What classy gentlemen! Mr. Zabka is a precious soul and Johnny was kind and thoughtful in letting him express himself. It's hard to imagine a show today being this at ease and unstructured. It was as though you were visiting with two old friends.
I'd almost forgotten what good wholesome entertainment was like! No zombies, crime scenes, no silly mindless sitcom. This was wonderful to listen to. Ty for sharing.
Silly and mindless sitcoms can be terrific! When was ‘Burns & Allen’ ever NOT silly and mindless? And crime scenes can also be entertaining, as in ‘Law & Order’ and CSI. I take your point, though. Nobody does it as well today. In part that may be because none of the networks has the audience share they had back in the day, so the talent pool is spread more thinly.
You all seem to forget that a lot of television programs were LIVE back then, so nothing was preserved. If they were not live they were filmed. The cost of filming a tv show was huge!! When AMPEX developed the first broadcast video tape machine, the whole beauty about it was to reduce cost and storage fees of show by reusing the tape. The tapes themselves were $250/reel, so reuse was very important. No one thought to keep a $250 reel of tape per show! That was cost prohibitive consider how many times it would be rebroadcast. One tv station in NY even dumped hundreds of reels of tape into NY harbor!!
Speechless. Three months before I was born! Thanks so much! Sometimes certain events are Milestones, and when Johnny retired in 1992 after 30 years that was certainly one. Still missed, and never equaled to this day.
@John Bertalan You are so right! I was 12y old then, always watched this show during summer and school holidays when I could stay up late. Always a fan, and I miss him.
Mr Craig Ferguson would beg to differ. Haha, no.....absolutely _no one_ remotely rivaled Johnny. So many incredibly fond of memories as a kid in the '80s watching Johnny Carson at my grandparents. My grandfather's name was John, and everyone called him Johnny cause he looked like Carson...and always witty. And a fellow 1925 baby.
I had no idea that the Tonight show was in color back then. I figured '66 like prime time shows. What a find! Made my day. Not only did this clip look good, but the audio was beautiful! Here's to more NYC Tonight show finds! In color!
Carson's Tonight Show was in color from the start, and before him with Jack Paar starting from 1960, but there's hardly any surviving footage even in BW kinescope before 1972, when Carson wanted old clips for his 10th year and found out his shows weren't preserved and insisted they do from then on. Less than 1% of his first 10 years survives.
@@KalOrtPor That's not 100% true. He was informed by the network what they were doing in the 1960s and Carson basically said, "Okay! Nobody's ever gonna see those shows again, anyway!" It's only later when they realize the TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS that were lost that EVERYONE cares about the wiped tapes! Home video as we know it today didn't exist back. Basically, all they syndicated were reruns of old sitcoms and westerns and an occasional oddity like The Twilight Zone (and later Star Trek, one of the kings of syndicated reruns). Nobody ever thought "live television/talk shows" would become valuable history, as in resellable merchandising and home media decades later. They weren't even thinking that far ahead and the home video recorders they had back then were very expensive and impractical. It took about another 20 years -- the 1980s, even then only really after the late 1980s -- before VCR's really took off when the players became cheaper and they finally standardized around VHS. VHS was ironically FAR INFERIOR to the tape media they were using to record The Tonight Show and many other series (including Doctor Who in England)!
Actually, NBC was broadcasting in color as far back as 1954. They had the technology, but were waiting for the FCC to decide which system to set as the standard, RCA's or CBS's. The ruling came down in December of 1953, and NBC broadcast the New Year's Day Rose Bowl in color.
@@AvengerII so far as I know, you’re entirely correct, but there is a bit more to the story. By 1964, RCA (which owned NBC at the time) was actively pursuing development of a video disc system that would work like a record-player for video, such that people could collect their own libraries of movies and TV shows in the same way they collected hit music (they called it CED). So it’s not like nobody in the company ever had the idea of permanently saving popular TV shows. It’s more a case of what we used to call “the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing”.
The whole beauty of videotape was that it could be reused. Each reel of tape was $250 and no chemical processing or splicing together. I have erased hundreds of shows in the 60s to reuse the tape.but working in the videotape dept several guys would preserve special recordings
wtf66611 if you get Antenna TV on your cable system you can watch Carson reruns from his California time, as noted NY time is gone except a few clips like this. You'll be surprised to see how much he hammered Reagan and his over 30 scandals. He hammered every President .
@Tom VS Frankly I am very surprised about how little it was "all in fun", I watch at least one old show a night. He also hammered Trump with his bankruptcies, talking about him playing the lotto so he could pay off his bills. He also made fun of Trumps inability to stay married and his affairs at the time basically saying Trump was worse than himself, Carson. His shots at Reagan include saying he couldn't make decisions himself, that his wife used physics to make decisions on US policy etc. I doubt that it felt like it was all in fun if you were a Reagan fan at the time.
@@goingjag And he made fun of Jimmy Carter and Democrats as well. It was in fun and it didn't have the nasty partisan vitriol that today's late night hosts engage in. The Tonight Show was a place where everyone would gather for laughs and entertainment. Today's late night hosts have abandoned class and comedy and have turned their shows into a left-wing political rallies that is preoccupied with Trump.
Stan Zabka is still with us at the time of my writing this, December 2020, one of the last of those brave men who served in WWII. If you recognize the last name, a check on actor William "Karate Kid" Zabka's Wiki reveals that they are indeed, father and son.
ULMDesk 300E42nd it’s utterly amazing. The network that pioneered color television (as RCA wanted to sell color television sets) erased more color videotape than any other network 😨
@@ULMDeskEnd I recall reading how pissed carson was, back in the mid 1970s, to learn some flunky had cleaned out most of the room with the tonight show tapes and whipped them or threw them out.A fortune was discarded.
