bluetoast

Lots of sitcoms from 60's-80's. I caught some Barney Miller and Good Times for the first time yesterday. It's a lot like what Nick at Nite was in the 90's. But this Carson at night is pretty cool, Charles Grodin did one of his surly interviews last night. The only catch is all the commercial breaks are filled with insurance/life alert spots.

flixtime

As a fan of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, I was happy to "discover" another very similar Sherwood Schwartz entry IT'S ABOUT TIME on Antenna TV. While IT'S ABOUT TIME isn't anywhere near as good as GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, I do appreciate getting to sample it.

mcnabb

I enjoy the Carson reruns every night over the current crop of late night hosts. During the week they show reruns from the 80's and on weekends they show reruns from the 70's. The 70's reruns are fascinating as I never knew they were 90 minutes. It was definitely less scripted then and less PC as the guests and Johnny were talking like they are at a party together. It's also funny to see Carson smoking on screen as that would never happen today.

MikahC

So I'm not the only old fart watching them. I don't PLAN to watch them, but then I see Eddie Murphy (back when he was funny) or George Carlin (back when he was alive), or Richard Pryor (ditto), and I have to watch. It's not just that Johnny is better, the guests are also better. I remember you could see an actor, stand-up comedian, and banjo player all in one night -- and all in one person (Steve Martin). My wife has even started watching some of them with me. It's not something we do every night, but we enjoy it on an occasional basis. They recently reaired a Jay Leno guest appearance and she enjoyed it as she didn't know him back before he took over the Tonight Show (she didn't watch Stand-up like I did).

Today I saw an advertisement for Time/Life DVD's of old Johnny Carson shows that seem to be exactly the same thing, but at this point, I'm recording the ones I care about OTA complete with Closed Captions (which are probably missing from the DVD's if the way they treated Six Million Dollar Man is any indication).

PhantomStranger

Watching these Carson reruns has proven to me Johnny simply was better at hosting a talk show than anyone else ever born. I believed that proposition since he left the air but was beginning to think it may have been youthful nostalgia on my part viewing him through rose-tinted glasses.

Nope, he simply runs circles around our current crop. Kind of sad to know the Babe Ruth of talk show hosting has already come and gone. I like the range of guests far better on his show as well. Modern talk shows have eliminated pretty much every guest that isn't an actor. The only thing we've got now are a bunch of political guests as out of the ordinary.

coli

The thing that makes Carson better then any host today is that he appealed to EVERYONE. I started watching him in the mid 80's as a 12 year old kid and loved him, while my parents and grandmom would watch him too every night. Name any show on TV today where you get 3 generations that watch and show and enjoy it equally? Plus Carson was just cool as alot of late night hosts play the dorky guy who fawns over the guests, but Carson had that command and it showed in his interviews as he would flirt in a cool way with any good looking female guest. Now you see Fallon and Conan drool over a hot female guest like that nerd in school that had no shot, where Carson HAD a shot at that girl so you kind of looked up to him.

What's amazing when I watch the reruns is I can pretty much watch the whole show and its not boring, whereas the only time I currently ever bother with a late night show is if an 'A' list celebrity goes on, and even those interviews are pretty much staged today (And don't get me started on the stupid games Fallon plays with his guest). Carson's interviews (especially in the 70's) were not staged as I was suprised how honest his guests got as he would pretty much ask them anything. And of course he perfected the monologue in that a good joke was a funny, but when he bombed on a joke it was even funnier when he gave that expression to the crowd.

rw2516

I've seen a few of the Carsons. Seems the segments are pretty long. Don't go to commercial every five minutes. Very interesting from historical perspective. Seeing Charlton Heston promoting Earthquake and talking about Airport '75. Richard Harris promoting Cassandra Crossing.

DWilson

When I was growing up in The Sixties, "The Tonight Show" was always coming on when I had to go to bed. It was like a party everyone got to be at but me, and it seemed very "grown-up" to occasionally stay up and watch it.

The Seventies was an interesting period in late-night television (that I got to stay up for). I had Carson's 90-minute show (much better than his 60-minute show), and when that got dull, -or there was a guest host (frequently), -I could watch Merv Griffin (which would be replaced by the CBS Late Movie), or Dick Cavett and a rotating slot of other things, like Geraldo Rivera (before he became a punchline) and Dan Curtis video-taped dramas. The other local channel ran the typical slate of movies.
Eventually, "The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder" followed Johnny, to be replaced by Letterman. However, the end of the broadcasting day (with National Anthem) came at 1am, pretty much until the mid-Eighties.

