The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

Programming history

Virtually all of the pre-1970 shows were lost to history when, following standard procedure at the time, the videotapes were reused. It was rumored that many other episodes were lost in a fire, but NBC has denied this.

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Thirty-minute audio recordings of many of these "missing" episodes are contained in the Library of Congress in the Armed Forces Radio collection. Many 1970s-era episodes have been licensed to distributors of the sort that advertise mail order offers on late-night TV. The later shows are stored in an underground film archive in Kansas.

Related Topics:
Library of Congress - Kansas

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October 1962-December 1966

:Monday-Friday 11:15 P.M.-1:00 A.M.

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When Carson took over from Jack Parr, he inherited a show that was 105 minutes long. The show was structured to have what appeared to be two openings, with one starting at 11:15 pm and including the monologue, and another which listed the guests and announced the host again, starting at 11:30. The two openings gave affiliates the option of having either a fifteen-minute or thirty-minute local news show preceding Carson.

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As more affiliates introduced thirty minutes of local news, Carson's monologue was being seen by fewer people. To rectify this situation, from February 1965 to December 1966, Ed McMahon and Skitch Henderson began to co-host the first fifteen minutes of the show without Carson, who would then take over at 11:30.

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January 1967-September 1980

:Monday-Friday 11:30 P.M.-1:00 A.M.

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January 1967-September 1975

:Saturday or Sunday 11:30 P.M.-1:00 A.M. (reruns)

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September 1980-May 1991

:Monday-Friday 11:30 P.M.-12:30 A.M.

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Carson used threats of retirement to convince NBC the show should be shortened to sixty minutes; when Carson re-upped in 1980, the new, shorter length of the show was written into his contract.

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May 1991-May 1992

:Monday-Friday 11:35 P.M.-12:35 A.M.

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The show's start time was delayed by five minutes to allow NBC affiliates to include more commercials during the local news.

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