Field surprised Carson with shaving cream during an episode of ‘The Tonight Show’

NEED TO KNOW

• Sally Field surprised Johnny Carson with shaving cream during a 1979 Tonight Show appearance while she was promoting her movie Norma Rae
• Carson quickly turned the prank around by smearing shaving cream on Field’s blouse and leg
• Field and Reynolds dated on and off from 1976 to 1982 after meeting through Smokey and the Bandit

Sally Field once took Burt Reynolds’ advice to prank Johnny Carson on live TV. However, the late-night host got the last laugh.

Before Field appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1979, Reynolds, her then-boyfriend, had a mischievous suggestion — use her “short and cute” appearance to prank the host.

Field took his advice during the Feb. 20 broadcast, where she was promoting her film Norma Rae. After explaining Reynolds’ idea to Carson, she pulled a can of shaving cream from her purse and began smearing it across his face.

“I mean there’s nothing you can do… I’m short, I’m cute, I’m all of that,” Field told Carson as she spread the shaving cream across the other side of his face and into his hair.

“I can do that, and I mean there’s no way, that you could actually, you know, we couldn’t really get into it. You know what I mean?” she continued before sitting back down.

“Whatcha say?” Carson asked, leaning in with shaving cream covering his ears. He then grabbed a tissue to wipe it away. “You’re crazy.”

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Field continued the prank by dabbing shaving cream on Carson’s nose and asking, “Do you love it?” She then added, “Look at that reaction. Johnny, you’re a smash tonight. You’re a smash.”

Carson wasn’t about to let her have the last laugh, though.

“Burt may have misinformed you,” he said before walking around his desk and smearing shaving cream down the front of Field’s blouse and along her leg, turning the prank back on her.

The exchange drew laughs from the audience, as both Carson and Field laughed along.

Field and Reynolds had an intense, on-and-off relationship from 1976 to 1982, according to previous reporting by PEOPLE.

Field, now 79, recently reflected on both her professional and personal relationship with Reynolds during a June 2026 appearance on Turner Classic Movies’ Talking Pictures podcast.

She explained that their connection began when Reynolds reached out after hearing she might be his costar in Smokey and the Bandit. At the time, Field was searching for her next project after The Flying Nun and had recently wrapped the television film Sybil.

“I was so shocked that he would call me, and I thought, ‘He couldn’t have seen Sybil, because boy, I look really like a very mentally ill person in it.’ And he said, ‘No, I hadn’t seen it. I just always liked you in Gidget,’ ” she recalled.

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