he sounded like a haunted house

05:33whispering its own memoir that's incredibly eerie like interviewing someone already halfway gone a

05:38really chilling description and if capote was the fading ghost than andy warhol yeah he was like the

05:44opposite not fading just absent an existential vacuum wait he just sat there how is that unsettling wouldn't

05:51that just be boring especially after dealing with someone like kinski that's a great question because

05:56carson thrived on interaction right wit energy back and forth warhol gave him nothing like literally

06:03nothing almost one word answers blank stares barely spoke it wasn't hostility it wasn't illness it was just

06:10this profound lack of engagement like he was observing carson as an exhibit not talking to him so the

06:15disturbance was him refusing the whole premise yeah the basic human thing of having a conversation

06:21exactly carson tried everything apparently jokes serious questions trying to find any way in but warhol was

06:28just impenetrable carson called it like interviewing a sphinx wow the deep discomfort came from that total lack

06:35of reciprocation carson apparently couldn't figure out if it was the worst interview ever or some kind

06:40of brilliant performance art and he wasn't sure which answer bothered him more okay that is deeply

06:46weird all right let's quickly touch on a couple more types of unsettling cultural shock maybe yeah george

06:52jessel the old vaudeville guy by the early 70s he was uh let's say a relic and apparently completely unaware

07:00of it so he comes on expecting to do his old routine and launches into it problem was his greatest hits

07:06were filled with the most incredibly offensive racist jokes and stereotypes imaginable from like

07:12the 1920s oh no in the 70s yeah the audience reportedly just went dead silent horrified and carson was trapped

07:20he couldn't exactly yell at this old guy on live tv but he couldn't laugh either you can see clips right

07:25he just has this pain frozen smile yeah desperately trying to figure out how to cut away had to go to

07:30commercial super early and jessel was of course never back the disturbing part for carson wasn't just

07:37the awful jokes but jessel's total obliviousness he genuinely didn't seem to get that the world had

07:43changed and his material was poison like a time traveler who didn't realize he'd landed a terrifying kind

07:49of disconnect okay one last one and this one sounds less creepy more sad margot hemingway yeah

07:56her last appearance in the early 80s was apparently just deeply troubling for everyone the discomfort

08:01wasn't menace it was concern she just seemed really disoriented her speech was erratic she had this kind

08:07of vacant glassy look she drifted off answer questions nobody asked it was clear something was very wrong

08:14and carson picked up on that he wasn't annoyed no reports say he was visibly worried about her

08:18kept trying gently to steer the conversation make her comfortable but it wasn't working she seemed to

08:24be in real distress that's rough to watch i bet for sure and backstage when staff maybe tried to lighten

08:29the mood carson apparently shut it down immediately said something like that wasn't someone being

08:34difficult that was someone in trouble the disturbance there was seeing real personal tragedy unfolding

08:41something beyond the scope of late night banter so looking back at all these stories it really

08:47draws a line doesn't it between just a tough interview and something genuinely off whether

08:54it's calculated chaos like clifton or that cold menace from blake or the sort of fading presence of

09:00capote absolutely it highlights the limits of what even a master like carson could control he could handle

09:05conflict but he couldn't really handle someone who had in whatever way checked out of the shared reality

09:11of the conversation which you know leaves you thinking if you had to face one of these which would be

09:15worse sitting across from that explosive unpredictable rage of klaus kinski where you're genuinely scared

09:21or facing the absolute chilling void of connection from andy warhol hmm that's a tough one to think

09:28about gives you a new perspective on talk shows maybe definitely something to mull over well that's all the

09:33tea we have for today if you love this scoop and want more make sure to subscribe to stateside gossip

09:39wherever you get your podcasts

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