Plot

The Eleventh year anniversary of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Guests are Buddy Hackett, Burt Reynolds, and Don Rickles. Also an appearance by Dean Martin and the Mighty Carson Players with Carol Wayne.

In this anniversary show, Johnny and Ed celebrate doing "The Tonight Show" for 11 years. As they are talking after the first commercial break, Dean Martin comes out to congratulate Johnny with funny comments. Buddy Hackett then joins them. Martin leaves, and Hackett sits down for his interview. He says he waited two years before coming on the show with Johnny because he felt loyal to Jack Paar. He tells an off-color joke, carefully phrasing it to challenge the censor. He then talks about the purse he is holding, noting that his wife has furnished him with a collection; he jokes that it's filled with bullets, saying that if you hit someone hard with it, you don't even need a gun. Hackett also recalls how in 1954 he planned to propose to Larry Gelbart's sister, but found she had just gotten engaged to someone else. He then jokes about how sparse his romantic life was before meeting his wife. This is followed by a Tea Time movie segment with Carol Wayne. Burt Reynolds talks a bit about his current career, including recording an album and hosting a weekend late-night talk show; he says four of his last five movies have been awful, but they all made money. Johnny shows a picture of him from his college football days, sent by a fraternity brother; Reynolds says he was better at posing for photos than at playing. He then talks about the medical issues he has had over the past year - a hernia operation and hypoglycemia. Asked what he was doing eleven years earlier, Reynolds talks about his film "Navajo Joe", and notes that he was married; he also recalls his role on "Gunsmoke". Don Rickles congratulates Johnny and talks about how talented he is, with various funny comments and asides. Asked what he was doing eleven years before, he says a late show in the Sahara Lounge in Las Vegas. Hackett interjects with a story about Rickles performing there, and Johnny also comments how popular that show had been, even at 5 AM. Sammy Davis Jr. had been booked for the show but couldn't appear due to illness; a floral wreath he sent is shown. Carol Wayne comes out and tells Johnny that eleven years ago she was in high school. Johnny asks her about getting old and says "you'll be 47 some day" (ironically, she died at age 42). She mentions how she gets recognized because of the show, and notes that her collection of Indian artifacts was used in Burt Reynolds' movie "The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing".—lenab9011