Late-night talk show host Johnny Carson, once an icon in America’s households, has reemerged on YouTube with his own channel. (No matter that he’s no longer with us.)
The King of Late Night channel officially launched on YouTube yesterday, and serves as a digital archive of old Carson footage. Popular clips from the show, which aired from 1962 to 1992, have been “preserved and presented in the highest quality available,” according to the YouTube blog.
The channel, produced by Carson Entertainment Group, also offers a way for the community to get involved, by submitting and voting on clips.
While some clips on the channel date back six months, the channel officially launched yesterday with an introductory video by comedian and TV personality Howie Mandel.
“You’re on YouTube watching me on YouTube. I spend my day and night watching YouTube and I thought, why don’t I just go to YouTube, to be on YouTube, to talk about YouTube…” Mandel says. He adds that he searched for old Johnny Carson clips on the site, and presents his favorites.
So far, the channel seems to be taking off, despite Carson’s show ending 19 years ago, before the average YouTuber was even born.
Howie Mandel’s favorite-Carson-clips video has a relatively decent number of views at 200,000. Could that be because of Mandel’s stint as host of America’s Got Talent? Or are there veteran Carson fans out there?
On the other hand, only 68 people have submitted 47 clips and cast 160 votes, though this could be because YouTube’s core audience is unfamiliar with Carson’s work. Or maybe people watching the clips aren’t in a participatory mood.
But the videos do seem to be reaching a new audience. Wrote SgtDamien on YouTube, “At first I thought this video was stupid but then I started watching old videos of Howie and never knew he did stand up or voice acting. I’m only 19 but think him and Johnny Carson are pretty cool lol.”