The Johnny Carson Show (1953–1956) User Reviews

This review is of the rest of the DVD collection of "The Johnny Carson Show" I couldn't comment on individually

[tavm · 8/10 · 12 June 2010]

All right, since this review is under the program heading-as opposed to the individual episodes one-I'm reviewing the rest of "The Johnny Carson Show" that I didn't get to before because of no IMDb listing on many episodes on the DVD collection from Shout! Factory. The first one from June 30, 1955 was a pretty good one for the initial edition as it started with a cold open with Johnny as Edward R. Murrow interviewing Carson's then-wife Jody and their three sons. Johnny also appears as himself in this segment which tells me parts of this must have been pre-recorded. After the opening credits, Carson does some roving reporter sketches of which the funniest ones to me involved a man "camouflaged" as a bush (you only see the bush and no one behind it), and Johnny jumping on a trampoline interviewing an athlete. The next ep on disc one was from July 21 and had the host as Walter Cronkite interviewing The Three Bears concerning Goldilocks on "You Are There". I didn't think that was funny which was what I thought of the rest of the show. The third episode on the disc was from August 25 which had Carson doing an amusing narration of a ballet and perhaps the poorest sketch I saw of any of the episodes, a couple arguing about their robot help taking place in futuristic 1980. The extra on that disc was an episode of "The Johnny Carson Show" that was actually his daytime show after his primetime show was canceled. Taking place on Memorial Day of May 30, 1956, this one has Carson and his panelists racing some horn toads provided by that day's guest with Johnny's not moving one inch despite it being named after him! That was a pretty funny episode to see. Now, about the extras on disc two: Among them are "Who Do You Trust?", Johnny's live daytime game show where he met his future "Tonight Show" sidekick, Ed McMahon, on though the announcer here is obviously not him. On this September 9, 1958, edition, one of the contestants, a John Burns, gets stuck in the answer booth which prompts some hilarious ad-libs from the host as he interviews another couple. When John is reunited with wife Lorraine, he cracks about her possibly becoming a widow after Carson asks what he thought of while stuck there. Oh, and when their baby's pictures are shown in the beginning, Johnny cracks about one facial expression being how he can't wait for the quiz scandals to end! Well worth viewing, that one. Finally, we're treated to a clip of Johnny on one of his guest host stints on an October 17, 1958 edition of "The Jack Paar Show" which was actually "The Tonight Show" before Johnny took over. He comments on an audience couple having their ninth wedding anniversary that year which also happened to be Carson's as well. He also mentions another audience member being from the circus as he mimes seeing her fall from the ceiling through the floor-with camera shaking a bit during this-as he mentions she's a bit heavyset. This segment ends when he mentions the show's length which at the time was one hour, 45 minutes. Quite amusing and fascinating that clip was. Well, that's my review of the rest of the DVD collection of "The Johnny Carson Show". My rating for the entire thing is up above...

On the Tiffany network

[harl-7 · 15 November 2009]

Little Georgie Gobel was a star on radio, until his singing career was interrupted by WWII. While in the service, he started doing stand-up for his fellow soldiers, which started him on a new career path. In 1954, he landed on NBC, doing The George Gobel show, for which he received an Emmy.

CBS needed to counter George Gobel, and in 1955, they introduced Johnny Carson's series. He was from radio, and from the Midwest, just like Gobel, but offered a more sophisticated personality as opposed to Gobel's "aw shucks" down home style.

Gobel ended up moving to CBS and Carson to NBC. CBS ended up fighting a demographic war for decades, with a large audience, but one of older, rural viewers that advertisers found less desirable.

The Tonight Show formula that Carson used was basically this half-hour show, plus interviews with celebrities and authors.

Carson protégé and heir-apparent David Letterman ended up moving to CBS when NBC chose Jay Leno to replace the retiring Carson, thus completing the circle back to CBS.