I didn 't watch Carson for the music -but he was top of the heap in his field , unmatched by anyone. Mho I believe he influenced every type of comic media of his time- books, movies, tv. He was the true king of comedy- timing, wit, brilliant without being stuffy, cool yet engaging. - he had it all. And he was at his happiest when a new comedic talent did a groundbreaking monologue that won over the audience. He paved the way for all the great comics of the time, many who we are still watching today. But I never watched him for the music. For the music, I watched Dave.
From a cursory scan of Shout's web site, their collection seems to be based on the same episodes Antenna TV airs. I'm not really seeing much there that I don't remember seeing on Antenna TV when I spent a year or two watching. Antenna seems to repeat the same episodes every year, so I would guess their library is in the hundreds of episodes. I noticed that some of Shout's episodes have random, small edits for time, while Antenna seems to air the same episodes unedited. Here is one of the craziest appearances I've ever seen on Carson. Rod Hull with his very excitable and irritable Emu puppet. It's amazing no lawsuits resulted from this. The behind-the-scenes story of the appearance is here: News From ME - Mark Evanier's blog Shout also has the full episode, and this appearance is at 29:00: ShoutFactoryTV : Watch The Johnny Carson Show Episode : The Johnny Carson Show: The Best Of Richard Pryor (6/9/83)
Yeah, Rod Hull was obviously never well known in America, but he seems to have been on children's shows and been better known in the U.K. and I think maybe Australia and Canada. YouTube has other clips of him terrorizing talk show hosts unexpectedly, as well as more rehearsed acts on his children's shows. He made another appearance on Carson two years later, which is absent from the internet, but it proves Carson enjoyed the joke. I think a great movie could be made about his life, if a good comic actor steps into his role. There's the insanity of his act, which most Americans have never seen, several infamous appearances, some pathos in that he wanted to maybe be a bigger star, but plateaued with this puppet act, and even the unfortunate freak accident that killed him, adjusting the antenna on his roof. One of his obituaries says, "He rose to the top of his profession but fell from grace because of over-exposure, mismanagement and his own naive nature." He went bankrupt at one point, making it a rags-to-riches-to-rags story. And through it all, he seems like he was an upbeat guy who never took life too seriously. Obituary: Rod Hull He even met the Queen of England and had Emu eat her bouquet: Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother with British entertainer Rod Hull... News Photo - Getty Images "No respecter of authority or royalty, Emu ate the Queen Mother's bouquet at the Royal Variety Show in 1972. "She didn't bat an eyelid. Just looked very concerned and said: `I think your Emu is rather hungry'," revealed Hull."
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (April 9, 1974) The Jackson Fives 1st appearance Never Can Say Goodbye / interview / Dancing Machine
Here's something I've noticed (and I wonder else has noticed this, too): Who encoded these clips in 23.976?
I tried to explain this to one of my kids some time back... that there was a talk show host who skewered both sides so much, it was virtually impossible to know where he stood politically.
The Carson archive needs a jump start. No new DVD collection in a while....are they still airing episodes on Antenna?
I feel like Conan leaned this direction and perhaps should have been a bigger success. But the paradigm of those shows was shifting by that time. And Conan wasn't always funny enough although when he got "on" he could be really funny. Maybe he was a little too nerdy or "east coast" for a lot of the country? I also thing that internet saturation meant that people were starting to really tire of the format of "interviews of semi-celebrities with something to promote." It's not in question that there is a considerable disconnect in approaches to a lot of major issues from those demi-celebrities and the average person. The right or wrong of that probably isn't for us to discuss here, but recognition of that gulf-like gap ought to be obvious.
Thanks for that bit of info on Antenna TV. I too notice Carson episodes repeated as if they have access to limited number of episodes. I didn't get to watch Carson from the '70's into the '90's so I was hoping this Shout Factory release would fill in some of what I'm missing on Antenna TV. Guess that's not going to happen.
The Tonight Show (aired on 1/3/1964) First appearance of Carl Reiner on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson...
The Tonight Show (aired on 1/10/1976) Billy Crystal Makes His First Appearance on "The Tonight Show w/ Johnny Carson"
The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson That nights guest was the Oklahoma pioneer... Booger Ray March 26, 1987
The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson [air date - May 7, 1982] "Manure Man - Frank Hill, brings a special gift for Johnny"
I wish that so much Carson footage from the 60's wasn't taped over or tossed. It's a crime that Bob Dylan's Tonight Show debut simply doesn't exist. He wouldn't be on it again for more than fifty years.
At the link in the post by the thread starter, it says that "Shout! Factory TV has worked with Carson Entertainment Group to curate the best episodes," and again "the series will be accessible to new audiences, and will be curated like never before.” Sorry Shout! Factory, but I grew up watching the Tonight show, and I don't need you to "curate" what you think are the best episodes.
