Johnny's back on

[JW]

Just a reminder, since nobody's mentioned it. The whole Tonight Show reruns (which seem to be titled "Johnny Carson") are on Antenna TV now that it's 2016. There are one-hour shows weeknights at 11pm ET rerun at 2am ET, and 90-minute shows on weekends at 10pm ET rerun at 1:30am ET.

The first couple were New Year's Day shows from 1982 and 1975, and on both Carson talks about how close they are to the year 2000. From this side of the millennium, happy new year to everybody.

[Bob Jersey]

JW:

Just a reminder, since nobody's mentioned it. The whole Tonight Show reruns (which seem to be titled "Johnny Carson") are on Antenna TV now that it's 2016. There are one-hour shows weeknights at 11pm ET rerun at 2am ET, and 90-minute shows on weekends at 10pm ET rerun at 1:30am ET.

The first couple were New Year's Day shows from 1982 and 1975, and on both Carson talks about how close they are to the year 2000. From this side of the millennium, happy new year to everybody.

Tim (Diner) reported on this from Variety (link) back in August when it was announced...

B

[Diner]

Here's an article listing all the episodes scheduled for the rest of the month:
http://wvxu.org/post/heeere-s-johnny-lineup-carson-s-tonight-show-reruns-jan-1-31

I'm especially interested in the Annie Potts/Shelley Winters episode on Jan. 15 - a very funny excerpt from that one ran on Johnny's anniversary show for years.
And on Jan. 20 they're running the Elizabeth Taylor/Michael Douglas episode from February 1992. This is noteworthy for two reasons: it was Ms. Taylor's only Tonight Show appearance, and it was the last Carson repeat aired on NBC. (On Johnny's last week on NBC in May 1992, the Taylor/Douglas episode re-aired on Monday, and the rest of the week was new shows.)

I've watched the first two episodes, and the episodes they've picked have aged pretty well. One thing that's noteworthy, however, is how much music has been cut out. Johnny's original theme is still there (slightly edited), and the band can be heard playing when Johnny says goodnight. But the rest of the music has been removed. The "More to Come" bumper cards coming in and out of commercials are silent (though a spare note of music sometimes seeps through). And when a guest walks out, generic music and applause has been dubbed over the NBC Orchestra. It's easy to tell it's not original music because it fades out, something the live band, of course, never did. The new music was most noticeable coming in and out of the stand-up comedy routines - Eddie Murphy the first night and Foster Brooks the second. Brooks' routine stood out because he did a prearranged bit where he walks out from behind the curtain, takes a few "drunken" steps and halts, and the music stops - and then he chastises the band for stopping, so they start - and then stop - again. The new music just doesn't seem natural.

Also, neither of the episodes so far have featured musical guests, so once one of them appears, all bets are off. On the list of remaining episodes for this month, the only episode with someone I recognize as a singer is the one with Ann-Margret slated for next weekend.

-Tim

[Doug Eastick]

You reminded me of an exchange student that lived in our neighbourhood in the 1980s.    In discussion written my brother one day,  the exchange student said he really liked that show called "more to come"

Took my brother and while and more questions to understand what show the guy was talking about. 

Apparently the bumper cards were mistaken as the title of the show. 

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[Kevin M.]

On Sun, Jan 3, 2016 at 3:46 PM, Diner <bway...@gmail.com> wrote:

I've watched the first two episodes, and the episodes they've picked have aged pretty well. One thing that's noteworthy, however, is how much music has been cut out. Johnny's original theme is still there (slightly edited), and the band can be heard playing when Johnny says goodnight. But the rest of the music has been removed. The "More to Come" bumper cards coming in and out of commercials are silent (though a spare note of music sometimes seeps through). And when a guest walks out, generic music and applause has been dubbed over the NBC Orchestra. It's easy to tell it's not original music because it fades out, something the live band, of course, never did. The new music was most noticeable coming in and out of the stand-up comedy routines - Eddie Murphy the first night and Foster Brooks the second. Brooks' routine stood out because he did a prearranged bit where he walks out from behind the curtain, takes a few "drunken" steps and halts, and the music stops - and then he chastises the band for stopping, so they start - and then stop - again. The new music just doesn't seem natural.

Also, neither of the episodes so far have featured musical guests, so once one of them appears, all bets are off. On the list of remaining episodes for this month, the only episode with someone I recognize as a singer is the one with Ann-Margret slated for next weekend.

As someone who has bought DVDs and iTunes downloads from the Carson estate, the cutting out of music is a major annoyance to me. That band was the sound of the show. Watching the episodes I've digitized off of videotape, I'm still struck that the audience wasn't cued to applaud coming back from commercial. The music played, stopped, then the show resumed. It served as a button to each and every segment, and to not bother to work out the rights ticks me off. 

--

Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Diner]

I caught a little bit of Thursday night's Carson repeat. It was a mid-eighties episode where the lead guest was Christopher Reeve. After sitting down, Reeve immediately told a story about how he was filming a movie in Hungary, lost control of his horse, got thrown from the horse, and broke three ribs. Then Carson asked if he'd ever been injured before, and he launched into a story about a childhood skiing injury.

Given Reeve's ultimate fate, who at Antenna TV and/or Carson Productions thought repeating this episode was a good idea?

