Timothy Field wrote to ask…
I'm having trouble finding info about two prime time specials Johnny Carson was involved in which aired in the early '70s called Sun City Scandals. I know it featured past stars like Jack Oakie, Billy Gilbert, Louis Armstrong, Bette Davis and others. I don't know how if Carson just did intros or was involved with the stars of yesteryear. Here's hoping your fabulous brain has some memories of this.
There were two — one in 1970, one in 1972, both featuring Carson and a cast of show biz veterans who were much older than he was. He'd introduce them and some of them would do musical performances, some would do little mini-interviews and some would be in sketches in which Johnny participated. The whole idea was to showcase folks in their seventies and above but there was a melancholy note to the first.
In the 1970 show, Carson had to do a little voiceover at the end of the program to dedicate it to two guest stars who'd passed away between the time the show was taped and the time it aired. Edward Everett Horton died September 29, 1970 and Eddie Peabody died November 7, 1970. The show aired December 7, 1970.
I don't think anyone died before the telecast of the second one, which was March 13, 1972, even though the show had been taped the previous July. The long span between tape dates and air dates would suggest that NBC didn't consider either one a ratings-getter and was in no rush to get either one on the air.
You can see the cast lists over at IMDB. Here's the 1970 version and here's the 1972 version. I remember them as being pleasant enough, though with so many performers, none of them got a whole lot of screen time.
I further remember that while promoting the second, Johnny said that more were planned but they only did the two. I have a theory about Carson that up until the mid-seventies, he was expecting to stop doing The Tonight Show at some point and switch to an hour-long, weekly prime time variety show like some of his boyhood heroes had had…and he'd had briefly. The theory goes on to theorize that up until then, he viewed a late night talk show — even the preeminent late night talk show — as a step below a weekly prime time hour…and that at some point, he realized it wasn't. In fact, that format was dying out and it wiser to stick with the franchise he had, rather than the one he'd dreamed-of as a child.
So apart from the Tonight Show anniversary editions, he lost interest in prime time just as he'd lost interest in playing Las Vegas. And if my theory's right, that might explain why there were no more Sun City Scandals. Thanks, Timothy.
