Puff-Up Time

The time capsule recording the rot of American TV might well include the tape of the Dec. 17 Tonight show. Within that dispiriting 90-minute reel were a cough-medicine commercial, Phyllis Diller's laugh, and the on-the-air wedding of Tiny Tim, the fortyish boy soprano, to his 17-year-old Miss Vicki Budinger.

The heavily pressagented event had been arranged by aides of the singer, NBC, and Johnny Carson's staff, which gleefully provided the vaguely Louis XVI set and wardrobe. To build ratings, the ceremony was delayed through an insufferable hour with Diller and Singer Florence Henderson. The rites were relatively decorous--and held down to ten minutes so that there were no commercial interruptions. The cameras stayed discreetly behind the couple as they vowed "to be sweet, gentle, kind, patient, not puffed up, charitable, slow to anger and swift to forgive."

Then grotesquely, the groom escorted his bride to the familiar Tonight guest couch. Johnny, looking mighty puffed up in his tuxedo, greeted them from behind his accustomed desk. There followed a commercial and a champagne toast (the couple drank milk and honey). Tiny serenaded his bride and read plugs for the florist who had supplied 8,000 tulips, his hairdresser, and several other generous purveyors. After sign-off, the couple held an unruly press conference in which Tiny estimated that their kiss during the ceremony had been "about our fifth," but then proceeded to buss Miss Vicki 100 more times at the behest of the photographers.

On New York City ratings, the NBC channel pulled a record 84% of the audience and the network projected a nationwide total of 35 million viewers.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.