It’s been 55 years since Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki captivated American audiences by exchanging vows on Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson .
Given that Tiny Tim had performed on Carson’s Tonight Show 13 times over the preceding 20 months, it makes sense that he would choose the show for his wedding venue. On December 17, 1969, the eccentric musician and his bride (born Herbert Khaury and Victoria Budinger) drew in over 45 million viewers, who, unlike today’s reality show-saturated populace, had never seen a real wedding on TV before.
“People have thought we have been kidding about Tiny Tim being married on the show,” Johnny Carson said during his monologue that night. “We are not. It happens tonight.”
Despite (or perhaps because of) the couple’s age difference (he was 37 while she was just 17), nearly one-quarter of the American population at the time tuned in to see what a TV wedding looked like. Except for the incorporation of thousands of imported Dutch tulips, the nine-minute ceremony was fairly ordinary and surprisingly intimate.
After they were pronounced man and wife, the couple sat for an interview with Carson, who told Miss Vicki she looked “just as pretty as brides always look” before giving her a customary kiss on the cheek. He then called the night’s earlier guests—Florence Henderson, Phyllis Diller and Rudy Vallée—back out for a champagne toast. Tiny Tim mixed himself and his wife glasses of milk and honey, saying, “I used to drink alcohol, and Miss Vicki got me out of that.”
“I can’t think of any better toast,” Carson said, “than a very simple one to wish you both health and great happiness in your marriage. Here’s to the newlyweds.”
After an ad break, Tiny Tim pulled out an autoharp and played a two-minute song for his new wife entitled “The Wedding Song for Miss Vicki (aka A Song for Valentine’s Day),” which featured such touching lyrics as “Like violets and roses, our spirits will entwine.”
The episode, which earned the highest ratings for a talk show up to that point, remained the most-watched installment of Carson’s show until more than 50 million people tuned in for his final episode on May 22, 1992.
Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki were married for almost eight years, and welcomed one child. He remarried twice (to women he called “Miss Jan” and “Miss Sue”) before succumbing to a heart attack in November 1996.
Although most episodes of from the first ten years of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson were erased by NBC, the full 90 minute episode featuring Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki’s wedding survives, and can be viewed (complete with the original national commercials) at the top of this post.
No one will ever replace Johnny Carson. Those one of a kind talk shows are gone forever. He was worth staying up late to see his show and the guests he had on.RIP Johnny! You will always be missed.