Bette first appeared on The Tonight Show in 1970. In 1973 she was back in all her flaming, feathery glory and slammed us with Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. No one had ever seen anything like Bette Midler, including Johnny Carson, who knew a one-of-a-kind talent when he saw it.
In the years to come, Bette was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show. Johnny's affinity for Bette unfurled in his eyes, and visa versa. Over the years, Bette shared with Johnny her ups and downs, from The Rose to Saga of Baby Divine to For The Boys. Any night that Bette was to be a guest, Johnny's smile spoke for itself as he announced her: saying that tonight was a treat for him too! When Bette took the stage, Johnny sat back and let her take the show, which she always did quite easily.
The two of them had a special click that just worked so well! It would seem only fitting that Bette Midler would be Johnny Carson's last guest after decades on the air.
After gracing us with her always-wonderful Ms. Otis regrets, Bette greets Johnny, wearing her trademark smile and a fun low-cut black dress. Bette makes us laugh right off the cuff when she said she was the "last one out of Frederick's of Hollywood before they torched it."
From there, the two reminisce on how Bette started out, from her first Carson audition with a torn dress, ("I was so pissed off by the time I got out there, that I sang notes I didn't even know I had!") to her many appearances with him since then.
On this "auspicious occassion," Bette tells Johnny she has written him a song as she unfolds a worn piece of paper joshing the audience, "They think I don't have it written! It IS written!"
From there she moves into a delicious parody of You Made me Love You, renamed You Made me Watch You.
One thing that helps to make Bette such a radiant performer is her timing; it is brilliant. Just when you think she has ended the song, the piano escalates into a hard roll, she stands waving her hands as if she is not finished yet, and moves to Carson's desk. Perched there, Bette moves into a bridge of jokes about toe nail polish and Wimbledon, before finishing with a bang and the audience falls out with applause.
Robin Williams, also a final guest, is quite amused along with an obviously appreciative Johnny. The look on Johnny's face said he knew he had made the right choice for his ultimate guest, "The last fool Mr. Carson will have to suffer gladly," as Bette later said.
At this point, Bette's only been out there for about 20 minutes and she has already blown us away with a playful Ms. Otis Regrets and the wonderfully performed You Made me Watch You which she wrote herself. But Bette is not through yet...
First she has to get through the interminable applause of the Tonight Show audience. As she tries to take a seat to resume the original pace of the show, the audience is still roaring and Robin pulls her back up from her seat offering her a bow and saying, "Take it in honey! Take it in!" As the roar of the audience at last begins to dull Johnny says in his shy way, "I think I booked Ozzie and Harriet at the Twilight Zone tonight!"
Once we are settled back into the show, we are riveted, wondering what Bette may do next. She and Johnny talk a bit about Bette's outrageousness in the 70s and Bette agrees, saying, "I was like the height of outrageousness!" She went on to say she was glad her outrageousness peaked just before "crotch grabbing," tossing a caustic look to Robin saying, "You know, you do it all the time." Robin, being a brilliant comic himself nods, saying "Oh yes I do. I have even been to the Schick Center [for crotch grabbing]!"
As Bette and Johnny talk about music, he shares that his favorite songs are I'll be Seeing You, and Here's That Rainy Day. that Midler timing kicks in and she begins the first few lines of Here's That Rainy Day:
"Maybe I should have saved those left over dreams, funny but here's that rainy day..."
Johnny synchs up with her quickly and they gaze at each other like the best of friends as they softly sang the whole chorus; the emotion on their faces looking perfectly choreographed. There is that timing again.
By now we don't think the show can get any better, but Bette has not done her finale yet. The world should have been forewarned to keep their tissue on their night stand on this night, as soon we would all taken aback by Bette's next performance, One For The Road: Johnny's farewell ballad.
Johnny Carson once said of Bette that "you can always tell a good singer if they can sing with piano-accompaniment only." It was obvious he admired that style and was impressed by it. Bette apparently never forgot that, because next we see Bette in all her sequined glory, perched atop a stool on a dimly lit stage. And as she sang Johnny Mercer's One More for the Road, I know the nation must have been in tears right along with Johnny.
Dear Mr. Carson,
I am writing this to you
and I hope that you will read it
so you'll know
my heart goes pitter-patter
and I stutter and I stammer
every time I see you
on your TV show.
I guess I 'm ust another fan of yours,
and I thought I'd write and tell you so-oh-oh.
"I thought that was pretty sweet guys!"
You made me watch you.
I didn't want to do it.
Jack Parr had put me through it.
You made me watch you.
I love the jokes you're floggin'
when you are monologin'.
I watched your hair turn slowly
from dark to white,
and when I can't sleep,
I count your wives at night.
"I love you, babe!"
I'd drop my drawers for
the kind of bucks you're making
for simple double-taking.
Before you bid adieu,
don't be cheap,
put DeCordova to sleep.
Just the thought you're leaving me
gives me the shivers.
Arsenio is at the gate
and so's Joan Rivers!
You know they made me watch you!
