During his 30 years on NBC as host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson interviewed more than 22,000 guests. The legendary entertainer introduced Jay Leno, David Letterman, Joan Rivers, Ellen DeGeneres, Ray Romano, Jerry Seinfeld, Drew Carey, and Roseanne Arnold to national audiences for the first time on The Tonight Show, and most significant musicians, actors and comedians from 1962 through 1992 made an appearance on the show. Today, Carson Entertainment Group (CEG) released its iconic, long-awaited television archive for the first time through www.johnnycarson.com and announced a series of upcoming DVD releases. Audiences may view a wide range of selected clips on the website, and a clip licensing link at licensing.johnnycarson.com provides the media and production industry with 3,300 hours of searchable show content.
“We have received so many inquiries and requests for this material over the years that we have taken steps to make the materials more accessible and instantly searchable,” said Jeff Sotzing, President of CEG. “Segments have been used in films like Fargo, Talk to Me, and Watchmen – as well as in commercials and other productions.”
Until 1999, the archive had been stored in a salt mine in Kansas, in three different media formats. Last year, Deluxe Archive Solutions was engaged to migrate the footage to a digital format. Leveraging its domestically based distributed workforce, Deluxe generated contextual metadata, full transcripts linked to video and presented a searchable user-interface for clip browsing and licensing. Now, by typing in a single name, word, or phrase into a search engine, a producer can immediately browse thumbnail images representing each occurrence of the term, and view clips alongside their transcripts.
“The Carson Library represents both an important record of our recent past and serves as a model for media archives in the future,” said Tyler Leshney, Vice President of Deluxe Archive Solutions. “We are enormously proud to have worked with such an amazing piece of American entertainment history,” adds Leshney.
CEG will also continue to release archived shows for general viewing audiences through the Johnny Carson website, and forthcoming announcements in 2010 will include a new DVD and deluxe collector’s box set, produced in association with Respond2 Entertainment.
About Carson Entertainment Group
Carson Entertainment Group (CEG) controls licensing rights to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, recorded between 1962 thru 1992. CEG has licensed clips for use in numerous television series, movies, specials, and commercials, and the company produces a series of home video products that has set the standard for television programming sold in retail and direct response. For more information about CEG or to browse the clip licensing site, visit licensing.johnnycarson.com, write to clips@CarsonEntertainmentGroup.com, or call 714-626-0196.
About Deluxe Archive Solutions
Deluxe Archive Solutions, a subsidiary of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Inc. (Deluxe), offers a broad spectrum of services and technologies to help content owners in the entertainment, corporate, museum, education and private communities bridge the gap between physical and digital archives. Founded in 1915, Deluxe, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc., is the leading provider of a broad range of film, video and file-based media services to major Hollywood Studios and content licensors worldwide. For more information please visit www.deluxearchivesolutions.com or www.bydeluxe.com.
