As one of The Tonight Show’s pioneering and longest-running hosts, Johnny Carson developed a reputation for being aloof with guests. But Three’s Company star, Suzanne Somers, said her experience with the host was kind of the opposite. She claimed he interrupted his usual habit of pen drumming to tell her how delicious he thought she looked
How did she reply after Carson gave her such a line? And what other stars did he seem to have affection for?
Johnny Carson to Suzanne Somers: ‘You look like f***ing cream’
On Sirius XM’s Radio Andy, Somers was chatting with Andy Cohen about knowing Carson, who spotted her alone in the NBC lunchroom before she was famous. He ended up putting her on air to read her poetry.
Eventually, Cohen asked if Carson ever hit on her, and she said he hadn’t but added, “Except once.”
She explained it was during a break when she was a guest and Carson was drumming on his desk with his pen. That’s when she said he looked over at her and declared, “You look like f***ing cream.”
According to her, she simply replied, “Huh.”
Notably, Somers was discovered on Carson’s Tonight Show in consideration for her role on Three’s Company. Furthermore, she told Cohen in another Radio Andy interview that she didn’t think Carson had salacious motives in their relationship, and she was grateful he provided her with a stepping stone to her acting career.
Johnny Carson told Dolly Parton he’d pay a hefty price for a peek under her dress
When Dolly Parton chatted with Carson in 1977, the two made it clear that they had already established a friendly rapport. But the Tonight Show interview seemed to get playfully tense when the public curiosity about her body came up.
“I’ve always been pretty well blessed,” Parton shared. “People are always asking if they’re real.”
Carson coyly promised he “would never,” but she told him, “Oh, you don’t have to ask. I tell you what. These are mine.”
“I have certain guidelines,” Carson carefully replied, “but I would give about a year’s pay to peek under there.”
Parton gave the forward line an animated laugh. Notably, she was also a somewhat frequent guest with Carson at The Tonight Show.
Joan Rivers claimed she and Johnny Carson had a one-night affair
Like Somers, another star who got a break on The Tonight Show was late comedian, Joan Rivers. And she also claimed that Carson gave her a line. Actually, she said she was a participant in a one-night stand but one might assume some lines were used if this story is true.
Though both Carson and Rivers are dead, the story of their Hollywood friendship and falling out remains one of the more intriguing. She was a guest host on The Tonight Show, and seemingly a pretty good friend of Carson’s. However, she eventually took her own late-night show with a competing network.
Rivers said she tried to call Carson before anyone else, but it was supposedly once the deal was done. Whatever the details, he never spoke to her again.
However, she claimed to TMZ late in her own life and after Carson had already died that the two had a closer relationship than was ever made public. That’s when she claimed they had a one-night stand.
And she was compelled to share the information with the world at that point because rumors of a Carson sex tape emerged, creating gossip that he was well-endowed, anatomically speaking. She seemed to confirm those rumors with her own tale of having spent one night with Carson.
