Johnny Carson Returns: Antenna TV to Air Full ‘Tonight Show’ Episodes

A pre-Doc performance, with Clark Terry:

 

Just a little (very little) Clark taste, thanks.

I have the John McLaughlin guest spot with Doc on dvd. I pull it out now and then just to test my lower jaw and make sure it can still hit the floor.

 

I'm glad that Antenna TV has kept the show at 11pm. I went on their site and saw that their default time zone for their schedule is set to Eastern and that may have been what some saw and thought it was nationwide. The only change is that the weekend 90 minute shows are now at 11pm which keeps consistent throughout the week.

 

Fantastic! Thanks.

 

Uh, no......you're wrong. They DID change the times. Sun-Thurs are 1 hour shows 10E/9C. Friday and Saturday are now the 1 1/2 hour shows at 10E/9C.

 

With all the repeats and the time change I've fallen out of the habit of watching it. Hopefully it's doing well enough in the ratings to encourage Antenna TV to license some "new" shows.

 

I'm revisiting the Vault and Guest series on DVDs and it made me wonder how they went ahead and decided to put which shows on DVD and which shows they ended up putting up on Antenna TV? For example, every one of the shows from the Vault Series is fantastic--great performances by Carson and the cast. All the shows on the 12 DVDs are great. The ones shown on AntennaTV range from just ok to real good but nothing really matching the greatness of the ones released on DVD. How do they know which ones are the great ones? Made me wonder if all the shows have been rated and sorted by "realeasabilty"....the ok ones get to go on AntennaTV and the real special ones are to be sold via DVD or digital download. Wouldn't be surprised if something like this was put in place; they appear to have a very tight reign on the entire archive.

I forget...what's the earliest show they have on tape? There haven't been many seen from the late 60's/early 70's.

 

I don't think there's any surviving full episodes prior to 1972. The closest thing is the edited 3/6/69 show, which has about 38 minutes out of the original 73. Other than that, all that survives pre-1972 are clips or audio-only recordings.

 

There is a complete episode for purchase as a download on JohnnyCarson.com from June 19, 1968. The description says that only 33 complete shows from October 1, 1962 thru May 1, 1972 exist in the Carson archives.

 

No way we're gonna see any of those on AntennaTV! Let's hope they put them out on DVD in one go rather than milk it for several years........

 

I stand corrected... and I'm happy to be wrong about this.

 

I have it and it's very interesting to watch. The pace just seems ... different. I would like to see a release of all these 33 complete shows, quality be darned!!!

 

I want to see more DVD releases, I love the ones I have. More Johnny is always welcomed!

 

It's fairly obvious that Antenna TV picked shows based on guests that would still be familiar to today's audiences. That's why we got just about every Seinfeld and Eddie Murphy appearance, among others. Most of the Joan Embery appearances have been shown on Antenna TV.

I was glad they picked several appearances by Jonathan Winters. He was always my favorite Tonight Show guest.

 

Same here. Spent the last 2 weeks going through the Vault Series and it was great fun. Hopefully more DVDs are coming...maybe after the AntennaTV run? Would be great if they could make it an even MORE complete of a show by including the original music from the Doc and the band. That'd be the ultimate. But I don't think that's possible right?

 

I seem to recall a couple of the shows have a musical segment from the band. I just don't remember if it was on the Vault or Guest Star series releases, one of the download shows, or a show on YouTube!!! Hahaha

 

I enjoyed seeing Wayne Cotter. I remember him being one of my favorite comedians. Most of his gigs are corporate these days.
Wayne Cotter gave up career as a computer engineer for the comedy stage »

 

February 29, 1972 last night. I don't think I have seen an earlier one than that since I started getting them last Fall.

 

I'm planning on going through all of the January episodes to see if any were not run last year. Can anyone save me the time and tell me if there were any "new" episodes this month?

 

So far, I'd say at least half aired this January weren't aired on Antenna TV last year.

 

Another great Martin Short appearance last night. He is the best.

 

Yes, luckily I haven't seen George Maharis yet....!

I have a personal vendetta against Maharis because some time in the early 70s, I misheard the local NBC announcer. Being a young Beatles dork, I thought he said that GEORGE HARRISON was going to be one of Johnny's guests! I even got permission from my parents to stay up to watch this!
Boy was I disappointed.........!!

 

Yes, I think this is the earliest one they have ever shown. Wikipedia says the show didn't even move to Burbank until May of 1972. So, this would have been from one of their California visits, which I guess they made frequently.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson - Wikipedia

 

Let it go man, let it go...

 

I will NOT let it go!

Actually this is just a silly story. I've gotten over it, thank you very much!