On December 31, 1972, Dick Clark’s first annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve special aired on NBC. The show featured musical performances from the rock band Three Dog Night, recorded aboard the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Clark reported live from Times Square in New York and watched the ball drop that night as he’d end up doing for many years to come.
The following New Year’s Eve, Clark brought on even more musical acts, including Billy Preston, Tower of Power, The Pointer Sisters, and Linda Ronstadt. Once again, Clark anchored in Times Square while the festivities came to us via the Queen Mary for the second year in a row. However, this time around, the Queen Mary portion of the show was hosted by George Carlin, who kicked things off with a joke about the ship and how, during the previous year, “6 and a half million people paid a million and a half dollars to walk on a ship that isn’t going anywhere.”
Throughout the show, Carlin checks in with Clark to see how things are going in New York and introduces the different musical guests. He also does stand-up a couple times, mostly utilizing material from his albums, like the “White Harlem” routine from Occupation: Foole and the “Some Werds” bit from Toledo Window Box (“Refrigerator-freezer is entirely too long. It should be refrigideezer.”) In between these segments, Carlin appears in a few short sketches where he plays the ship’s captain, Captain Flotsam. After the ball drops, we’re even treated to the rare sight of Carlin dancing—in case you needed any more reasons to check out the show.
In 1974, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve switched to ABC, where it’s remained ever since. Clark stayed with it as the anchor until he had a stroke in 2004. He then passed the duties over to Ryan Seacrest, who continues to host the show to this day. Clark died in 2012.
You can watch the entire 1973-1974 New Year’s Rockin’ Eve broadcast with George Carlin below.
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