These Carson shows certainly bring back memories of another time

mphtrilogy

Get.tv has merv and judy shows.

Here in nyc area its on the station 68-3 antenna ....

Decent station with the old sony catalog... Some pretty good old movies and some early merv and judy...

dvd-4-life

Will Direct TV ever get any of these odd ball channels(that carry older shows)?

Seems like they could hook up to the main feeder channels but might not be much of a demand.

DWilson

They've also been carrying other old variety shows that never got any play like Sonny and Cher, Jim Nabors and Danny Kaye and for Christmas they had some Andy Williams specials and select "Kraft Music Hall" episodes. I'm closing in on 60, so I'm in the "sweet spot" for this type of programming, since its a lot of stuff that I never thought I'd see again. I'm not saying I'd set my DVR for any of it, but if its on I might drop in.

jjcool

Cozi TV gets alot of play time in my house. Epsiodes of Murder, She Wrote, The A-Team, Wonder Woman, Bionic Woman, and Magnum just to name a few. Also, Buzzr plays some old game shows. Old Match Gaem episodes are a riot. From the not so subtle sexual innuendos to people smoking on screen, it really was a different era. Not to mention Richard Dawson kissing everyone in sight on the Family Feud.

TheKing

MeTV is pretty good too. I haven't watched much lately, but for a while they had Dragnet and ADAM-12 (I think they moved to COZI). They also have a Saturday night sci-fi lineup of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Star Trek, Lost In Space and a sci-fi movie hosted by Svengoolie.

JuryDuty

No doubt. I've been watching these here and there since the beginning of January and--wow--I forgot how good he was as a host.

It's interesting: His show didn't have the constant drum-kicks, high energy or constant throw to commercial that today's shows have...but you can't help but be mesmerized while watching.

Unlike today's talk shows, many of the guests don't come on with prepared talking points and Johnny just talks to them, letting the conversation go where it may. Absolutely fascinating.

mphtrilogy

It's a great point, watched the COlbert Post Superbowl with Will Ferrell and he just had to jam through his comic piece... seemed so forced, I just shut it off at that point..

johnny was indeed the man

Tom Creo

Antenna TV I watch Carson, Barney Miller, and Three's a Crowd (love Ritter). Me TV I find watching Brady Bunch and Saved by the Bell on Sunday. The Jewel over the air channel though is Comet TV. Last month I caught Lord of Illusions, Motel Hell, Barbarians, and Child's Play.

Astrofan

The shame is hundreds (thousands?) of episodes were erased by NBC decades ago.

Brack

I dropped cable/satellite over a year ago, and watch lots of OTA stuff. I used my parents Directv account to watch shows I want because their internet is slow due to them living out in the sticks, and someone might as well take advantage of that part of their service if they can't. Anyway, I really enjoy Svengoolie on Saturday nights (MeTV), a lot of fun old horror films, most I've never heard of.

Tom Creo

Yeah MeTV on Sat night is great. 1hr of Batman, followed by Wonder Woman, and then Svengooli movie(Berwyn?)

TheKing

Looks like they changed it again. Now it's an episode of Superman followed by an episode of Batman (1 a week? Cliffhangers!), followed by The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, Star Trek, Svengoolie, Lost In Space and Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea.

Damn that's a lot of Sci-Fi!

Bluelitespecial

I like Cozi Tv, they carry Baywatch reruns.

bluetoast

The potato chip moment was on tonight.

Bronkster

Hasn't heard of it until I saw this thread today - so I made a point of catching Carson tonight! Having seen nothing but "best of" stuff since he's been off the air, it was very enjoyable to watch a regular show with regular guests - if a lady who collects potato chips could be called regular. Dang, I miss Johnny.

coli

The Potato Chip lady went 3 segments, and Carson was able to keep it funny throughout. What made it funny is that he just treaded the line of not mocking her, yet still kind of rolling his eyes that he was doing a segment of a lady with potato chips that look like Tweety Bird and other strange people.

As much as people say that Ed McMahon didn't do anything but sit on the couch, that laugh in the backround was priceless throughout the show.

SmackDaddy

Love watching these throwback channels, it's the only reason I keep an antennae hooked up to my sets at home. Barney Miller, Sanford and Son, Three's Company and so many more shows I grew up with. I also like the Movies! Lot's of cool 70's flicks that don't get a lot of play on the pay channels (next week has Absence of Malice, Black Sunday, Marathon Man) as well as a god mix of movies from all decades.

I'm going to have to start watching the Carson re-runs. To bad they don't do a back to back with early Letterman shows, that would be awesome!