Robin Williams And Jonathan Winters Break Up Johnny Carson In Classic TV Appearance

Mar 07, 2020

Most successful people are willing to admit one or more people strongly influenced them while they were in the process of developing their own unique talents. Steve Jobs mentored Mark Zuckerberg when he was trying to define his vision of Facebook. Steven Spielberg started mentoring JJ Adams when at age 16, Adams was hired to clean and re-tape old movies.

A similar mentorship relationship sprung up between the comedy legends Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams. A classic 1991 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson featured the two iconic entertainers as guests.

Jonathan Winters' career began in 1946 when he lost a prized watch. He and his wife couldn't afford to buy another watch, so when his wife, Eileen, saw an advertisement for a talent competition that was offering a watch as the prize, she urged Jonathan to enter and win. He did and soon found work as a disc jockey, where his humor and funny characters took over the show, and from there, he went to star in many comedic roles.

Robin Williams was mentored by Winters and has called him "the comedy Buddha" and "the reason why I went into comedy."

The famous pair appeared together in 1991 on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. The recording of the show is incredibly funny and will have most watchers laughing until they cry, even if they saw it live the first time around.

Williams came out first and talked about Mork & Mindy with Carson for a few minutes. Then, Winters, aged 65 at the time, came out, and the two improvised a comedic routine that had the audience and Carson in stitches. They both had a swift comedic thinking style with impeccable timing. Winters delivered terrific dead-pan zingers while Williams was wildly expressive.

Everyone today knows Robin Williams, but they may not remember Jonathan Winters, who passed in 2013. After his disc jockey career, he worked as a stand-up comedian in New York City. He first appeared on TV in 1954 and went on to appear in an incredible number of roles and win a lot of awards, including a Hollywood star.

Love comedy? Why not sit down and watch the video of this historical and hilarious event and then discuss this story with your fellow fans.