Remembering Johnny Carson

[Pete Albrecht]

I just read Dr. Plait's reminiscences of Johnny Carson on the home page.

If I remember correctly, Johnny was also a bit of an amateur astronomer -- at least to the extent of owning an early orange-tube Celestron (an 8? a 14?) telescope in the early 1970s. Short of a Questar, that was pretty hot stuff in the commercial market back then.

I too remember Dr. Carl Sagan's appearances on the show. It might be worthwhile to see those again, if they could somehow be made available. Turns out there were a total of four appearances.

Pete

[TriangleMan]

Turns out there were a total of four appearances.

This website claims Sagan had 25 appearances on the Tonight Show. Sagan's last book (Billions and Billions) discussed Johnny Carson, I'll try to look it up later today and see what Sagan wrote.

[Pete Albrecht]

Turns out there were a total of four appearances.

This website claims Sagan had 25 appearances on the Tonight Show. Sagan's last book (Billions and Billions) discussed Johnny Carson, I'll try to look it up later today and see what Sagan wrote.

OK, I found the four at http://www.terrestrialworld.com/Main...rl%20Sagan.htm and http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet...ersonid-150895
so I figured that was it. But the first one says it is only a small sample of his appearances, so the 25 may well be right.

Still, I'd like to see some of those again. I imagine there are tapes in a vault somewhere, or possibly at the Museum of Television and Radio or some such.

Pete

[TriangleMan]

Still, I'd like to see some of those again. I imagine there are tapes in a vault somewhere, or possibly at the Museum of Television and Radio or some such.

When did Sagan first start appearing on Carson? I know that many early 60s episodes of Carson were destroyed in a fire at NBC so if Sagan was appearing on the show that early then many of the appearances would be lost.