We've been writing here about the Johnny Carson reruns that have just started on Antenna TV. This of course has led to a lot of e-mails in my box from folks who can't get Antenna TV where they live.
Antenna TV is what is called a digital multicast television network. In many cities, it's an extension of a regular, over-the-air TV channel airing on one of their sub-channels. It may or may not be carried by one of them in your market and it may or may not be carried by your local cable provider. Here's a map to show you where it is and where it isn't.
These shows did not come cheap and I would guess that Tribune Media, which owns the channel, ponied up the bucks after a conversation that went something like this…
Exec #1: We need to get more cities to carry Antenna TV. How do we do this?
Exec #2: I've been looking at our lineup. We're running old episodes of All in the Family, Mister Ed, Newhart, Three's Company, Maude, The Partridge Family…these are not shows that have ever been scarce. You can watch a lot of them on other channels or on the Internet. I'm thinking we need to get some show that everyone remembers but which has never been on MeTV, Get TV, TV Land and all the others.
Exec #1: Exactly! We'll find some show that's a classic that has never been rerun but which we can air exclusively. Only then will people phone their cable companies and local stations and demand they pick up our channel!
And then I'm guessing they did some research and realized that old Carson shows were their best bet. I'm not sure what the second choice would have been. Maybe Letterman from his NBC days.
So if you can't get Antenna TV where you are, maybe it's worth your time to call your cable company. A few years ago, I met a guy at Comic-Con who worked for a cable provider. He told me that what worked best at his place of business was when someone called up the number to order a new installation and demanded that certain channel. Such a call would go something like this…
CALLER: Hello! I'm interested in getting cable TV installed in my home.
SALESPERSON: Excellent! I can help you with that and we have many fine packages of channels from which you can select.
CALLER: I know just the one I want! The one that includes Antenna TV!
SALESPERSON (after scouring a list:) I'm sorry but I don't see that we carry Antenna TV in any of our packages.
CALLER (with outrage:) What!? Well in that case, forget the whole thing! [CLICK!]
I don't know if they track such non-sales at your cable company but the gent I met at the con said his sure did. And he even pointed out that you could do this if you were already a subscriber. Just don't give them your name before you demand the channel you crave. The trick, he said, was for them to get a bunch of these. You can round up friends to call or if you're good at disguising your voice different ways, that works too. (Isn't this how Lucy Ricardo got Ricky hired back when he lost his job at the Club Tropicana?)
Last night, they ran a 90-minute show from January 1, 1975 with Foster Brooks, Victor Buono, author Adela Rogers St. Johns and Joan Embery from the San Diego Zoo. The animal segment and Victor Buono's spot were great and Johnny's monologue was okay. Ms. Rogers telling of her friendship with Amelia Earhart was of great historical interest but it was the kind of slow conversation that just doesn't fly on a talk show these days. When Johnny cut his show from 90 minutes to an hour in 1980, it was in part to get rid of spots like this.
I can well imagine someone young watching Foster Brooks on this show and wondering how this man had a career. Playing inebriated is kind of passé these days and even when it was in vogue, it was the sort of act that was good for about five minutes. A writer I knew who worked with him told me that when Brooks started playing Vegas, he went out with old jokes cribbed from magazines and joke books and got a decent-enough response but everyone advised him he needed better material. So he invested money hiring top comedy writers and got some great stories to tell…and when he went out with his new act, the result was exactly the same. People weren't listening to what he said. They were just laughing at his delivery.
I saw what must have been one of his last Vegas appearances before he passed in 2001. He was on the dais of a "roast" for Sid Caesar and he did 10-15 minutes of what sounded like (and may actually have been) old Playboy Party Jokes. He got an awful lot of laughs with material that if performed by anyone else would have evoked naught but silence sprinkled with a few groans.
The interesting thing about him — to me, anyway — was that he had been an unknown character actor for years doing small parts (and not a lot of them) on TV shows. Then someone found out about this great drunk he could do and he was booked, first on one of Steve Allen's talk shows and later on Carson's. In both cases, they brought him on as a serious guest — Carson introduced him as the Mayor of Burbank — and he got increasingly plastered as he talked and sipped from a cup.
Suddenly, he was an overnight sensation booked all over the country and it wouldn't surprise me if his income increased a thousand-fold. His fame sure did…and he was well over 65 when it happened. I didn't like his act that much but I love stories of late success.
But for me, the highlight of last night's Carson replay was a sketch they did after the monologue. For several years running, Johnny's first show of a new year would be an interview with a diapered adult playing the New Year's Baby. Sometimes, it was Johnny in the diaper being interviewed by Ed McMahon. Sometimes, as with this show, it was writer Pat McCormick. It was funnier with Pat who was 6'7", rather flabby and notably crazier than Carson.
Pat, who I wrote about here, here and here, was one of those rare comedy writers who was as funny as what he wrote. The diaper was not the least amount of clothing Pat wore on Johnny's show. During the week that "streaking" was all the rage in this country, Pat interrupted Carson's monologue with a nude sprint. Everyone who knew him well has great, more outrageous stories.
I always thought those New Year's Baby sketches made an interesting point about Johnny Carson. A lot of performers can be Bud Abbott or Lou Costello — one or the other. Few can switch roles but Johnny could be interviewer or interviewee. He exhibited the same skill as a talk show host. If he had a Buddy Hackett or a Don Rickles in his guest chair, he generally played straight for them, letting them be the funny one. When he had a non-comedic actor or author, Johnny could effortlessly become the funny one. He was also willing to put on the diaper, something most talk show hosts would never do. Some years, he would also appear on the last show of the year playing the old year giving its exit interview.
Anyway, I enjoyed last night's rerun a lot. I hope you're getting them where you live. If you do and you're trying to find them on your DVR guide, remember that the name of the program is Johnny Carson, not The Tonight Show. They're pretty entertaining, if not for the comedy then at least for all that Show Business History.