All Seasons

Season 1 - Disc One

  • S01E01 Episode #55-1

    • June 30, 1955
    • CBS

    In the series premiere, Johnny imitates Edward R. Murrow in a spoof of Murrow's Person to Person program featuring Johnny's first wife Jody and their three children. In Catch Up With the News, Johnny plays a roving reporter.

  • S01E02 Episode #55-4

    • July 21, 1955
    • CBS

    Johnny imitates Walter Cronkite, takes a look at the pitfalls of marriage, and parodies Goldilocks And The Three Bears and You Are There.

  • S01E03 Episode #55-9

    • August 25, 1955
    • CBS

    Sketches include a spoof of the Russian ballet, Catch Up With The News and a 1950s-style look at the future, as Johnny imagines what life will be like in 1980.

  • S01E04 Episode #55-10

    • September 1, 1955
    • CBS

    Johnny plays Dillinger, The Mental Wizard, in a parody of Joseph Dunniger, the famous mind reader (This sketch is the early inspiration for Carson's most famous character from his Tonight Show years, Carnac The Magnificent). Another sketch finds Johnny playing tourist in Paris; we also get an idea of what might happen to your television reception near an airport.

  • S01E05 Episode #55-1

    • September 8, 1955
    • CBS

    James Arness visits the show to promote his new series, Gunsmoke, Jack Albertson appears in a grocery store sketch and Johnny plays Colonel John J. Carson in a military sketch.

Season 2 - Disc Two

  • S02E01 Episode #55-16

    • October 13, 1955
    • CBS

    Johnny takes care of unfinished business; Jack Albertson appears in sketches about Johnny's fan club and bachelor life. Then Johnny plays violinist Yasha Carson.

  • S02E02 Episode #55-19

    • November 3, 1955
    • CBS

    Legendary movie composer Dimitri Tiomkin appears in the Johnny's Record Collection sketch. Then Johnny salutes old time Vaudeville, and stars in an epic Greek-Trojan war sketch.

  • S02E03 Episode #55-25

    • December 15, 1955
    • CBS

    Johnny plays a stay-at-home husband whose wife has a very unusual job. Other sketches include the Giveaway Pet Parade, a precursor to the numerous segments Johnny would do with animals later in his career, and a look at what the detective show Dragnet might have been like during the time of Alexander the Great.

  • S02E04 Episode #55-30

    • January 19, 1956
    • CBS

    Johnny's Navy buddy disrupts the monologue from the audience, a young Jamie Farr appears with the musical group The Double Daters, and Johnny and Eva Gabor star in The One Musketeer.

  • S02E05 Episode #55-34

    • February 16, 1956
    • CBS

    Dr. Samuel Hoffman, podiatrist, was catapulted to fame when he played the Theremin on the soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound. He demonstrates the unusual instrument for Johnny and singer Dorothy Shay, known as "the Park Avenue Hillbilly" co-stars with Johnny in a sketch telling her life story.