I was 17 when this aired and Carson was often watched before turning in for the night. Good memories.

Once again, Mr Carson paving the way for another great talent who obviously went onto many successes!

This was broadcast when my daughter was 10 months old.....I actually remember this one, too. What a great talent Billy Crystal is, and was. Being on Johnny Carson on the Tonight show was a big boost for any aspiring talent, almost anyone that got to be on the show was rocketed to fame and fortune. Thanks for the memories, I always enjoyed the Tonight show and miss the days when late night TV wasn't Political jokes that aren't funny anymore like they all are now.

*Billy Crystal's stand-up routine was nothing to write home about--but his impressions of Mohamed Ali and Howard Cossell were spot-on. He's one of the few comedians whom I respect as a person. I remember his saying on "Inside the Actors Studio" that the last time he'd been on a date was during the Johnson Administration! No "scandals" and has been married to the same woman since 1970. You can't say that about most other comics of his generation.*

I was 27 or 28 at this point and Billy Crystal became one of my all time favorites along with Steve Martin.

I most likely watched this originally.. I,💯❤️hardly missed a show. Johnny STILL is THE BEST..I miss him😪

How do we miss Johnny

THANKYOU and amen

My all time favorite Billy Crystal movie is Running Scared. If you haven't seen it.. Please do. It's amazing.

Awesome. Thanks.

He stood up and did the eulogy for Mohammed Ali . it was really beautiful

😃 *Thank you!* I’ve never seen this one. What a maaaavelous and unique routine 😉 from one of my all-time favorites. To this day, I still tape Carson reruns on the tube.

Jodie Dallas from "Soap." Congratulations on a very long and great career.

Love ❤ Billy ...cool beans guy 👦

👏👏👏 That was definitely new & refreshing! Billy just got better & better as the years went passing by!! Haven't heard anything from him in awhile, I hope he's doing well!!! 👍👍

The greatest comedian at the Academy Awards.

Billy talks about the appearence in his book. He remembers being told by the segment producer to look at him after he was done to see if Billy should take a bow and leave or if he would get the holy of holies...getting called to the couch. Billy was apparently the first since Freddie Prinze to get called to the couch at his first appearence. Also, in the book, he tells about an awkward encounter he had with Orson Welles the night before which made him slightly more nervous about his appearence.

Billy Crystal is funny

I had to fast forward… but I’m a fan of Billy.

That freakin laugh! 🤣🤣

And also, Holly crap, Billy was just about taking over the whole show with the close up camera Ali impression I think Johnny had to snap him out of it!

❤genius and wonderful all his life!!!

Mahvelous! Simply mahvelous!

Between the 2 of them, they hosted the Oscars 14 times. I'm sure Johnny had no idea that was gonna happen.

How did these guys look older back then? I remember watching City Slickers, which was my introduction to Billy Crystal. But in this old clip he looked capable and durable. Pretty amazing how young he was here.

Classic👏👏👏👏👏

A wonderful talent

Can't duplicate shows like this anymore,

Fun fact: Billy Chrystal played the first openly gay character on network television, a show called Soap

great.

Great !

When it comes down to it, crystal wasnt a great standup but he was a good comedic actor. Hes a kid here, and would go on to make a good name for himself. I like the bit but it went on for way too long.

As he came on you could see the nerves yes folks a time when Billy Crystal was merely human, but the nerves soon went and he did some wonderful observation comedy which was good but also very brave, and Carson acknowledged that.

It's a good thing he got called to the couch...very good

Hello. Love your channel. Do you have any clips of when Johnny interviewed David Niven please? I have seen a few still photos, but cant find any videos. Many thanks.

I love Calcifer! 🔥😀👏

Most Unusual !!!🎉😂🙏🏼🎃🎶🎭✨🎈🌾

Billy really went for high wire audience trust , or he didn't care that much, which for his big shot is really brave in either case.. Or this was his best out of the off kilter , repetition, bits...or all of the above,, of course it was. Thank you so much

You had to be pretty damn good for Carson to invite a person back with such kudos. I loved watching Carson... often on the sly. That's back when late nite was good. And good music shows. Sigh.

That's good

a genius at work!

Well, I don't know how I missed that appearance. IMHO, very nuanced humor that took a lot of guts to perform on national TV, let alone Carson. But, man, didn't he get the praise? And we ALL know what even a thumbs up from Carson could do for a comedian. How wonderful that these performances have been archived!

