Rare Johnny Carson footage found

[Matthew Brannigan]

One of the most common misconceptions in the UK is that American TV networks are really good at keeping stuff and have virtually all classic shows safely in the archive, well that's certainly not true with the "Tonight Show" - there is next to nothing extant from the 60's, which makes this bit of news very exciting:

www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/riverside/riverside-headlines-index/20121002-riverside-military-broadcast-center-finds-rare-carson-footage.ece

[John Green]

Nice one.

There's an overview of missing U.S. TV on W*******a. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lost_television_broadcasts

[Richard Marple]

I've heard that a lot of American shows made in colour only exist in B&W film copies, as the original tapes were wiped not long after the original transmission.

Warner Brothers specially made some linking material for packages of cartoons show on TV in the 1960s. When someone suggested reshowing them years later it was found the master negatives had been junked & only some of the prints (mostly 16mm B&W copies) survived.

[John Wall]

It appears to be very similar to the situation in the UK.

[John Green]

Some long-thought-lost Carsons from 1955 came out on DVD a few years back: www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/26265/johnny-carson-show-the/ A big country,the U.S.A.Lots of places for things to be.