Don't call me Jack!

Johnny Carson is coming to TCM. Yes, this is Johnny, the Carson who hosted The Tonight Show for almost 30 years, from 1962 until his retirement in 1992. Not Jack, the actor we like round these parts. For the last 20 years of Carson't tenure at The Tonight Show, the daily broadcasts were saved, and a bunch of interviews with Hollywood stars have been culled from the shows. These interviews have been put, five to an hour, and will be seen this way every Monday night in July at 8:00 PM. Supposedly, they'll also be split up and shown individually the way shorts are in the future; think the "Word of Mouth" pieces, but longer and not necessarily related to any one movie. Conan O'Brien, who had a brief but disastrous stint as Tonight Show host in 2009, will be presenting.

Surprisingly, I haven't seen any promos for this yet on TCM. Maybe I just haven't been watching so much TCM the past few weeks, but I would have thought this is the type of thing that would get a fairly heave promotion in between the movies. Anyhow, after the hour of interviews, the rest of the night's lineup will be given over to movies involving one or another of the interviewees. Tonight's lineup, for example, includes a Neil Simon interview from 1980; starting at 9:00 PM will be three movies based on Simon plays. The other four interviews on Monday will be: Drew Barrymore from 1982 (obviously ET-related); Kirk Douglas from 1988; Mary Tyler Moore from 1978; and George Burns from 1989. The Sunshine Boys, based on the Neil Simon play and starring George Burns, is airing at 9:00 PM.

A much better rundown of everything is provided by Will McKinley, the blogger and not the assassinated president who showed up as a character in 1937's This is My Affair.