"Chimes" is a lovely, creative melody and I'm happy to be hearing it again. "Chimes," played behind Johnny Carson at the beginning and end of this taped segment, predates Mr. Carson's tenure as Tonight Show host. It was recorded during Jack Paar's tenure at the Tonight Show. I owned a 45-rpm copy of "Chimes," special-ordered from a record store in East Meadow, NY, sometime before I joined the Navy in January, 1962. (As stated above, Mr. Carson took over the Tonight Show in October of 1962.) The flip side of the record was entitled "Christmas Chimes" and it was basically the same song, but overdubbed or overlaid with a chorus singing "it's Christmas time ..." plus (I think) selected bits of traditional Christmas music. [Edit: I found Christmas Chimes."] I never knew who the composer of "Chimes" was. I've mistakenly been attributing it to Jack Paar's musical director, Jose Melis all these years I'm happy to actually know what's right. Knowing who wrote it gives me a huge leg-up on finding the full version, again. Even at age 72, the learning never stops. i never would have imagined ...
On occasion, as the show approached 1:00, Johnny would really be engaged with a guest, and they would talk and talk, and blow by the station break. The piano player would gently play the NBC song, to remind Johnny, and he would usually break for the last commercial of the evening. But sometimes he and the guest would keep talking, and the piano player would gently play it again, and THAT would lead to a station break, usually. But for those rare times when Johnny and the guest would STILL talk, the entire Orchestra would play the song as loudly as possible. THAT would finally stop the conversation!!
Interesting seeing how they got a decent color in spite of all the shadow problems around bright areas with image orthocon tubes with TK-41's. Those with color sets in those days probably turned up the color.
@@davidwesley2525 No, I think Homer would have done a better job; and with Barney Gumbel as his sidekick, we would still have the drinking jokes (while they were drinking).
It is great stuff! THough actually there is one older color tape segment I have seen from April 22, 1964 with lawyer J.W. Ehrlich and I remember one 1963 segment appearing on the old Carson's Comedy Classics compilations. But still, every new fragment that shows an era of the Tonight Show that was so different and more relaxed from the later CA era is precious.
Someone uploaded (here on youtube) the first American broadcast in Color. Then President Eisenhower gave a presentation. I believe it was taped in 1958.
The other guests on the show that night were: Eydie Gorme, singer; John Bubbles, dancer; Jack Albertson, actor; and Eddie Lawrence, comedian (who did his routine, "The Old Philosopher"). "Doc" Severinson subbed for Orchestra Director, Skitch Henderson.
He wasn't too popular in the beginning. By this point, he was starting to catch on but Johnny was getting a bit more comfortable with things and it shows. It was rough for him at first but he adjusted. Things got better and he really did work hard towards it.
To me he was already comfortable. Even though this was only the third year of Tonight, but by this time Johnny had already been on the other 2 networks and was in his seventh year working with Ed. Eight years later, after the show moved to Burbank, things took on a more laid back style, so I think that might be what you are thinking.
@@kennethsouthard6042 yeah but he wasn't comfortable until about 1970/71...if you see the vids you will notice how uptight and really not as funny yet until that point
@@HelloooThere I think a lot of that may have been that when the show came out of New York, it was more buttoned down and proximity to NBC brass. I think that moving the show the show to LA and in particular the guests that lived there drove that change more than anything.
I lived in that era -- I saw a lot of Johnny Carson shows from the 60s in that time. When Johnny took over, the Tonight Show was an hour and fourty-five minutes in length, five nights a week! That's why the show was relaxed and casual, they had a lot of time to fill! At the end of 30 years, Johnny was only working three days a week, and each show was just an hour in length by that time, and the shows were very tightly put together. From Johnny's New York run (1962 to 1972) video tape was very expensive, and they simply erased tapes to re-use them. From that ten years, I think I heard that about only 17 full shows exist. An interesting footnote -- Johnny had a rip-roaring show with Dean Martin, Bob Hope, and George Gobel, in the late 60s, and when Johnny went home after the taping, Johnny set up a 16mm movie camera in front of his TV, and kinescoped the show himself when it aired later that night. It's the only copy of that show that has survived because of that!
After watching it on TH-cam that particular night was hilarious. Smart move on Johnny. How sad that we've probably missed out on more gems like that night
Is this the one where Dean Martin taps his cigarette? I have always wondered if that was spontaneous or just staged. Gobel didn't seem to notice the crowd reaction, nor did he take a drink of his coffee. If he did....mmmboy.
@ CHRISTOPHER DUNNE. Apparently Dean Martin had tipped off George Gobel before Martin started flicking his cigarette ashes into Gobel's cup of beer. When you watch that hilarious segment, you notice that Gobel only once takes a sip of beer from his cup. The other times he raises the cup near his lips but then doesn't take a sip from it.
That is Living Color! Great color from the RCA TK-41C cameras. Now I understand why Jonnny Carson was reluctant to switch to the Plumbicon-based RCA TK-44 camera.
That was really neat. I would have been entering seventh grade when that was telecast. I never missed the old 90 minute Tonight Show from New York on Friday nights but on school nights I had to sneak downstairs to watch the opening monolog at 11:30 pm and maybe a Mighty Carson Art Players skit before the guests came out.
I think just about every adolescent of that era has a similar story. My cousin used to curl around the base of the family kitchen table so that his parents would not see him. I used to stand in our entry way and then backup ramrod straight next to grandfather clock so that I could not be seen by my parents whenever they turned around.
Broadcasting and recording were two totally different things. RCA tried to develop a videotape machine but failed. Ampexb the leader in magnetic recording developed the first broadcast quality video tape recorder. RCA modified the machine to record color but could not sell it due to AMPEX patents. In exchange for the color circuitry, AMPEX let RCA develop thier own video tap machine to sell. AMPEX later dropped the RCA color design and developed a greatly improved color design which RCA then used
Thanks for posting this. As I guessed, Stan & his wife are the parents of William (aka Billy) Zabka, who played antagonists in both "The Karate Kid" & "Back to School" and also had a recurring role in the 80s series "The Equalizer". He was born a bit more than a year after his dad's Tonight Show appearance.
One of the cameras used in this program had some lower corner registration and shading problems. There were many technical issues that could cause this type of thing. Most of the time it was alignment of the optical, shading circuits, and registration for the scans.
