Old comedians on johnny carson show

When Joan Rivers first appeared on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" on February 17, 1965, it was pretty much do-or-die time. Nobody really knew -- nor particularly cared -- that the 32-year-old former ad agency copywriter had spent the previous five years tirelessly honing her stand-up in the small, smoky comedy clubs of Greenwich Village.

They just wanted her to be funny.

Joan wanted to be funny, too -- so desperately, in fact, that she'd written "Break a leg" on one knee and "Good luck" on the other, so that she could secretly touch those encouraging words through her dress while she was on the air.

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"No one had faith in me," Joan remembers.

But when it came to perform her material, Joan did what only the best and most enduring comedians do when the pressure's on: She killed.

"Yeah, I was funny out there," Joan told me once.

"And afterwards, right on the air, Carson said, 'You're going to be a star.' That did it. The next day the phones went off the hook. It was like an overnight sensation. My life had changed."

If there was ever such a thing as a coronation in the an

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