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Tonight - 4 Decades of The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson
Other // Unrated // October 26, 2010
List Price: $119.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Show:
It's hard to believe, but there are people who voted in the last midterm election who were not alive when Johnny Carson was hosting The Tonight Show. To those people too young to recall TV in those days, it's hard to describe just how influential
Previously, the only versions of The Tonight Show available on DVD were collections of clips; the best bits from the 30 years when Johnny Carson was king of late night TV. These were fun, but they didn't really tell the whole story, or give viewers a feel for what the show was really like. Now the
Except... this isn't a collection of episodes of The Tonight Show. It's episodes of the hour and a half (later just an hour, with commercials) show cut down to 28 minutes. That means the programs themselves are very heavily edited and the result is pretty horrific.
First off, these episodes start off with a newly created opening. Okay, so they couldn't get the rights to the name "The Tonight Show", I can live with that. After that they launch into Ed McMahon's introduction and his famous "Heeeeeeerrrrrre's Johnny!" which was nice to hear again.
Then they start chopping. The monologue is present, and usually uncut though there were several times when it's quite obvious that some time was hacked out of Johnny's opening. At the end of that he'll read off a list of guest, who may appear in the episode, or they may get left on the editing room floor. Sometimes they go to the after-monologue skit, sometimes they don't. The interviews themselves, with such notables as Bill Cosby, Brooke Shields, David Letterman, Billy Crystal, Bill Clinton, and many, many others, are edited themselves more often than not. These aren't slick segues either, they are abrupt and very noticeable. Sometimes the screen will flare bright white for a second and then come back to the same segment, just minutes later.
The way they edited the show left me scratching my head too. Sometime the human interest guest, a guy who could play "Stars and Stripes Forever" by making flatulent sounds with his hands for example, would be left largely intact while a more famous guest would have their interview truncated. What?? Why?? They cut part of George Carlin's stand-up routine in one episode; you'd think that would be more interesting than the tree climbing dog showcased in the same episode.
Each episode ends very abruptly too. A guest will be talking, reach the end of a sentence and that's it.
The
Now, after ranting about the poor editing and the format of these shows, let me rave about the content, what's there at least. These shows give a rough approximation of what The Tonight Show was like all those years ago, and they clearly show why
Make no mistake about it: Johnny Carson is hilarious, even now. While Leno and Letterman are both great, they seem like a guy walking on stage to give a performance. Not so with
When all is said and done, these are very funny and very entertaining. They just aren't as funny or entertaining as they could be, with the horrible editing and jarring transitions. Those are a constant reminder that you're missing a lot, and even if it's not the best part of the show, I'd like to be able to judge that for myself.
Edited versions of the following shows are contained in this collection:
| Episode 1: December 31, 1965 Woody Allen, The Muppets Episode 2: September 23, 1971 Della Reese, Bob Uecker Episode 3: May 19, 1972 Adelle Davis, Robert Blake, Gwen Davis Episode 4: September 15, 1972 Vikki Carr, Peter Falk, Albert Brooks Episode 5: November 13, 1972 Mayor Lindsay, Muhammad Ali, Harry Chapin Episode 6: September 12, 1973 Joan Embery, Bette Midler, David Steinberg Episode 7: February 20, 1974 Joan Embery, David Brenner Episode 8: April 9, 1974 The Jackson 5, Jerry Van Dyke Episode 9: September 2, 1974 Doris Day, Rodney Dangerfield, Burt Mustin Episode 10: September 26, 1974 Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Art Carney Episode 11: May 6, 1975 Luciano Pavarotti, Maude Tull Episode 12: September 19, 1975 Don Rickles, Robert Blake Episode 13: September 23, 1975 Glen Campbell, Fernando Lamas Episode 14: December 9, 1975 Carol Burnett, Burt Convy, Tom Dreesen Episode 15: July 28, 1976 Burt Reynolds, Robert Blake Episode 16: November 12, 1976 Frank