Hahah remember the tubes in the camera were ROUND. Amd the targets on the tube were flat. The electron beam had an arc to the scan. There were 3 tubes in the camera and each tube had to have perfect registration with each other. The cameras were turned on 30-45 min before use and the registration was done just prior to use. Sometimes over the course of production the registration would drift. It was an amazing feat of engineering at the time. I worked in broadcast since 1955
@@biggobot3253 i would say in the 80s. I liked Plumbicons the best, but I was in tape operations since tape was invented. I disliked production. I much prefer the fast pace of broadcast. I have worked in post as well.
@@Tmanaz480 they didn't overscan, they used bezels to go over the picture tube. The pickup tubes were round and the beam sweep on the face of the tubes made a 4:3 scans. They used as much if the tube as possible, but in color cameras they used 3 tubes, and each tube had a certain usable area that could be used, therefore the edges of the scans were not all the same.
why do movies, shows and everything from 50s to 80s make me feel so... sad, happy, empty, content, everything! i wish i was born in 60s and not in 90s 😔 oh and i hope all the dislikers stub their toes everyday for 10 years
Video-Tape! Getting close to the Jack Paar era. C'mon, c'mon there's gotta be some Jack "Tonight Show" on color tape somewhere. What little Paar late night there is, is mostly on kinescope. And the fragmants of tape I've seen are all black and white.
There was a documentary on Rose Marie, of the Dick Van Dyke show, and it included an appearance she made on The Tonight Show in 1966 in New York. It was titled "Wait For Your Laugh". This was during the time when shows from that period were regularly erased. It was an interesting clip. It was in black-and-white. I don't know how she aquired it, unless she asked for a copy of it, and NBC granted her request. Or maybe she filmed her own kinescope of it at home, to preserve it. Some colorcasts of the Tonight Show from the '70's have shown up (with alternative hosts on Johnny's nights off, never rebroadcast at the time, such as Rich Little and Burt Reynolds). Examples of people taping them with early home-taping devices. Interesting fact about Rose Marie's documentary. Shown locally in a couple of art theaters around Los Angeles. About two weeks after the documentary opened, she passed away. RIP.
+norelco pc yes, i was looking at that .. you can just see the rotating lenses in the shot from probably what was "camera 2" shooting that TK-41 of a side camera "camera 1" or "camera 3".
+coffeehigh420 The partially seen camera was probably camera #3. You can see the camera cable behind Stan at 04:55. Also, they cut back to Johnny after Stan exited through the curtain. Camera #1 was Johnny's camera.
I'm a little surprised "The Tonight Show..." was in color in '64, though I recall Walt Disney's "Wonderful World of Color." was in color. Was Johnny No.1 in the Late Night time slot at that point as he neared his 2nd anniversary?
Yes he was, for the entire run of his show with rare exceptions. NBC began to dominate late-night with Steve Allen, Johnny’s predecessor, in the mid 1950s, and they still remain very strong. I think ‘The Tonight Show’ is still number one in its time slot. I’m thinking the 1979-1980 season may have been a rare exception, but I’m not sure. The show that eventually became ABC’s ‘Nightline’ began when the Iran Hostage Crisis started, and public interest was so high that I believe that show might have beaten Johnny Carson for its first season, when it was called ‘The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage’.
Between Allen and Johnny was Jack Parr for some 5 years, whose ratings were strong. He was the first to be referred to as the "King of Late Night." In fact, in Johnny's first Monologue, he had said, "I know I'm not a king, but I hope you'll consider me your prince," paraphrased. I did not know that "America Held Hostage" had ever achieved No. 1. I think CBS' Late Show is No. 1 today.
@@Lafayette320 I’m not sure, but I remember they beat the Tonight Show on some metric that made news at the time. It might have been just for a week or so, but I want to say it was that entire season.
Max Power the “bird” didn’t become part of American, then the world, culture until 1971. Johnny was merely checking with his producer on the time before commercial. The index finger meant 30 seconds, the middle finger indicated 3 minutes, fourth finger 4, fifth finger means 5 minutes. In TV it was called the “signuman” The Italians used many actions using their fingers and arms, as well as their mouths to indicate different messages, flapping an arm against your truck, like a chicken had great meaning,. It did in-fact mean fear, “I’m out of her boys” The Italians learned it from the French Army, and their own Army began the practice. In order, you dropped all your weapons, raised your arms to the sky and hoped to find a German to surrender to. However key to our discussion is the “inyouface” which also used the arm doubled up like a chicken wing, only this time you pound your elbow into your free hand. The “inyouface” was an insult greater than any words a human could utter. The Italians would leave their hiding places, lookout to make sure there were no Germans in sight, then scream out “We hate the Hun” followed by the elbow hitting the palm of your hand several times. You would give your wife the “inyouface” once a year when she told you she was pregnant again, if dinner was warmed up leftovers. For the most part it was the neighbor who received the greatest number of inyouface.
TH-cam has a complete set of NBC Chimes variations that were used behind NBC promos. For example, Google "Chimes Tango" and it will go that tune. There's also a playlist string go "Chimes Variations on a Theme" you can hear. The NBC Sports theme is there in its entirety. It used to be the theme of NBC Sports shows. Now it's only played occasionally.
To The Best Of Your Knowledge How Many Episodes Of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson Were Found In A Nevada Warehouse? Does It Include Johnny Carsons Tonight Show Debut As Host From October 1st, 1962?
The Carson Tonite Show from New York had a totally different feel than the later show from LA. Seemed edgier and more energetic. The smaller New York studio helped, I think. By the time Carson settled in to the LA show, he was more polished, the studio was bigger and something was missing, IMO.
Watching old Carson shows and clips help me forget just how sick and insane the world is today. How sick and disgusting late night television is and has been for a very long time. It's just SO wonderful to be transported back in time for awhile. I was just about to turn 5 when this show broadcast. Makes me wonder if my mom saw it. I miss Johnny!
Johnny's mic is an RXC BX77 ribbon microphone. But it could be a prop. He could have been miced overhead like they do in film or from a shotgun mic at the camera.
