This will mainly interest folks in the Southern California area. KDOC Channel 56, which broadcasts out of Orange County, has just added Johnny Carson to its schedule. Monday through Thursday evenings at 11:00 and 11:30, they're running episodes of Carson's Comedy Classics. The station's website and official schedule refers to the program as Johnny Carson or The Best of Johnny Carson but what they're running is Carson's Comedy Classics, a package of half-hour excerpts from The Tonight Show that was originally syndicated in 1983. Someone went through the tapes in the Carson vault and pulled out comedy sketches and desk spots, mostly from the late seventies, assembling them into half-hours. I suspect that the fragmented nature of the presentation was the main reason these clip shows didn't do all that well.
Several people, including Carson's old producer Fred DeCordova, told me that Johnny was determined to find some way to market his old tapes. He owned hundreds and hundreds of hours and didn't want to see it all disappear down the old memory hole. Somehow, the idea of just syndicating whole Tonight Show episodes was rejected. Most of the attempts have involved repackaging the programs by yanking out the comedy sketches and/or star performances by now-famous comedians and music acts. I still wish someone would try airing the shows in their original form, maybe with a little intro by someone explaining some of the topical references. I'm not sure a lot of the material even works out of the context of a free-wheeling, quasi-live show.
KDOC actually has a great schedule if you like infomercials and reruns. The list of the latter they broadcast includes The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Perry Mason, The Untouchables, Becker, Mad About You, The Nanny, Cheers, Charlie's Angels, Magnum P.I., Hawaii Five-O, Quincy, Matlock, Little House on the Prairie, The Rockford Files, Hogan's Heroes, Combat, McHale's Navy, Rat Patrol, Mission: Impossible, In the Heat of the Night and Kojak. There must be one or two shows in there that you like.