Sinatra, Don Rickles, Olivia Newton-John Episode 17: May 4, 1977 Chevy Chase, Richard Pryor Episode 18: June 14, 1977 Alice Cooper, Jay Leno Episode 19: September 9, 1977 Sid Caesar, Eubie Blake Episode 20: March 24, 1978 Donna Pyle, Milton Berle Episode 21: May 2, 1978 Sammy Davis Jr. Episode 22: February 21, 1980 Engelbert Humperdinck, Steve Landesberg, Loni Anderson Episode 23: September 26, 1980 Steve Martin, The Mighty Carson Art Players Episode 24: November 11, 1980 David Letterman, Pete Fountain Episode 25: March 4, 1981 David Brenner Episode 26: March 5, 1981 Slim Whitman Episode 27: March 18, 1981 Richard Benjamin, Garry Shandling Episode 28: May 5, 1981 Jimmy Buffett, Thalasa Cruso | Episode 29: October 14, 1981 Robin Williams Episode 30: October 28, 1981 Lance Burton, Reba McEntire, Dick Cavett Episode 31: October 30, 1981 Michael Landon Episode 32: November 12, 1981 Dom DeLuise, Jerry Seinfeld, Betty White Episode 33: November 19, 1981 Suzanne Pleshette, Luciano Pavarotti Episode 34: November 25, 1981 Kenny Rogers Episode 35: August 31, 1982 Bill Maher, Joe Garagiola Episode 36: December 31, 1982 Tina Turner, Joe D'Auria & Jonathan Brown Episode 37: January 5, 1983 Teri Garr, B.B. King Episode 38: May 17, 1983 Albert Brooks, Brooke Shields Episode 39: September 8, 1983 Bill Cosby, Chuck Mangione Episode 39: September 8, 1983 Bill Cosby, Chuck Mangione Episode 40: January 4, 1984 Dabney Coleman, Paul Rodriguez Episode 41: May 17, 1984 Garry Shandling, Stéphane Grappelli Episode 42: May 24, 1984 John Denver, Michael Davis Episode 43: November 20, 1984 Robert Blake, Louie Anderson Episode 44: November 22, 1985 Jim Fowler, Marty Pollio, Rubén Blades Episode 45: December 17, 1985 Bette Midler Episode 46: March 27, 1986 Billy Crystal, Buddy Rich Episode 47: April 18, 1986 David Letterman Episode 48: June 27, 1986 David Letterman, Judge Wapner Episode 49: November 26, 1986 George Carlin, Barney Odom & Flat Nose Episode 50: January 8, 1987 Robert Goulet, Waddie Mitchell, Baxter Black Episode 51: May 21, 1987 Eddie Murphy, Ellen DeGeneres Episode 52: July 28, 1988 Bill Clinton, Joe Cocker Episode 53: July 29, 1988 Michael Landon, k.d. Lang Episode 54: November 23, 1989 Lea Johnson, Tom Wilson Episode 55: January 18, 1990 Joan Embery, Art Donovan Episode 56: April 6, 1990 Bob Hope, Jeff Dunham, B.B. King |
The DVD:
These 15 DVDs arrive in four fold out cases, and all four are housed in a flip-top box.
Audio:
The mono soundtrack sound about how you'd expect a vintage TV show to sound. There is some background noise in some of the earliest episodes, but in general the voices are easy to hear and the music is clear. The dynamic range is noticeably limited, but that has more to do with the recording technology of the time rather than any encoding errors.
Video:
With only four half hour shows per disc, I was surprised at the amount of compression artifacts that were present in a lot of these episodes. In some of the episodes the full frame image is fine, but in others pixilation, blocking, and aliasing are all problems. That could originate with the source material, but with so many programs to choose from (all of the episodes from 1973-1992 are preserved) you'd think they'd be able to select episodes with good video. Below is a frame of a particularly bad episode. Note the blocking both in the background and on Johnny's face, hands, and sholders. There's some false coloring on his cheek, and the whole image is very soft.
Extras:
The final disc is reserved form extras. First there's Rescued Gems of the 1960s, just over an hours worth of clips, interviews, and skits from the show that occurred during the 60's. There's a nice interview with Jay Silverheels (Tonto) and a great interview from the 70's with James Lovell, John Swigert, Fred Haise, the Apollo 13 astronauts, just a month after their ill-fated mission.
There's also an hour's worth of new interviews with Loni Anderson, David Brenner, Jim Fowler, and Baxter Black, who recall appearing on the show and share their memories of Johnny Carson.
Final Thoughts:
I really wanted to like this collection, but ultimately I didn't. While the content was excellent, these severely edited shows were hard to watch due to the abrupt cuts and ill-timed edits. That's too bad because I honestly think more fan would purchase this if the complete shows were presented. Add to that the mediocre video quality and this is a set that should be rented.
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