Love this 👍

When he goes to the couch and they show who was sitting there watching I almost yelled.

Billy had good stuff...

Brilliant. But it's the only time I've seen Billy Chrystal ever nervous.

January 22 1976 listed on Wikipedia

The first time is usually baptism by fire and Billy got burned.

It was worth waiting for Cosell/Ali.

Goodnight, swamp 😄

strangely enough, the voice (intonation) Billy Crystal is using here is exactly the same as the voice Steve Martin has been using for years. I wonder who copied whom.

Definitely.. WEIRD. Good thing for The Oscars that the sitcom "Soap" got picked up or 'Billy' probably would have been selling insurance a LONG time ago.. 😒

Bill's character of the lounge singer is dead on for what shallow wealthy financialy but poor in Caracter people acted like and thought was cool were and some still are like. The rest of the act including Ali impression are wonderful.

By the way this is not just comedy there is acting involved too.

Considering how Billy has makes this appearance sound whenever he talks about it, I expected a lot more. The lounge thing was mildly funny at first, but he shouldn't have made it basically his whole routine. Got stale pretty quickly, imo. Meanwhile his Ali Cosell impressions were absolutely spot on and hilarious and made me think he should've had THOSE in his routine rather than just doing them from the chair. Plus he's also described the reaction to the Ali bit as "Johnny kicked back in hysterics and it was just magical." Didn't see any of that here, but in fairness, maybe he was confusing it with a later appearance. Oh well...

Johnny went to break so he could set up the Ali impression for him. Wry cool

JOHNNY CARSON 23 DE OCTUBRE DE 1925 23 DE ENERO DE 2005 97 AÑOS 79 AÑOS 18 AÑOS

William Edward Crystal (Nueva York; 14 de marzo de 1948), más conocido como Billy Crystal, es un actor, escritor, productor, comediante y director de cine estadounidense.

Billie Crisco could not achieve talent above his ego. Rest in peace if you are still alive.

Prob is, you don't appreciate what you have until you dont have it anymore.

Looking down from the heart ❤️ and and the heavens

what a bomb

He wasn’t that bad as people say. Certainly a lot better stand up comedien than Seinfeld.

I have to admit, the start of this sketch was a little rough-it didn’t pick up until 3 minutes in-but Billy recovered beautifully.

Johnny Carson should of interviewed Tyra j moore aka true freeman

What's up with JC's hair?

I love billy, but perhaps I'm dating myself but I just think you should have stuck with the impressions in my opinion. Clearly Johnny thought otherwise, which makes me wrong.

The interview saved him because this monologue was boring.

It's as if he's impersonating a mixture of Trump and Tom Cruise

🤓🤪😤 He’s a little baby 😤😩😣

really talented jewish guy. lot of average ones made it too but billy is the real deal

This is a great impression of Donald Trump....

I cannot for the life of me make out what he says at 8:54 ... "Mohammad, you did not dance until the 12th round ..." and then gibberish. Can anyone tell me what he says? Sounds like "it leaves this repulitzner feel" but that, of course is nonsense :)

Donnie

So that's what bombing is.

How'd he ever get anywhere with that act?

Billy is genius great time before all the PC nonsense took over!

I'm not sure what I'm missing, because I didn't find that bit funny at all. Billy Crystal is a great talent, but I just didn't find this bit funny at all.

his cadence in the routine reminds me of Donald Trump.

Holy crap this guy's horrible! He'll never amount to anything.

I love Billy Crystal but this is awful.

Excellent example of Robin Williams stealing a bit however, he had Fred Astaire stepping in poo.

So boring had to fast forward ⏩

meta

Yeah that wasn’t funny. 😬

Awful but thank God he didn't give up.

He was too long..overplayed

Not funny at all but good impressions

Pathetic first showing on Johnny Carson. Not funny at all.

I was never one for Billy’s arrogant humor.

I like Billy but this was terrible.

Billy Crystal is a product of "who you know" in Hollywood. His skit was terribly boring and even the audience back then didn't laugh at all. Johnny was just being nice and said what he said out of professionalism.

insufferable

Terrible

Crystal should try to stop these videos from appearing. He is terrible here. Wish I never saw it as I was kind of loving the job he did on the oscars. The imitations were very good, but his personality was off-putting and the skit was not at all good. Kind of a passive/aggressive personality.

This is NOT good

Crystal wasn't funny.

More annoying than funny.

Not funny here.

Oh, Billy.... unfunny and overrated for 50 years....