John Searing: What Did He Host?

[whewfan]

Who was John Searing, you ask?

Way back in 1986, John Searing, a die hard Tonight Show fan, starting a massive letter writing campaign. Over the course of a year, he wrote the show expressing a desire to announce and say "Herrrrrre's Johnny!" Over that year period, he apparently sent at least 800 letters, with pictures, begging for the chance. At one point, he got the standard "Thank you for your interest" form letter, but somehow, someway, someone from the show decided that, what the hey, invite Searing to the show and let him have his wish! He got to read the opening intro for the show, and say "Herrrre's Johnny!" and Johnny of course came out from the curtain. After complimenting his announcing, he tells John "Never write us again!"

What does this have to do with game shows? Well, sadly John Searing died in 2015 at the age of 65, and his obituary said he briefly hosted a game show. Would anyone happen to know anything about it? The obit also said after The Tonight Show, he got offers for bit roles in soap operas as well as commercials.

[BrandonFG]

Maybe a local show? The name doesn't ring a bell and newspapers.com doesn't turn up anything other than an article about his Tonight Show appearance.

EDIT: I found an article from 1994 that mentions the soaps and commercial appearances, as well as about three dozen movie credits. This is actually a fascinating story.

[aaron sica]

Hold on, Matt. I still haven’t gotten past “way back in 1986”. That’s a tough pill to swallow.

[TimK2003]

Somewhere, in my dusty, cob-webbed VHS collection, I still have his appearance on The Tonight Show.

[Matt Ottinger]

This is actually a fascinating story.

It is, and his segment with Johnny is charming.  But I think Mr Searing is just a really good salesman.  If any of that other stuff happened, there would be provable credits for some of them, somewhere wouldn't there?  "Principal work" in major soap operas?  Thirty-five feature films?  I'd be curious what his actual involvement in those projects actually were.

[BrandonFG]

Thirty-five feature films?  I'd be curious what his actual involvement in those projects actually were.

First thing I thought of was an extra.

[Mr. Matté]

A future GS host (as lousy as his job was) from the audience did do the show open once:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwBoiT7iUF4&t=10s

[whewfan]

https://obits.lehighvalleylive.com/us/obituaries/etpa/name/john-searing-obituary?id=8411714

Here's his obituary, which echoes some of the things said in the newspaper article, and where I got that he also hosted a game show. I should've included that link, but I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested in reading it.

Matt Ottinger has a point... I looked at IMDb (which I've often been told is unreliable) that lists Searing but not any of these credits for soaps and such, nor a game show. He could've just been an extra on those shows, which of course would not be listed on IMDb. Considering his exposure on The Tonight Show, it wouldn't surprise me that he would get offers like that.

I also recall seeing the Mark Richards clip which was posted a while back, and tried to look it up. I remembered that he used his real name (Mark Richards is a stage name, apparently) for that Tonight Show announcing. That clip, of course, was from earlier in the Tonight Show run, based on what Joey said, they were still in NY!

[SuperMatch93]

^From what I understand, that was from the final week of NY-based Tonight Shows before they moved to Burbank.

[BrandonFG]

^From what I understand, that was from the final week of NY-based Tonight Shows before they moved to Burbank.

Same. Joey said something about three more shows so that puts this at 1972, no?

[TLEberle]

Matt Ottinger has a point... I looked at IMDb (which I've often been told is unreliable)

Just like anything else, I would use that as a jumping off point then confirm with at least one other source, maybe two. It sounds like anyone can edit the site (cf. TV Tropes, Wikipedia) and I would use that as a source to jump off and track down something more reliable. Not a knock on you at all.

[colonial]

His obit mentioned that he died leaving behind a wife and three children. May not hurt to try and track down one of the children to see if they could fill in the blanks on any TV/movie work outside of Carson.


JD

[jjman920]

^From what I understand, that was from the final week of NY-based Tonight Shows before they moved to Burbank.

Same. Joey said something about three more shows so that puts this at 1972, no?

I guess Johnny wanted a week off to relocate and acclimate to California and perhaps said goodbye to New York the previous week? Otherwise, I feel like its nuts for the star of the show to not helm the ship right before such a monumental change? But I also probably don't understand the workings/decisions of television at that time.

[Neumms]

A future GS host (as lousy as his job was) from the audience did do the show open once:

Can anybody tell what the bit was? Did Joey just chew the fat with people?