-Tim

[Kevin M.]

On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 7:29 AM, Diner <bway...@gmail.com> wrote:

I caught a little bit of Thursday night's Carson repeat. It was a mid-eighties episode where the lead guest was Christopher Reeve. After sitting down, Reeve immediately told a story about how he was filming a movie in Hungary, lost control of his horse, got thrown from the horse, and broke three ribs. Then Carson asked if he'd ever been injured before, and he launched into a story about a childhood skiing injury.

Given Reeve's ultimate fate, who at Antenna TV and/or Carson Productions thought repeating this episode was a good idea?

If I were programing it, I'd want that episode shown. It is a cautionary tale, if nothing else. 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Jay Lewis]

FWIW, Reeve has been dead for 11 years. Surely we're well beyond a "too soon" situation, no?

[Kevin M.]

Having seen the episode, allow me to reflect on something that, in the world of late night, was more interesting than the inclusion of the Reeve story... Carson's first guest on an episode that included (then) mega-stars Christopher Reeve and Dana Carvey was neither of those two men. It was an obscure juggler who did a 10 minute segment... and he freakin' killed. I mean seasoned professionals don't get that kind of crowd reaction. And this unknown had the stones to literally use Johnny Carson as a prop during the bit.

With all the memes and viral videos that late night TV now tries to generate, I imagined myself traveling back in time to 1987, the day after the episode aired. I'd stand at the water-cooler and say to those around me, "Did anybody see that juggler on Carson last night?" and it would've sparked 30 minutes of conversation because everybody would have seen it and been as entertained by it.

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Diner]

On Sunday, January 3, 2016 at 11:28:54 PM UTC-5, Kevin M. (RPCV) wrote:

As someone who has bought DVDs and iTunes downloads from the Carson estate, the cutting out of music is a major annoyance to me. That band was the sound of the show. Watching the episodes I've digitized off of videotape, I'm still struck that the audience wasn't cued to applaud coming back from commercial. The music played, stopped, then the show resumed. It served as a button to each and every segment, and to not bother to work out the rights ticks me off. 

Caught a little bit of last night's Carson repeat. Just like in the eighties, I'm turning on Johnny and falling asleep before the monologue is finished. (I recorded all the shows the first week, then stopped when I realized I just don't have time for eight more hours of TV each week.)

But the cutting out of music reached a new, ridiculous zenith on last night's repeat. One of my favorite Carson bits - and one of Letterman's too, as he mentioned when he interviewed Peter Lassally right after Johnny's passing - was that occasional moment when, after Johnny had told several jokes in a row that bombed, the band would play "Tea for Two" and Johnny would dance. Last night they showed one of those moments - except "Tea for Two" was replaced by generic piano music. Which totally ruins the joke. Instead of being a reference to vaudeville entertainers who'd try anything for a laugh, now it's just some guy dancing to some bland music.

Ugh.

[Kevin M.]

On Thu, Jan 14, 2016 at 11:59 AM, Diner <bway...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sunday, January 3, 2016 at 11:28:54 PM UTC-5, Kevin M. (RPCV) wrote:

As someone who has bought DVDs and iTunes downloads from the Carson estate, the cutting out of music is a major annoyance to me. That band was the sound of the show. Watching the episodes I've digitized off of videotape, I'm still struck that the audience wasn't cued to applaud coming back from commercial. The music played, stopped, then the show resumed. It served as a button to each and every segment, and to not bother to work out the rights ticks me off. 

Caught a little bit of last night's Carson repeat. Just like in the eighties, I'm turning on Johnny and falling asleep before the monologue is finished. (I recorded all the shows the first week, then stopped when I realized I just don't have time for eight more hours of TV each week.)

I freely admit I'm digitizing episodes as they come down, not because I expect to watch every one of them same day or same week, but because I've only had about 2 dozen episodes of Johnny Carson to enjoy since 1992 and I need to build up my cache.

But the cutting out of music reached a new, ridiculous zenith on last night's repeat. One of my favorite Carson bits - and one of Letterman's too, as he mentioned when he interviewed Peter Lassally right after Johnny's passing - was that occasional moment when, after Johnny had told several jokes in a row that bombed, the band would play "Tea for Two" and Johnny would dance. Last night they showed one of those moments - except "Tea for Two" was replaced by generic piano music. Which totally ruins the joke. Instead of being a reference to vaudeville entertainers who'd try anything for a laugh, now it's just some guy dancing to some bland music.

Worse than the loss of Tea For Two was the loss of Sean Connery recreating the moment he sang "Underneath the Mango Tree" in Dr. No. He mentions it, followed by a horrible jump-edit with thunderous applause. I wonder if that (October '83) was his first TV interview without the Bond hairpiece?

--

Kevin M. (RPCV)

[PGage]

Connery reprises it at around the 3:38 mark in this clip of the Tonight Show episode under discussion:
http://www.the007dossier.com/007dossier/post/2013/12/18/Sean-Connery-on-The-Tonight-Show-with-Johnny-Carson-1983

For those who would like to hear his original (or, more importantly, take another look at Honey Rider):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JflJktXxhlQ

(The dialog is, I think, in German, but the relevant parts are either in English or a more universal language)

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