CARSON ON TCM
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: Actually, technically, this new TCM offering is a miniseries – in the truest sense of the word. Each element in this “series” is less than a half hour long, so the term mini truly applies. But these are classic Johnny Carson Tonight Show interviews with various celebrities, boiled down to just the conversations themselves – followed, in most cases, by a movie or two featuring that star. All that, and Conan O’Brien hosts these shorts, too – the best payoff of his Turner networks connection since moving from Tonight to TBS. Tonight’s mini-Carson shows are all from the last half of his career, and start off with Drew Barrymore (current co-host of TCM’s The Essentials) in an E.T.-promoting interview from 1982. After that, in order: Kirk Douglas (pre-stroke) from 1988, Mary Tyler Moore from 1978 (the year after the end of The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Neil Simon from 1980, and George Burns in 1989. Then come the movies, starting at 9 p.m. ET with Simon’s The Sunshine Boys, starring Burns and Walter Matthau, from 1975, followed by two other Simon movie comedies: 1977’s The Goodbye Girl at 11 p.m. ET, and 1978’s California Suite at 1 a.m. ET. Great new addition to TCM. Keep them coming!