Television: Here's Johnny

After nine days off the air and on the lam, Johnny Carson came home to NBC. All was forgiven. Johnny was for givin' NBC the benefit of his presence if NBC was for givin' him the present of their benefits—that is, a lot more cash and a little more say-so over who runs the Johnny Carson show Tonight.

The contractual spat was abuilding before the AFTRA strike confused Carson's position (TIME, April 14). While it was true that he objected to NBC's rerunning of his old tapes during the strike, Carson's chief concern was his own future. Some time earlier, he had hired Show Biz Attorney Arnold Grant, to whom he referred on the air half-facetiously as "Louie the Shyster. He used to be prosecuting attorney in the Mafia's kangaroo court." In the demand for a new contract, Grant and Lawyer Louis Nizer reportedly asked for a base salary jump from $15,000 to $30,000 a week, plus a hefty cut of the Tonight earnings, which run to about $20 million in advertising billings a year. Sure enough, Carson won a "substantial" (if not 100%) increase and the authority to make some personnel changes. As a result, Producer Art Stark, who ran the program for 4½ years, will get a new assignment. However, Carson's brother Dick will stay on as director.

Apart from good lawyers and proven box-office appeal, Carson had some borrowed leverage working for him—the threat of new competition from the ABC network. Theoretically, ABC's Joey Bishop Show, which started last week opposite Tonight, was bound to chip away at Carson's audience. After a week's run, it looks as if neither NBC nor Carson has anything serious to worry about.

Introducing Idols. Bishop, himself a first-rate stand-up comic and successful pinch hitter for Carson in the past, could not seem to find his way. Using roughly the same format as Tonight, Bishop provided little more than late-hour tedium for viewers. His guests included Buddy Greco and Sonny and Cher. Debbie Reynolds talked about Girl Scouts; Danny Thomas kidded around to little effect. Everybody plugged everybody's newest picture, recording or TV show. Bishop introduced his rabbi and a priest, and kept referring to his jitters, which needed no introduction. Dragging his microphone into the studio audience, he introduced "one of my idols. I promised him that I would not embarrass him by taking a microphone and talking to him, etc., but I know you would never forgive me if I did not acknowledge the presence of one of the great, great stars of all time, Mr. Edward G. Robinson, with his lovely wife."

Earlier, in stilted fashion that hopefully will not become habit-forming, Bishop announced: "It's with a great deal of pleasure that I'm afforded the privilege of having as my first guest, Governor Ronald Reagan." The Governor got off one good line, noting that "I've still got a four-year contract where I am." Bishop responded, poignantly and perhaps prophetically: "You're lucky; I've got only 39 weeks."