THE TV COLUMN

Movie channel repurposes Carson interviews

Johnny Carson (right) shakes the hand of his announcer/sidekick Ed McMahon during the taping of Carson’s final Tonight Show on May 22, 1992. A number of Carson’s classic interviews will be aired in a new series on TCM.
Johnny Carson (right) shakes the hand of his announcer/sidekick Ed McMahon during the taping of Carson’s final Tonight Show on May 22, 1992. A number of Carson’s classic interviews will be aired in a new series on TCM.

What a swell idea.

It may be hard for younger viewers to understand, but nobody did late-night TV better than Johnny Carson. He was simply the best, and nobody currently on the air is in the same league.

Carson was host of NBC’s The Tonight Show for 30 years - 1962-1992. He had a way of making the show about the guests and not about the personality of the host. He was the master of comedic timing and (a rarity today) actually appeared to care about what the guest was saying and not about getting in his next zinger or audience reaction.

That’s why many of his interviews are classics and why this concept is perfect for Turner Classic Movies.

Airing at 7 p.m. Mondays, TCM will present Carson on TCM, a collection of interviews with some of Hollywood’s greatest stars from the last two decades of Carson’s time as host.

Why only the last 20 years? The tapes from the first decade of Carson’s tenure, the era in New York before the show moved to “beautiful downtown Burbank,” were lost or destroyed by NBC. Evidently network officials did not see the historic value in saving the things.

The hour episodes, each with five interviews, will be hosted by former Tonight Show host (albeit briefly)Conan O’Brien, a huge fan of Carson. O’Brien, longtime host of NBC’s Late Night With Conan O’Brien, currently hosts Conan at 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday on TBS.

Curated and edited by Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning filmmakers Peter Jones and Mark Catalena, Carson on TCM will kick off as five-interview showcases, then air as single-interview interstitials highlighting stars whose films are featured on the network.

For example, if TCM runs a film featuring Jack Lemmon, it will also show an interview the actor did with Carson.

Scheduled segments feature interviews with a number of legendary Hollywood stars, including Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, William Holden, Gregory Peck, James Stewart and Elizabeth Taylor.

Others include Mel Brooks, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Robin Williams and a 7-year-old Drew Barrymore.

There is a classic chat with author Truman Capote, who directs some zingers at actors,and the interview with Sally Field where she winds up slathering shaving cream on Carson’s face.

We also have Diane Keaton showing off an Annie Hall style years before she made the look famous in the movie in which she won an Oscar.

And there is an interview with actor/politician Ronald Reagan almost a decade before he won that other job for which he’s known.

In a TCM interview, producer Jones said, “What Johnny did better than anyone was to engage his guests in wonderful conversation. I heard from many of the people who appeared on The Tonight Show over the years that Johnny had the ability to bring out the best in the people he interviewed. He listened carefully and made his guests feel as though they were simply talking to a friend.”

When you see these old interviews again, you’ll realize just how true that is. Today’s late-night hosts seem overly slick and packaged by comparison. Maybe the difference is that the actors have changed. Maybe they’re the ones overly slick and packaged.

For whatever reason, Carson on TCM is a delightful addition to Monday’s lineup.

Dome a hit. CBS may have leveled the summer playing field with Under the Dome. The serialized adaptation of the Stephen King novel airs at 9 p.m. Monday and features some whiz-bang special effects, tense drama and enough conspiracies to satisfy the most demanding theorist.

Once you factor in the DVR folks, almost 17 million viewers caught the premiere June 24. That’s astonishing for a summer network series.

Make a choice. At that 9 p.m. hour on Mondays, viewers now have the option of Dome and Mistresses on ABC and Siberia on NBC.

I’ve bailed out of the mediocre Mistresses as too Lifetime-ish for my tastes, but I plan to watch Dome and record Siberia, which is a clever horror tale wrapped in a faux reality show.

If the networks find success with serialized summertime scripted drama, viewers can look forward to more options in between official seasons.

Wedding bells? Entertainment Weekly recently asked Modern Family co-creator Christopher Lloyd if recent Supreme Court decisions could affect next season. Is it possible that Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) could finally tie the knot?

“It’s a real possibility,” Lloyd said. “It’s certainly something we are contemplating on the show in ways we wouldn’t have in prior seasons.”

There you have it. Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) could be the flower girl. Claire (Julie Bowen) could make it a Halloween-themed affair.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style, Pages 46 on 07/07/2013

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