Joan Rivers left behind too many memories to count — but here are some of her best TV moments, culled from her remarkable, groundbreaking, 50-plus-year career:
Joan came to the attention of America largely on the shoulders of Johnny Carson, who had her on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” many times through the years. She also guest-hosted Carson’s show innumerable times. Here are a few of her best visits with Johnny:
In 1972:
Guest-hosting in 1984:
In 1986:
Joan then went on to host “The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers,” a short-lived talk show on Fox which kicked off in 1986. It spelled the end of her friendship with Carson, who was peeved that she was launching a competing talk show on the then-upstart Fox network. Here are a couple of clips from “The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers”:
Carson banned Joan from “The Tonight Show” after she launched her Fox talk show — but she made a triumphant return to “Tonight” in February of this year, when Jimmy Fallon took over from Jay Leno:
Here’s a rare clip of Joan on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1967:
Joan knew how to work the crowd. Here’s how she handled a heckler in Wisconsin on a Bravo special:
Later in her career, Joan blazed a trail with her snarky red-carpet coverage for E!, usually accompanied by her daughter, Melissa. Here, the pair wrap up red-carpet coverage from the 2008 Oscars:
And here’s Joan with fellow funny lady Kathy Griffin on an episode of Joan’s Web series, “In Bed with Joan”:
Joan never shied away from controversy — just take a look at this recent clip of her storming out of CNN:
Finally, here’s Joan taking on the roasters at her Comedy Central roast:
Warning: Very graphic language