So would I. Can’t believe how many of the excellent Carson moments I remember. When they show them from time to time, I remember when they first aired.
“A lot of young people don’t know who Johnny Carson is,” he said.
Boy, ain’t the truth. I remember hearing a 17 year old girl say something about Bob Hope a year or two after he died. She wasn’t sure that he had been a real person! She was shocked to learn that he had been an incredibly famous vaudeville, radio, film and television star for decades and decades. She had no idea.
Check this out. Some of the funniest moments on television I’ve ever seen.
In the old days, Carson was on for 90 minutes, and his guests would stay and stack up. The talent he had out there at one time was not infrequently some of the sharpest entertainment minds of all time.
At least that one was not lost! :-))
The same way we lost the MASA original video tape of Neil Armstrong’s moon landing.
NASA reused the tape.
Video tape was very expensive at the time but talk about a duh moment.
Several entertainers from that era took possession of the films after the studios were through with them. The studios of the time didn’t see the need to keep them.
Those collections exist only because the entertainers had enough foresight to keep them safe.
Wasn’t it a Universal warehouse that burned down a few years ago, sending many one-of-a-kind video/film treasures up in flame?
Here is one for you.
The only reason the “I Love Lucy” episodes are available is that they were shot on black and white film in LA, and shipped to NY for airing.
Film is a much better preservation mechanism than video and the likelihood of setting aside in a vault greater since there’s no potential value by erasure.
The movie it’s a “Mad Mad...World” was shot in color and as I heard the only copy stored in a non temperature controlled vault. The emulsion stuck to cellophane. But then I think they were able to save most of it.
Printed material has a better chance of survival.
That's the way it's been for me, too.