Two incomplete episodes of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson were uploaded to YouTube earlier this week by Obsolete Video. According to the comments section, one is from September 4th, 1970 (with guests Jerry Lewis and Zsa Zsa Gabor) and the other is from February 17th, 1971 (with guests Jack Benny, David Steinberg, and Lily Tomlin).
Although incomplete, these are notable because few episodes from the first ten years of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson survive. Reportedly, only a few dozen complete episodes from that period still exist. Are these partial episodes otherwise lost? It’s impossible to say for sure. As far as I know, there is no publicly accessible list of surviving episodes–or partial episodes, for that matter.
Earlier this year, most of an episode from August 1964 was recovered and restored.
More of the February 17, 1971 show was posted today. Also, 10 minutes of a “lost” show from February 14, 1972 guest hosted by Sammy Davis, Jr. has been uploaded. In general, if the show is before the “formal” debut in California (May 2, 1972) then Carson buffs consider it from the era of “lost shows”.
February 29, 1972, from the last “road trip” to Los Angeles before the permanent move is the only pre-May 1972 show that has aired in the cycle of reruns on Antenna.