Posted on 05/26/2017 2:35:33 AM PDT by iowamark
He treated political humor gingerly, making The Tonight Show something all of America could enjoy together. It was exactly 25 years ago tonight that Johnny Carson signed off for the last time as the host of The Tonight Show, ending a 30-year run on NBC.
Jeff Sotzing was there. “It was an overwhelming outpouring of emotion,” said Sotzing. “We didn’t get standing ovations very often. But beginning that May we got them every night. On the final night, it lasted three minutes. It seemed like it would never end.” Sotzing is now the president of the Carson Entertainment Group and oversees Carson’s estate, including 20 years of Tonight Show episodes. He is also Carson’s nephew. His famous uncle offered Sotzing a summer job in 1978. The summer never ended. Sotzing started out answering phones, sorting mail, and getting coffee. Within a decade, Sotzing had become an associate producer and eventually the show’s producer.
First, Johnny Carson is back on TV. Since 2016, Tonight Show reruns have been airing on the retro network Antenna TV seven nights a week. Sixty-minute episodes from the 1980s and early 1990s are aired Sunday through Thursday; the 90-minute episodes from the 1970s are aired on Friday and Saturday. Then 'There’s . . . Johnny'. Conceived by David Steven Simon and Paul Reiser, a frequent Carson guest best known for the 1990s NBC sitcom Mad About You, 'There’s . . . Johnny' is about a young man from Nebraska (where Carson spent his formative years) landing a job with The Tonight Show shortly after moving from New York to Burbank in 1972. There’s . . . Johnny made its debut last month at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York and is expected to air as a web series on Seeso later this year...
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
we need a vintage talk show network
I remember seeing Carson in the crowd every year at Wimbledon.
spacey is good and more subtle
You are correct, sir.
Jonathan Winters guest tonight.
Yes, he was good, but he was still a liberal. His “Floyd R. Turbo, American” was a caricature of Middle America very similar to what the anti-Trumpers think of us.
He had a dark character. Carson was nothing like his television persona. Henry Bushkin’s book would give you an idea.
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