"The Ultimate Collection - Starring Johnny Carson" has been available on DVD since 2002.
You certainly won't see season sets - for one: the volumes would be huge. Also, much of the first decade of Johhny Carson's "Tonight Show" no longer survives in any form.
Carson picked the clips for the existing three volume set himself. There's a lot of funny stuff. Video quality varies, depending on the quality of the source material.
This is the only set that I'm familiar with, but there are others. Read more here:
I don't think I'd call it a best of, and frankly, his final episode wasn't that hot.
I'd like to see all of the 'Great Carnac' more than anything else. That would take a lot of DVD's though. 5 nights a week! Maybe HD would be more practical here.
You can purchase any episode you want (among those still in existence) directly from Carson's company. I think they run about $95 apiece, directly from the 2-inch masters.
That's correct that Carson Enterprises is no longer selling the tapes because the trade market boomed pretty heavily after some of them got out (and without saying much else, I was one of those who did benefit from that).
The DVD "Best of Set" though is worthless from my standpoint for a simple reason that we've been discussing elsewhere: Music clearance issues. The last show DVD (as well as its VHS version) is missing an entire segment of tribute to musical performers that was part of the original broadcast. Even the sketch compilations on the decades set suffered with this too. A 1970s sketch were Johnny dresses up as George C. Scott in "Patton" originally opened with the theme from Patton but was replaced with generic, tuneless music, and a classic 1982 sketch of Johnny as President Reagan once opened with "Hail To The Chief" but was likewise replaced.
Since I have so many Carson shows on tape, as well as all the anniversary shows from 1979-91, there really isn't any need for me to see them release these on DVD since I know the material won't ever be done justice.
Thank you for all of the useful information. Yeah, after I thought about it for awhile seasons sets would definitely not be practical, however the "ultimate collection" seems intriging. My dad loved watching Carson and isn't too big on Leno, but will watch when it is on. I know it is a different era, but who can forget all of the stars who made the tonight show especially the famous voice of Ed Mcmahan.
If it helps you make up your mind, here is my review of the Ultimate Collection release, back before you could get it in stores (you can still sometimes find it at club stores like Costco, and some big-box stores like Best Buy...but hurry before they get rid of their Christmas inventory!).
I don't do reviews anymore (takes too much time that I'm short of), but this was one of my favorite items that I ever reviewed. It is an awesome set!
In the review are links to buy it from Amazon, if you want, and just above that is a link to screenshots from the set (many of them).
I liked that one segment where Dean Martin is on the couch with another guy who is telling Carson a story, all the while Dean is flicking his cigarette ashes into the guys drink! Hilarious.
Thank you for the info. I think I will check out the "Ultimate Collection", seems like a very good set so far from what I've read on the forum. Your review of it was excellent.
Yeah I really want specific episodes from the 1970's and Early 80's. Specifically all the Peter Falk appearances and the Vincent Price appearances. I'm assuming that if i'm dilligent I'll eventually track SOME of these down. Now I have snippets of the segmants from a variety of compilation stuff which just frustrates me to no end.
Despite several different releases of this show it's still really not been done properly. There are so many segments that should be anthologized on DVD. The releases that have come out are very well done as I believe I have them all. But they simply are not enough. I'm assuming whoever controls the late Mr. Carson's estate now controls these episodes. The first 10 years or so of the show are now infamously lost including such moments as Bette Midler's first appearance. But that leaves a LOT of material that needs to be put together somehow. Or at least start showing more edited episodes again such as what was done several years ago on DirecTV pay-per-view.
I'm sure the music rights would a problem but that still leaves hundreds or stand-up comics and interviews with celebrities.
I'm really surprised we haven't seen more releases. From all accounts, the first collection was huge seller. I don't want to sound morbid, but I'm sure Ed and perhaps Doc would agree to do intros for future volumes. (Ed in particular since he's hawking a book about his years with Johnny.) It would be nice if this could be done while both are still vertical.
There is one particular episode that has always stuck with me. It was probably from the mid to late 70s and Johnny had all the surviving actors who played Tarzan on. It's not in the Carson database at his website so perhaps it is now lost.
As a Beatles fan, it's always been rather disappointing that the 1968 appearance by John Lennon and Paul McCartney is lost to the ages. Carson wasn't even there, it was guest hosted by Joe Garagiola (I'm not sure if I spelled that right).
Most of the audio from the appearance survives among collectors, as does some 8mm home movie footage aimed at a TV. Surely too rough looking and sounding to ever make it on a DVD, even as a "bonus".
Something slightly worth checking out if it ever made it to DVD for Beatles fans would be McCartney's 1984 appearance, where Carson kept egging Paul on to perform something. I wasn't much impressed with Carson on that show, though, because I recall he asked McCartney if he was still writing his own music!
If the Carson estate can't clear "episodes" for release, surely they could put out the syndicated Carson's Comedy Classics half-hours into some sort of set. These took many of the funny comedy skits/desk material, etc. from the '70s and up to, I think, about 1984, unless they went back and added some additional episodes.
I don't think this has appeared in syndication for several years (since before ABC bought the Family Channel). I know when it was originally syndicated around 1985, I was a regular viewer. Loved all those old Floyd R. Turbo sketches especially!
Seems it would be a pretty easy release: probably 100 or more episodes already pre-made into half-hours and they had to have been cleared for broadcast back in the '80s, so maybe they wouldn't be as hard to clear now, especially as they didn't use the musical interludes.
I was in Tower Records and there was a budget DVD in the TV section that featured two shows of Johnny Carson's from his very early days--not "The Tonight Show" according to the package, but a show he did that pre-dated it. It was priced at $9.99.