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

Last night's show with Jack Paar was edited down considerably. At the top of the show it appeared Johnny was surprised that Doc and the band were planned to perform a song at the end of the show. I've seen this several times on the show where Doc was scheduled to perform. Whenever Johnny mentions it I can't help but sense a dismissive tone in his delivery. He always says "if there's time at the end of the show..." "We'll see if we can squeeze it in..." I've never actually seen if Doc and the band actually perform because I guess both the TV and DVD presentations of the show dont' allow to show their performances---so I don't know if they ever got to perform the songs.

How often did the band actually get to perform? Was Johnny's cluelessness/aloofness towards the band just a gag?

 

I recall Doc and the band performing often on air, and I'm sure Johnny's apparent dismissive attitude was just "Johnny being Johnny." He often praised Doc and individual members of the band after they played. I remember in particular jazz trumpeter supreme Clark Terry as the recipient of accolades by Carson.

 

On December 31st at 8 PM CST as part of the Jack Benny marathon they're running a Jack Benny episode with Johnny Carson as the guest.

 

I'm not saying you are wrong but I don't remember Doc hardly ever performing. But, I grew up watching in the 80s when the show was one hour so maybe there was less time to fit them in by then.

Watching the lack of song on the episode a few nights ago made me wonder if Johnny would sometimes say there would be a song when there was never going to be one to begin with and Doc was in on the joke?

 

My viewing predates yours by a considerable amount. I was watching while in high school in the 60s, when the show aired from NYC (and Clark Terry was in the band).

 

Yes, I really enjoy when they go back to the early 1970s as those are all new to me. I wish they would start showing whatever they have from even earlier.

 

Unfortunately the vast majority of the early shows were recorded. The 1973-74 season seems to be the earliest season to survive mostly intact. I have been pleasantly surprised with how many episodes still survive from 1972 and 1973, I had thought there would be hardly any.

It sounds like there is a general concensus that the 1:30 shows are more enjoyable than the 1:00 shows. So if I was running the programming. Next year I would put the earliest surviving shows on Sunday night chronologically. Then on Monday '74, Tuesday '75, Wenesday '77, Thursday '78, Friday '79, and Saturday '80. All episodes presented chronologically including guest host episodes.

 

I think that's about the time that they realized that all the kinescopes where being burned. I'm not sure what they're save strategy was, but I'm glad they thought ahead. I remember Johnny coming out one night and started talking about all the shows that were being burned.

 

Here's a teaser:

 

Tonight Antenna TV resumed airing Tonight Show episodes. You can tell it's after Christmas because the same direct response commercials are airing over and over again. Sure enough, we finally got the Health Hotline knee brace commercials with the same voices in consecutive breaks, one with the white kid and grandma and with the black kid and grandma! Catch me if you can, kiddo!

 

Good thing I happened to be up last night. I noticed Carson was not recording. It turns out my DVR canceled it because they changed the episode to one with Carrie Fisher and Garry Shandling. I was able to record the 2 a.m. feed so I have it.

 

She was on Colbert just a couple weeks ago with her little dog...

 

What a sad show but a great performance by Garry Shandling. While Carrie Fisher is currently getting all the tributes, it made me realize how much I miss him.

 

We saw it last night & my wife's reaction was "I never knew Garry was so hilarious". He was. And Carrie was so shy & demure, the feistiness hadn't fully kicked in yet. Miss both of them terribly.

 

Did I hear correctly that the start time of the M-F episodes has been moved up one hour?
Maybe not.
Yes I did; beginning 02 Jan 2017, Su - Th, 10:00-11:00; F & Sa, Johnny Carson 70s, 10.00-11:30

 

Thanks for reminding. This isn't really good for me. I liked the show at the very end of my day--a nice wind down. 10pm is kind of early.

Anyone have any tips on how I can go about recording these? I do not have DVR/Tivo or any cable. Just a TV and digital antenna. Anything out there that I can use to record this every night so I can watch later?

 

There are DVRs just for antenna users.

 

Well I'll be. Didn't think there would be! Thanks for the tip.

 

I picked up a tivo with lifetime subscription/no monthly fees direct from tivo for $199. This was around black friday. I think they are around $250 now on Amazon. Four tuners. The pause feature while checking out the other tuners during commercials can't be beat. Connects to your home router so you can save shows, even if you run out of space. I don't miss cable a bit with this box.

 

Thanks for the tip...will look into this. Nice avatar by the way..."bee bop boo bop booo bop bop bop!!"

 

My local affiliate does not join AntennaTV until 11 p.m. so from now on I will have to record the 2 a.m. airing while I'm sleeping.

 

That IS a bummer about moving up the weeknight Carsons up an hour; I imagine it was done to have a consistent start time seven days a week. Here is the correct Johnny Carson appearance, by the way; it was from the 1963-64 season:

 

TiVo Roamio OTA DVR | Antenna DVR and Streaming | 1TB Storage »

 

I like and use the ChannelMaster DVR+

https://www.amazon.com/Channel-Master-DVR-Bundle-subscription/dp/B00JGZQ17Q

 

Was last night's episode just shown a couple of months ago?