The registration on the Carson camera is really bad, too. Camera registration is quite a bit better on Mr. Zabka. Check out the bass players tie at 3:13 to see what the heterodyne process does.
Take thou my heart for thine Take every dream fashioned there Take every hope, every thought divine The deep, tender love it would share Humble, unworthy to stand at thy side No secret, I hide unbeknown Take though my heart for thine For thine, now, is mine alone “Take Thou My Heart” (Stanley William Zabka, for his wife Nancy)
The Elegance, class, sophistication 🎶 America: the Way We Were🇺🇸 I own many Retro Lounge Jazz CD's from America and many from Japan! This Music and this Show is a Time Capsule of a sweeter more innocent World🍷
I wonder how Stan felt after being supplanted by Paul Anka...who simply removed the lyrics from a song he composed for Annette Funicello to sing, to become "Johnny's Theme"
+norelco pc But it's said Anka still earned more money on that and the English lyrics he wrote for "My Way" than he did on all his own recordings combined.
+Paul Duca I literally just received an email informing me that Paul Anka did an interview for Mark Malkoff's "Carson Podcast". He talks about writing the Tonight Show theme. Check it out! The interview is just a few days old.
I've been informed that Studio 6B is 50 feet wide. Why does the studio seem smaller in the Johnny Carson days than it does today? You can see in this clip that most of the band was positioned down by the audience and was only single wide along the wall. The Jimmy Fallon set seems to be bigger. I suppose it could be wide angle lenses.
+Rob Kates Did they actually widen the studio? That would seem rather hard to do. I know that a supporting piller was removed behind the desk but that wouldn't enlarge the studio.
+Bob Sewvello They didn't widen the studio. Impossible. The main studio doors are in the same place they were in World War II. Lengthen the useable floor plan - yes. Permanent seats (as seen in radio, Berle, NY-era Carson shows, Paar kinnies, Ernie Kovacs morning show kinnies) were taken out in 1980. A support pillar for a lighting equipment room (behind where Carson sat) was taken out in the Fallon Tonight renovation. Great pics here: facebook.com/189359747768249/photos/a.197108410326716.39183.189359747768249/630737133630506/?type=3&permPage=1
What classy gentlemen! Mr. Zabka is a precious soul and Johnny was kind and thoughtful in letting him express himself. It's hard to imagine a show today being this at ease and unstructured. It was as though you were visiting with two old friends.
I'd almost forgotten what good wholesome entertainment was like! No zombies, crime scenes, no silly mindless sitcom. This was wonderful to listen to. Ty for sharing.
Silly and mindless sitcoms can be terrific! When was ‘Burns & Allen’ ever NOT silly and mindless? And crime scenes can also be entertaining, as in ‘Law & Order’ and CSI. I take your point, though. Nobody does it as well today. In part that may be because none of the networks has the audience share they had back in the day, so the talent pool is spread more thinly.
What happened since? What changed in our society that this sort of quality isn't there anymore? Think about this.
RIP, Mr. Zabka, who died last October at age 98 (!)
He was almost 40 at the time of this show.
Great to see tapes like this still being found from the early years of Carson.
Thanks, NBC, for wiping away television history forever.
They are idiots
@@rickrick5041 still are to this day lol
@@DONKEYKONG260 Good to hear they haven't gotten worse
@@rickrick5041 lol
You all seem to forget that a lot of television programs were LIVE back then, so nothing was preserved. If they were not live they were filmed. The cost of filming a tv show was huge!! When AMPEX developed the first broadcast video tape machine, the whole beauty about it was to reduce cost and storage fees of show by reusing the tape. The tapes themselves were $250/reel, so reuse was very important. No one thought to keep a $250 reel of tape per show! That was cost prohibitive consider how many times it would be rebroadcast. One tv station in NY even dumped hundreds of reels of tape into NY harbor!!
Speechless. Three months before I was born! Thanks so much! Sometimes certain events are Milestones, and when Johnny retired in 1992 after 30 years that was certainly one. Still missed, and never equaled to this day.
@John Bertalan You are so right! I was 12y old then, always watched this show during summer and school holidays when I could stay up late. Always a fan, and I miss him.
Mr Craig Ferguson would beg to differ. Haha, no.....absolutely _no one_ remotely rivaled Johnny. So many incredibly fond of memories as a kid in the '80s watching Johnny Carson at my grandparents. My grandfather's name was John, and everyone called him Johnny cause he looked like Carson...and always witty. And a fellow 1925 baby.
I had no idea that the Tonight show was in color back then. I figured '66 like prime time shows. What a find! Made my day. Not only did this clip look good, but the audio was beautiful!
Here's to more NYC Tonight show finds! In color!
Magnetic tape running at 15 inches per second gives pretty decent audio :)
Carson's Tonight Show was in color from the start, and before him with Jack Paar starting from 1960, but there's hardly any surviving footage even in BW kinescope before 1972, when Carson wanted old clips for his 10th year and found out his shows weren't preserved and insisted they do from then on. Less than 1% of his first 10 years survives.
@@KalOrtPor That's not 100% true. He was informed by the network what they were doing in the 1960s and Carson basically said, "Okay! Nobody's ever gonna see those shows again, anyway!"
It's only later when they realize the TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS that were lost that EVERYONE cares about the wiped tapes!
Home video as we know it today didn't exist back.
Basically, all they syndicated were reruns of old sitcoms and westerns and an occasional oddity like The Twilight Zone (and later Star Trek, one of the kings of syndicated reruns). Nobody ever thought "live television/talk shows" would become valuable history, as in resellable merchandising and home media decades later. They weren't even thinking that far ahead and the home video recorders they had back then were very expensive and impractical. It took about another 20 years -- the 1980s, even then only really after the late 1980s -- before VCR's really took off when the players became cheaper and they finally standardized around VHS. VHS was ironically FAR INFERIOR to the tape media they were using to record The Tonight Show and many other series (including Doctor Who in England)!
Actually, NBC was broadcasting in color as far back as 1954. They had the technology, but were waiting for the FCC to decide which system to set as the standard, RCA's or CBS's. The ruling came down in December of 1953, and NBC broadcast the New Year's Day Rose Bowl in color.
@@AvengerII so far as I know, you’re entirely correct, but there is a bit more to the story. By 1964, RCA (which owned NBC at the time) was actively pursuing development of a video disc system that would work like a record-player for video, such that people could collect their own libraries of movies and TV shows in the same way they collected hit music (they called it CED). So it’s not like nobody in the company ever had the idea of permanently saving popular TV shows. It’s more a case of what we used to call “the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing”.
I miss Johnny Carson's style interacting with guests. I can't believe it will be 25 years he retired.
I can’t fathom the magnitude of calamity that would have ensued with incalculable harm had the text _not_ been plastered across the screen.
There is now one earlier color clip from the Carson show which is also on You Tube, from an episode taped and broadcast a week and a half earlier.
The back-story adds to enjoying this clip! Thank you Stan & DC Video!
Mr. Zabka's son is actor/filmmaker William Zabka of "The Karate Kid" fame!
I was born September 9, 1964 love Johnny Carson!
Same here
The color and video quality is outstanding‼️ Thanks for making it available😀
you know the color really is amazing! In fact the color of Stan's face is the same color as my wife's face when she's excited.
So sad all that history was erased, at least a few snips survive.
MerleOberon Unbelievable to lose all these great shows which are part of our history and are so entertaining
The whole beauty of videotape was that it could be reused. Each reel of tape was $250 and no chemical processing or splicing together. I have erased hundreds of shows in the 60s to reuse the tape.but working in the videotape dept several guys would preserve special recordings
I was about a month old when this aired. I am 56 and love all the old GOOD stuff!
Back when late night comedy had class and respect. How I long to go back to those days......:(
wtf66611 if you get Antenna TV on your cable system you can watch Carson reruns from his California time, as noted NY time is gone except a few clips like this. You'll be surprised to see how much he hammered Reagan and his over 30 scandals. He hammered every President
.
@Tom VS Frankly I am very surprised about how little it was "all in fun", I watch at least one old show a night. He also hammered Trump with his bankruptcies, talking about him playing the lotto so he could pay off his bills. He also made fun of Trumps inability to stay married and his affairs at the time basically saying Trump was worse than himself, Carson. His shots at Reagan include saying he couldn't make decisions himself, that his wife used physics to make decisions on US policy etc. I doubt that it felt like it was all in fun if you were a Reagan fan at the time.
@@goingjag And he made fun of Jimmy Carter and Democrats as well. It was in fun and it didn't have the nasty partisan vitriol that today's late night hosts engage in. The Tonight Show was a place where everyone would gather for laughs and entertainment.
Today's late night hosts have abandoned class and comedy and have turned their shows into a left-wing political rallies that is preoccupied with Trump.
The last good late night TV host was Craig Ferguson. I think Johnny would have had fun watching him.
And cigarette commercials.
Stan Zabka is still with us at the time of my writing this, December 2020, one of the last of those brave men who served in WWII. If you recognize the last name, a check on actor William "Karate Kid" Zabka's Wiki reveals that they are indeed, father and son.
Thanks so much for sharing this. What a shame NBC wiped all the color videotape before the move to Burbank
nbc has always been assholes then and now
ULMDesk 300E42nd it’s utterly amazing. The network that pioneered color television (as RCA wanted to sell color television sets) erased more color videotape than any other network 😨
@@ULMDeskEnd I recall reading how pissed carson was, back in the mid 1970s, to learn some flunky had cleaned out most of the room with the tonight show tapes and whipped them or threw them out.A fortune was discarded.
@@jmen4ever257 I can't imagine that was a very pleasant meeting when Johhny was told this news. 😫
"Chimes" is a lovely, creative melody and I'm happy to be hearing it again.
"Chimes," played behind Johnny Carson at the beginning and end of this taped segment, predates Mr. Carson's tenure as Tonight Show host. It was recorded during Jack Paar's tenure at the Tonight Show. I owned a 45-rpm copy of "Chimes," special-ordered from a record store in East Meadow, NY, sometime before I joined the Navy in January, 1962. (As stated above, Mr. Carson took over the Tonight Show in October of 1962.)
The flip side of the record was entitled "Christmas Chimes" and it was basically the same song, but overdubbed or overlaid with a chorus singing "it's Christmas time ..." plus (I think) selected bits of traditional Christmas music. [Edit: I found Christmas Chimes."]
I never knew who the composer of "Chimes" was. I've mistakenly been attributing it to Jack Paar's musical director, Jose Melis all these years I'm happy to actually know what's right. Knowing who wrote it gives me a huge leg-up on finding the full version, again.
Even at age 72, the learning never stops. i never would have imagined ...
On occasion, as the show approached 1:00, Johnny would really be engaged with a guest, and they would talk and talk, and blow by the station break. The piano player would gently play the NBC song, to remind Johnny, and he would usually break for the last commercial of the evening. But sometimes he and the guest would keep talking, and the piano player would gently play it again, and THAT would lead to a station break, usually. But for those rare times when Johnny and the guest would STILL talk, the entire Orchestra would play the song as loudly as possible. THAT would finally stop the conversation!!
Been 7 years, but thank you for posting this!
Paul Anka wrote the "Tonight Show Theme" which was played at the show's opening every night for 30+ years.
I was 10 back then ....But dad sometimes let me stay up and Johnnie with him....Great memories!
Thanks for getting this out
Interesting seeing how they got a decent color in spite of all the shadow problems around bright areas with image orthocon tubes with TK-41's. Those with color sets in those days probably turned up the color.
This actually is sharper and has better color than most of the digital shows of today.
Its called talent.
Not a lot that stuff around anymore.
Thank you very much
Thank you David for sharing.. Love it!
Too bad there was not more writing across the screen.
A true legend. Makes todays late night host look incompetent.
Which they are
They are very incompetent.
@@davegentry2380 as incompetent as Homer Simpson.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@davidwesley2525 No, I think Homer would have done a better job; and with Barney Gumbel as his sidekick, we would still have the drinking jokes (while they were drinking).
Great arrangement
that was a cool piece of music ...nice Stan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"if youve ever tasted dew drops even 2 drops",....
It is great stuff! THough actually there is one older color tape segment I have seen from April 22, 1964 with lawyer J.W. Ehrlich and I remember one 1963 segment appearing on the old Carson's Comedy Classics compilations. But still, every new fragment that shows an era of the Tonight Show that was so different and more relaxed from the later CA era is precious.
It was funny seeing Johnny use two of Oliver Hardy's most famous lines at the beginning of this clip.
Agreed!
This took place on my 13th birthday. Thanks for posting.
Wow I remember these shows I'm old.
What a refined baritone. Seldom hear that in a young man these days. In fact never.
I wonder why this is, nowadays? Is it because of fewer young men smoking?
So there's a surviving color segment of the Tonight Show from 1964? I ... did-not-know-that.
There's color segments from Jack Paar's tonight show around mate. Back then color television was at its prime.
Yeah, that is some weird and wild shtuff
Someone uploaded (here on youtube) the first American broadcast in Color. Then President Eisenhower gave a presentation. I believe it was taped in 1958.
What color segments of Jack's "Tonight Show" are there outstanding?
Joe Postove I too would love to see some colour Jack
The other guests on the show that night were: Eydie Gorme, singer; John Bubbles, dancer; Jack Albertson, actor; and Eddie Lawrence, comedian (who did his routine, "The Old Philosopher"). "Doc" Severinson subbed for Orchestra Director, Skitch Henderson.
He wasn't too popular in the beginning. By this point, he was starting to catch on but Johnny was getting a bit more comfortable with things and it shows. It was rough for him at first but he adjusted. Things got better and he really did work hard towards it.
sounds like the same trajectory Conan took when he started in 93, were you around to see the beginning of Carson?
To me he was already comfortable. Even though this was only the third year of Tonight, but by this time Johnny had already been on the other 2 networks and was in his seventh year working with Ed. Eight years later, after the show moved to Burbank, things took on a more laid back style, so I think that might be what you are thinking.
@@kennethsouthard6042 yeah but he wasn't comfortable until about 1970/71...if you see the vids you will notice how uptight and really not as funny yet until that point
@@HelloooThere I think a lot of that may have been that when the show came out of New York, it was more buttoned down and proximity to NBC brass. I think that moving the show the show to LA and in particular the guests that lived there drove that change more than anything.
@@kennethsouthard6042 okay ticky tay
Some real old skool entertainment...
I lived in that era -- I saw a lot of Johnny Carson shows from the 60s in that time. When Johnny took over, the Tonight Show was an hour and fourty-five minutes in length, five nights a week! That's why the show was relaxed and casual, they had a lot of time to fill! At the end of 30 years, Johnny was only working three days a week, and each show was just an hour in length by that time, and the shows were very tightly put together. From Johnny's New York run (1962 to 1972) video tape was very expensive, and they simply erased tapes to re-use them. From that ten years, I think I heard that about only 17 full shows exist. An interesting footnote -- Johnny had a rip-roaring show with Dean Martin, Bob Hope, and George Gobel, in the late 60s, and when Johnny went home after the taping, Johnny set up a 16mm movie camera in front of his TV, and kinescoped the show himself when it aired later that night. It's the only copy of that show that has survived because of that!
That show is on TH-cam, saw it last night.
After watching it on TH-cam that particular night was hilarious. Smart move on Johnny. How sad that we've probably missed out on more gems like that night
Is this the one where Dean Martin taps his cigarette? I have always wondered if that was spontaneous or just staged. Gobel didn't seem to notice the crowd reaction, nor did he take a drink of his coffee. If he did....mmmboy.
@ CHRISTOPHER DUNNE. Apparently Dean Martin had tipped off George Gobel before Martin started flicking his cigarette ashes into Gobel's cup of beer. When you watch that hilarious segment, you notice that Gobel only once takes a sip of beer from his cup. The other times he raises the cup near his lips but then doesn't take a sip from it.
An absolutely wonderful rendition! There will never, ever be another production like Carsons "Tonight". Never...
That is Living Color! Great color from the RCA TK-41C cameras. Now I understand why Jonnny Carson was reluctant to switch to the Plumbicon-based RCA TK-44 camera.
That was really neat. I would have been entering seventh grade when that was telecast. I never missed the old 90 minute Tonight Show from New York on Friday nights but on school nights I had to sneak downstairs to watch the opening monolog at 11:30 pm and maybe a Mighty Carson Art Players skit before the guests came out.
Are you 64 or something?
I think just about every adolescent of that era has a similar story. My cousin used to curl around the base of the family kitchen table so that his parents would not see him. I used to stand in our entry way and then backup ramrod straight next to grandfather clock so that I could not be seen by my parents whenever they turned around.
1964-65 was MY seventh grade year as well. Howdy, Neighbor!!
If I was listening to that soothing piano music at midnight....it would knock me right out....just saying. ;)
Zabka went on to have quite a career. I just looked him up on IMDB.
Apparently stan zabka is still alive at 96
Compare to the silliness and hatred late night TV has devolved into....
I was like No: 1,000. What a gem of a video from Johnny’s Tonight Show days in New York before the show moved to beautiful downtown Burbank.
The Tonight Show with Jack Parr started broadcasting in color in 1960.
Broadcasting and recording were two totally different things. RCA tried to develop a videotape machine but failed. Ampexb the leader in magnetic recording developed the first broadcast quality video tape recorder. RCA modified the machine to record color but could not sell it due to AMPEX patents. In exchange for the color circuitry, AMPEX let RCA develop thier own video tap machine to sell. AMPEX later dropped the RCA color design and developed a greatly improved color design which RCA then used
Nice. Great composition.
I'd always wondered what that mysterious "breakaway" theme was....that's it!!
Thanks for posting this. As I guessed, Stan & his wife are the parents of William (aka Billy) Zabka, who played antagonists in both "The Karate Kid" & "Back to School" and also had a recurring role in the 80s series "The Equalizer". He was born a bit more than a year after his dad's Tonight Show appearance.
I assume you played this back on the Ampex AVR-1?
That was the best machine they made
I had that same ash tray!! True story!!
One of the cameras used in this program had some lower corner registration and shading problems. There were many technical issues that could cause this type of thing. Most of the time it was alignment of the optical, shading circuits, and registration for the scans.
Overscan covered a multitude of sins. :-)
Hahah remember the tubes in the camera were ROUND. Amd the targets on the tube were flat. The electron beam had an arc to the scan. There were 3 tubes in the camera and each tube had to have perfect registration with each other. The cameras were turned on 30-45 min before use and the registration was done just prior to use. Sometimes over the course of production the registration would drift.
It was an amazing feat of engineering at the time.
I worked in broadcast since 1955
@@rty1955 Fascinating! So when did the lower-maintenance studio cameras come into common use?
@@biggobot3253 i would say in the 80s. I liked Plumbicons the best, but I was in tape operations since tape was invented. I disliked production. I much prefer the fast pace of broadcast. I have worked in post as well.
@@Tmanaz480 they didn't overscan, they used bezels to go over the picture tube. The pickup tubes were round and the beam sweep on the face of the tubes made a 4:3 scans. They used as much if the tube as possible, but in color cameras they used 3 tubes, and each tube had a certain usable area that could be used, therefore the edges of the scans were not all the same.
WOW, a cigarette plug at the end. I remember when L&M sponsored a Porsche Can-Am car. I had the toy slot car of it. Pretty cool!
Enjoying an L & M ciggy at this moment lol.
Who the hell disliked this and why? I mean really? SMH...
the letters on the video
I didn't give it a dislike (and I appreciate it being shared with us); but, a watermark this size is obtrusive.
why do movies, shows and everything from 50s to 80s make me feel so... sad, happy, empty, content, everything!
i wish i was born in 60s and not in 90s 😔
oh and i hope all the dislikers stub their toes everyday for 10 years
90s, was when things went downhill in some ways
Video-Tape! Getting close to the Jack Paar era. C'mon, c'mon there's gotta be some Jack "Tonight Show" on color tape somewhere. What little Paar late night there is, is mostly on kinescope. And the fragmants of tape I've seen are all black and white.
There was a documentary on Rose Marie, of the Dick Van Dyke show, and it included an appearance she made on The Tonight Show in 1966 in New York. It was titled "Wait For Your Laugh". This was during the time when shows from that period were regularly erased.
It was an interesting clip. It was in black-and-white. I don't know how she aquired it, unless she asked for a copy of it, and NBC granted her request. Or maybe she filmed her own kinescope of it at home, to preserve it.
Some colorcasts of the Tonight Show from the '70's have shown up (with alternative hosts on Johnny's nights off, never rebroadcast at the time, such as Rich Little and Burt Reynolds). Examples of people taping them with early home-taping devices.
Interesting fact about Rose Marie's documentary. Shown locally in a couple of art theaters around Los Angeles. About two weeks after the documentary opened, she passed away. RIP.
You can get a peak of the RCA TK-41 camera at 8:13.
+norelco pc yes, i was looking at that .. you can just see the rotating lenses in the shot from probably what was "camera 2" shooting that TK-41 of a side camera "camera 1" or "camera 3".
+coffeehigh420 The partially seen camera was probably camera #3. You can see the camera cable behind Stan at 04:55. Also, they cut back to Johnny after Stan exited through the curtain. Camera #1 was Johnny's camera.
peek
The PC 70s were a much better camera imho
It's good to see this in living color!
I'm a little surprised "The Tonight Show..." was in color in '64, though I recall Walt Disney's "Wonderful World of Color." was in color. Was Johnny No.1 in the Late Night time slot at that point as he neared his 2nd anniversary?
Yes he was, for the entire run of his show with rare exceptions. NBC began to dominate late-night with Steve Allen, Johnny’s predecessor, in the mid 1950s, and they still remain very strong. I think ‘The Tonight Show’ is still number one in its time slot.
I’m thinking the 1979-1980 season may have been a rare exception, but I’m not sure. The show that eventually became ABC’s ‘Nightline’ began when the Iran Hostage Crisis started, and public interest was so high that I believe that show might have beaten Johnny Carson for its first season, when it was called ‘The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage’.
Between Allen and Johnny was Jack Parr for some 5 years, whose ratings were strong. He was the first to be referred to as the "King of Late Night." In fact, in Johnny's first Monologue, he had said, "I know I'm not a king, but I hope you'll consider me your prince," paraphrased.
I did not know that "America Held Hostage" had ever achieved No. 1.
I think CBS' Late Show is No. 1 today.
@@Lafayette320 I’m not sure, but I remember they beat the Tonight Show on some metric that made news at the time. It might have been just for a week or so, but I want to say it was that entire season.
@@Lafayette320 Oh, and I’d forgotten about Jack Paar; you’re correct.
What a good time to be alive before the hippie generation before 1967 Everything changed after that and Not for the better !!
I'm 65 and I agree
Girls stopped wearing dresses
Guys stopped cutting their hair
Now, many are
INKED
Just awesome
0:47 Johnny flips the bird.
Max Power the “bird” didn’t become part of American, then the world, culture until 1971. Johnny was merely checking with his producer on the time before commercial. The index finger meant 30 seconds, the middle finger indicated 3 minutes, fourth finger 4, fifth finger means 5 minutes. In TV it was called the “signuman” The Italians used many actions using their fingers and arms, as well as their mouths to indicate different messages, flapping an arm against your truck, like a chicken had great meaning,. It did in-fact mean fear, “I’m out of her boys” The Italians learned it from the French Army, and their own Army began the practice. In order, you dropped all your weapons, raised your arms to the sky and hoped to find a German to surrender to. However key to our discussion is the “inyouface” which also used the arm doubled up like a chicken wing, only this time you pound your elbow into your free hand. The “inyouface” was an insult greater than any words a human could utter. The Italians would leave their hiding places, lookout to make sure there were no Germans in sight, then scream out “We hate the Hun” followed by the elbow hitting the palm of your hand several times. You would give your wife the “inyouface” once a year when she told you she was pregnant again, if dinner was warmed up leftovers. For the most part it was the neighbor who received the greatest number of inyouface.
The program brought to you in in Living Color on NBC.
I think our good buddy Stan had a few drinks before going out on stage ;)
I think he had a lot more than just some drinks *sniff* *sniff*
I think they ALL had a few drinks before hitting the stage... Ed McMahon bartended the "warm-ups" daily...😲
TH-cam has a complete set of NBC Chimes variations that were used behind NBC promos. For example, Google "Chimes Tango" and it will go that tune. There's also a playlist string go "Chimes Variations on a Theme" you can hear. The NBC Sports theme is there in its entirety. It used to be the theme of NBC Sports shows. Now it's only played occasionally.
To The Best Of Your Knowledge How Many Episodes Of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson Were Found In A Nevada Warehouse? Does It Include Johnny Carsons Tonight Show Debut As Host From October 1st, 1962?
The Carson Tonite Show from New York had a totally different feel than the later show from LA. Seemed edgier and more energetic. The smaller New York studio helped, I think. By the time Carson settled in to the LA show, he was more polished, the studio was bigger and something was missing, IMO.
Miss ya Johnny!!! Now we have nothing but crap for late shows!!!
Thirty three and a third. The old lp of my youth
Rest in peace, Stan Zabka.
Great program. My important year 1964. Today 14/10/2020. Saudades
Too bad that a lot of TV history got erased.
I'm curious how many copies tgethe album sold.
Anybody know?
0:46 Flipping off the camera?
I was nine years old and asleep when Johnny had dark hair...
that 60's dry martini style
Johnny could not be serious for very long before saying something to get a laugh.
Watching old Carson shows and clips help me forget just how sick and insane the world is today. How sick and disgusting late night television is and has been for a very long time. It's just SO wonderful to be transported back in time for awhile. I was just about to turn 5 when this show broadcast. Makes me wonder if my mom saw it. I miss Johnny!
Didn’t NBC alter Stan’s tune (the one playing while Johnny held up the LP) for the NBC (Baseball) Game of the Week?
Christopher, you are correct! I remember that melody vividly as the Game of the Week theme.
Yes, I remember that NBC motif worked into the theme of The Today Show in the late'70s.
The good old days when there was an ashtray on the host's desk.
It's why.any people are living to triple digits today:
No 2nd hand smoke
The problem today could be
Kids inside all the time, and junk food
Ah, the days when you could advertise cigarettes on TV.
Besides the tape hiss, the audio quality is remarkable.
+Ruben Mejia I was just thinking that!! it's unreal !!!!
+Ruben Mejia Probably all RCA ribbon mics.
+Ruben Mejia Probably all RCA ribbon mics.
Johnny's mic is an RXC BX77 ribbon microphone. But it could be a prop. He could have been miced overhead like they do in film or from a shotgun mic at the camera.
@@Glinkaism1 they only used boom mics for guests
The registration on the Carson camera is really bad, too. Camera registration is quite a bit better on Mr. Zabka. Check out the bass players tie at 3:13 to see what the heterodyne process does.
Registration does go out of alignment as time goes on. Sometimes during commercial breaks they would re-register the cameras
Take thou my heart for thine
Take every dream fashioned there
Take every hope, every thought divine
The deep, tender love it would share
Humble, unworthy to stand at thy side
No secret, I hide unbeknown
Take though my heart for thine
For thine, now, is mine alone
“Take Thou My Heart” (Stanley William Zabka, for his wife Nancy)
The Elegance, class, sophistication 🎶 America: the Way We Were🇺🇸 I own many Retro Lounge Jazz CD's from America and many from Japan! This Music and this Show is a Time Capsule of a sweeter more innocent World🍷
Sketch Henderson must've been bandleader.
Correct.
Stan Zabka, Billy Zabka's dad. Billy's aka Johnny Lawrence in the "Karate Kid" franchise.
Real men with real skills in those days.
This clip reeks of 1964! 👍
Those 25+🤗
Old times.......good old times
I wonder how Stan felt after being supplanted by Paul Anka...who simply removed the lyrics from a song he composed for Annette Funicello to sing, to become "Johnny's Theme"
Johnny insisted on being paid half of the residuals every time the Tonight Show theme was played. This ate at Paul Anka for years.
+norelco pc But it's said Anka still earned more money on that and the English lyrics he wrote for "My Way" than he did on all his own recordings combined.
+Paul Duca I literally just received an email informing me that Paul Anka did an interview for Mark Malkoff's "Carson Podcast". He talks about writing the Tonight Show theme. Check it out! The interview is just a few days old.
I've been informed that Studio 6B is 50 feet wide. Why does the studio seem smaller in the Johnny Carson days than it does today? You can see in this clip that most of the band was positioned down by the audience and was only single wide along the wall. The Jimmy Fallon set seems to be bigger. I suppose it could be wide angle lenses.
+Bob Sewvello You're right. Better lenses, better electronics. Thanks to Sony and Canon.
The studio was expanded for Fallon. When Johnny moved the show to Burbank in 1972, that studio was much bigger than the one in New York.
+Rob Kates Did they actually widen the studio? That would seem rather hard to do. I know that a supporting piller was removed behind the desk but that wouldn't enlarge the studio.
+Bob Sewvello They didn't widen the studio. Impossible. The main studio doors are in the same place they were in World War II. Lengthen the useable floor plan - yes. Permanent seats (as seen in radio, Berle, NY-era Carson shows, Paar kinnies, Ernie Kovacs morning show kinnies) were taken out in 1980. A support pillar for a lighting equipment room (behind where Carson sat) was taken out in the Fallon Tonight renovation. Great pics here: facebook.com/189359747768249/photos/a.197108410326716.39183.189359747768249/630737133630506/?type=3&permPage=1
+dw438 Back in the day, 6B was Play Your Hunch in the morning, Tonight Show at night. I was told that by Ira Skutch, producer of Play Your Hunch.
I didn't know Carson was shot in color in the early years of the show.
Could I find this record soewhere?
try Discogs.com