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

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by dirwuf, Aug 12, 2015.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I wonder how much of an audience it even drew initially? Old talk shows (especially ones as topical and pop-culture-based as Carson) would I think have limited appeal in reruns. It's like watching an old newscast to some degree. Fascinating for those of us interested in history, but less appealing to a casual viewer or anyone who wasn't there at the time. And unlike favorite episodes of old comedies, Carson shows are not something that's going to stand up to repeat viewing, even for nostalgia buffs. If they continue limiting the selection to a small pool of selected shows, I imagine viewership is going to drop notably.
     
  2. cathandler

    cathandler Senior Member

    Location:
    maine
    Enough for it to remain on the schedule for three years, it appears.
     
  3. James Slattery

    James Slattery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Island
    I just wonder why the decision was made to limit the package to x number of episodes? What would be the benefit when there are hundreds and hundreds available? They could have run the 90 minute shows for 20 years without a repeat. Also, some of the shows selected are no big draw so I just wonder what went into the selection process.
     
    paulmccartneyistheman and JayRef like this.
  4. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    They probably don't want to run episodes featuring people who have gotten into serious legal trouble, or people who are not known to modern audiences. Also I imagine some of the episodes might have damaged masters, or might not run long enough with the musical segments edited out.
     
  5. It did appear that they consciously only ran episodes with celebrities that people today would have some knowledge about. That usually meant a famous actor or actress with a career at least through the 1980s and 1990s.
     
  6. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Yeah, but on the plus side I'm pretty sure there's a much wider array of episodes featuring older or lesser known people on the DVDs so fans can still see them. :)
     
    Benno123 likes this.
  7. Scooterpiety

    Scooterpiety Ars Gratia Artis

    Location:
    Oregon
    Some of my favorite episodes had guests like Stan Kann, Orson Bean and Dr. Lendon Smith, I'm sure few modern viewers have heard of (or remember).
    As for legal trouble, Robert Blake was always an entertaining guest.
     
  8. davidarob

    davidarob Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR USA
    Considering Carson's vacation schedule beginning in the 1980s - or as David Letterman said, pioneering the 3-day work week - if the rule of-thumb is to select shows without musical guests to avoid rights issues, how many 1 hour shows does that leave to choose from?
     
  9. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Don't they cut out nearly all of the musical segments on Antenna TV and DVD releases to avoid the rights issues altogether? So they can use any episodes they want.
     
  10. MMM

    MMM Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Lodi, New Jersey
    On the Antenna TV airings, they mostly cut out the house band's music and replace with generic, which detracts from the feel of the show. They essentially avoid shows which had musical guests originally, with just a relative handful of these episodes being shown to date.
     
  11. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    That's what I thought. It's not an ideal presentation but it's better than nothing.
     
    MMM likes this.
  12. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    So much for the time John Mclaughlin came by and burned holes in the floor.............
     
  13. bartels76

    bartels76 Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    CT
    Most of the musical guests that came on would sing 2 songs. Diana Ross' appearance from 1976 was 30 min long with about 10 plus minutes of music. They could edit some 90 minute shows down to 60 if they cut the songs out.


    Any shows where 2 songs were performed in the 60 min format would probably run to light on time.
     
  14. Dr. Pepper

    Dr. Pepper What, me worry?

    That's interesting, I've never seen a Carson show with 30 minutes of music. I would think if you cut out the music you might end up with a 80 or 85 minute show witch wouldn't be very helpful.
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2018
    paulmccartneyistheman likes this.
  15. bartels76

    bartels76 Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    CT
    I didn't say there was 30 minutes of music. It was a 30 minute interview with 10-15 min of music so they could chop a 90 min block to 60.
     
  16. Dr. Pepper

    Dr. Pepper What, me worry?

    So you are saying cut the music and the music interview? I suppose that might work, but I'm glad they haven't done that as I like music and music interviews.
     
  17. bartels76

    bartels76 Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    CT
    I'd rather have them keep everything but if there are rights issues they can cut the music out and any teases about them performing. You can get some part of an interview out if it probably.
     
  18. James Slattery

    James Slattery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Island
    Purportedly, only 33 shows exist, pre-May 1972 when the show moved permanently to California. Unless I missed it, they haven't aired any of them.
     
  19. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    So they're running these things into the ground now instead of running the ton of shows that they haven't aired because they think people don't want to see guests who aren't as famous now? Seems like a bad idea.
     
    Jrr likes this.
  20. James Slattery

    James Slattery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Island
    It's typical. It's like whenever you see a DVD release of a show, touting it as a "best of". Translated, it has nothing to do with the best episodes but what it means is, episodes with guest stars that are most familiar to modern audiences.
     
  21. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    Well, we don't know for sure that's the reason. That's one theory, but it's based purely on speculation. Earlier in the thread, Phantom Stranger suggested the theory that they are holding back the majority of episodes because they are hoping to monetize the archives in a manner that's more lucrative than whatever licensing fee they are getting from Antenna. That seems plausible too, though I don't think there's really much else they could do with the shows, as they have limited appeal. But it's certainly possible the estate thinks otherwise.
     
    paulmccartneyistheman likes this.
  22. James Slattery

    James Slattery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Island
    A few years ago, the estate would sell any episode for $95 but they put a stop to that when people were buying them and then they would wind up on IOffer for sale soon after.
     
  23. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Fitbit Aria 2 Review
    The problem they're facing is that the audience for these shows is (by and large) literally dying out. These shows are 30+ years old and the format and style of the shows (not to mention a lot of the guests) only really appeal to a certain demographic of people who are really getting up there in age. In 10 or 20 years it will be even harder to find audiences for these shows because fewer and fewer people will be around who watched them when they were new or have any kind of sentimental attachment to Carson or a lot of the guests.
     
  24. czeskleba

    czeskleba Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    And really, the shows only appeal to a subset of people within that older demographic anyway. Old sitcoms have a timeless quality about them and tend to deal with universal situations, so their appeal can transcend the times they come from. But not everyone who is old enough to remember Watergate is going to want to sit and watch 45-year-old jokes about it, or see people talk about old movies and then-current events. So much of Carson's shows are closely tied to the current events and the pop culture of the day, that only viewers who are interested in history are really going to enjoy them. To some degree, it's like watching old newscasts. There are those of us here who might enjoy it, but I think the majority of the general public would not.
     
    Jrr likes this.
  25. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Yeah, I only ever really watch the re-runs if it's a guest I'm really interested in and even then a lot of the times the chatter can be boring because it's so irrelevant and dated.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine