Paul Reiser’s Gorgeous Johnny Carson Tribute Series, “There’s Johnny” Gets a Second Life on Peacock; Here’s 6 Reasons Why You Should Watch It
Paul Reiser has been a prominent star for over four decades now, creating and/or starring in hit series and films. From his first role in the iconic movie Diner, to My Two Dads, Mad About You, Alien, Beverly Hills Cop, Whiplash, Red Oaks, Stranger Things, The Kominski Method, and a career in stand up, Reiser has been relevant since his first gig, and now his beautiful passion project There’s Johnny is available and accessible to viewers via NBC’s new streaming service Peacock. And it’s free!
Reiser created the scripted comedy series with David Steven Simon (Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Mad About You), and its pretty unique. The show blends fact and fiction, mingling actual Tonight Show footage, with a scripted storyline straight out of one of America’s most interesting time periods- the early 70’s. An all-star cast delivers great performances and a binge-worthy story: a young Nebraska boy mistakes a standard response to a fan letter as a job offer, and hops on a bus to follow his dream of working for The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. Once in L.A., he manages to get a job working on the iconic series and through his wide eyes, we get to see the hallowed halls and inner workings of Carson’s Tonight Show. Of course, being in Hollywood, he gets caught up in the glamorous lifestyle of sex, drugs and lust that are part of show business. Jane Levy (“Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”), Tony Danza, and Ian Nelson star, with Roger Bart, Camrus Johnson,T’Keyah Crystal Keymáh, Andrew Schulz, Daniel Strauss, David Hoffman, Roger Bart and Nate Smith.
The dramedy was supposed to premiere on NBC’s comedy streaming service Seeso but just prior to the show’s debut, the platform folded. A short stint on Hulu followed but without proper promotion, it barely got noticed. Reiser’s hoping that now with a more permanent home on NBC’s new service, the show will get the spotlight it deserves.
In advance of the show’s re-release, I spoke with Paul Reiser about his love letter to Carson’s Tonight Show, and the Nov 1 premiere on Peacock.
“It’s almost as if it’s a new show because nobody saw this,” Reiser told me. “It set the record for the least promoted show in the history of television. And it always killed me because it was so good; I was so proud of this. It came out so well.”
The show has been overcoming hurdles since Reiser first conceived it with his buddy David Simon from getting the approval to use footage of the Tonight Show to landing a home for the show and everything in between. But now its finally available- on the Peacock streaming platform, and here’s 6 reasons you should be checking it out.
Johnny: You Can Never See Too Much Carson
Next year will mark the 60th anniversary of the Carson show, and there has never been a more influential and iconic series on television. Johnny’s Tonight Show show launched a seemingly infinite number of careers in every area of the arts, and particularly in comedy, and he set the tone for nearly every late night talk show that followed.
“I think, why the show should succeed and get an audience,” Reiser told me, “it’s about somebody who… people in their twenties probably don’t even know who Johnny Carson is. You know, Ian Nelson who played Andy said he had to research him. He didn’t know. And I said, “Oh fuck. Really? Okay.” And it really appeals to an older audience who haven’t seen clips of Johnny and who miss him. You know, we all miss that tradition in our lives.”
Reiser also mentioned the new Showtime documentary series about The Comedy Store. Episode one of the series focused on Carson’s influence on comedy in the 70’s. “It just brought back so many memories, and I saw people and comic friends, well. But I had forgotten the whole synchronicity of the whole reason the Comedy Store took off was because of The Tonight Show. That’s where our show starts. Johnny moves to Burbank, and in the heels of that they opened the club.”
The Cast is Amazing
The casting of the series is so good, and even surpassed everyone’s expectations. Some of the performers were unknowns when There’s Johnny was cast, and have gone on to become famous since. And Reiser’s pride in the casting and performances is genuine. He said “so much great work went into this; I don’t mean just mine, but I mean, Tony Danza’s brilliant in this, and this kid Ian Nelson is delightful. And Jane Levy, who’s now a big star with Zoey’s Playlist, she’s extraordinary. She’s extraordinary. And every day we would watch her on set and just go, “What do we watching? This woman’s fantastic.” I mean, she’s so good and emotional, and so that character. You know, we just all fell in love with her. And so I think Peacock saw the light, and they went, “Yes, this makes sense.” A, because it’s about Carson and The Tonight Show and NBC, but no small… not to mention that we have… The star of one of our new shows is star of this one. And her work is just exceptional.”
Danza played the only character in the series (other than Johnny) who was a real person- Freddie de Cordova. Reiser said he wanted to include Freddie because he was such an interesting, colorful character. He remembers working with him on the real Tonight Show. “My wife and I used to just find it so funny; she would always come with me to the show. He would come in, stand in the doorway, reek of gin and Marlboro and cologne, and make three lovely, gracious, little jokes, get a laugh, knock on the door, and exit. And you go, “What the fuck? That’s what he does? That’s his job? I think that’s his job.” He comes in and he makes the guests feel welcome, and then he leaves. There’s a lot more to his story. I mean, he was a somewhat big director, or he was a noted director in film and TV, and then he and Johnny apparently had some sort of falling out towards the end; but he stayed on. It was like… They didn’t have a very cordial relationship I heard, but he was still there. It was a very wild thing. But he was very old-school, and spoke in sort of, I don’t know, I’d say mock eloquence.”
“And Tony Danza knew him. Obviously; he did the show a lot. And so when we wrote it, I wasn’t thinking… I had no idea who would play him. The casting director called me; she said, “What do you think of Tony Danza?” I said, “Oh my God, that’s brilliant. That’s brilliant.” Because he’s really good. I mean, Tony is a really good actor. And in this case he knew… He didn’t have to invent him; he knew it. A lot of people said they were well into the first episode and they didn’t realize that was Tony Danza. Who’s pretty famous, but he’s so in a character that’s not his normal Tony.”
And Andrew Schulz!
The Intermingling of Archival Footage With a New Scripted Storyline Is Ambitious, and It Works
Reiser proudly says his show is not like anything else. And he’s right. “Only a few shows have done behind the scenes, or they’ve done incorporating clips, but not in a way that this show does. I mean, it really does feel like you’re there. That, “Oh, they’re putting on a show that we’re actually watching,” of George Carlin and whoever,” he told me.
“We never thought about doing it differently; but we knew we didn’t want to cast someone to play Johnny, because it just is going to pop the frame and go, “Well, that’s not real. We know what Johnny looks like; that’s not him.” And so we only see him as you see him on TV, and to whatever extent we need it you see a shoulder; you know, over his head, you see his pant leg or something.”
It’s Authentic, and More Than a Little Magical
The set was so realistic, that at times it felt sacred to Reiser and others who had a history with the Tonight Show. That was thanks to having Jeff Sotzing onboard. (I talked with Sotzing about the series back in 2017) Jeff worked his way up from being Johnny’s nephew and a producer on the show to eventually being in charge of Carson’s legacy. “He got us the blueprints, and we matched the set; we had a terrific production designer,” Reiser said. “When I walked on the set the size of it felt right.”
“I remember there was a moment we were filming on the set, on The Tonight Show set, and Tony Danza and I were just sitting on the couch between takes, whatever, just yapping. And on that particular day, Jeff thought it’d be fun…he brought in music, tracks of Doc Severinsen, the full versions of stuff, because they would play during the commercial breaks. Right? You’d hear him as you go to commercial; as you come back from commercial, you’d hear a little bit of Doc and the Band. But they were playing and entertaining the audience for the two, three minutes of commercials. We were just sitting there and the music came on and we both simultaneous went, “I totally thought I was on the show.” We were sitting on the couch, listening to the music going, “Holy shit. This is really surreal.” Because I mean, I had been on there a lot, and Tony had certainly been on there a lot, and it was just sitting on that chair, on that couch, listening to that music; it was really mind-blowing.”
The Show Has a Great Storyline
There’s Johnny isn’t really about Carson or the show. Reiser explained. “He’s the backdrop. The show is about this 19 year old kid and this 20-whatever, 25 year old woman. And she is everything he’s not. I mean, he’s as simple and as pure, and she’s Beverly Hills showbiz, screwed up parents, divorced parents, uses men, has terrible choices in men. You know, in that opening thing he puts a supportive hand on her when she’s having a hard time, and she starts taking her clothes off. It’s like, “What? I’m not in Kansas anymore. This has never happened.”
Reiser’s History With the Tonight Show Brings Authenticity and Heart to the Series
Like most of us of a certain age, Paul used to stay up late when he was 14 or 15 to watch the show to see comedians perform. “I wasn’t watching for Sammy Davis, although I loved him. I was staying up for, “Oh, Robert Klein is on, George Carlin is on, Steve Martin is on.” So it just was such this connection for me. And what really impacted me when we were making it, we’re looking through little clips from libraries, I was thinking, “I haven’t seen these performances since I’m 15.” But I remembered them almost word for word. It was like, that’s how impactful TV was when you couldn’t record it, when you couldn’t say, “Oh, I’ll watch it tomorrow on my phone on the bus.” You know? It’s like, oh, you had to stay up late; you had to make an appointment, so it was more important. TV was more somehow a bigger part of your life then.”
Reiser of course was a guest himself many many times. “I did Carson. When we all started, my class, my graduating class, my peers and I, we started… I started in ’77, I guess, ’76, ’77, ’78, around there. And at that point your goal, and your only goal, was to get on The Tonight Show, however you had to get there. And personally I never saw past that. I was like, “I don’t know what happens, but that’s my goal. And I’m going to work, work, work, work, work, and hopefully…”
Paul didn’t get on Carson right away. It was when “Diner” came out in 82 that he got his first shot. “That was the only time I ever actually did stand up,” he said. “I came out, I did my seven minutes, went away. And then I didn’t do it [the show] for a couple of years.” He got another shot when the movie Aliens premiered. ” I just sat with Johnny, and that really worked. And so then, then there was a period that Johnny had me back. I was kind of astounded to discover this.” Paul would go on to appear every two months for two years or so. He thought, “Oh my gosh. I was really in a little sweet spot there, where Johnny was getting a kick out of me. The awe of being on with Johnny never went away. You were always aware that was Johnny. But by the fifth, sixth time I was on, I saw that I was loosening up and he loved it. And you know, he loved to be playful; he loved for comedians to do well. There’s no such thing as, “Oh, you stepped on his toes.” He wants you to do well, and he would bend over backwards to set you up.”
Reiser remembered what it was like seeing Johnny during those appearances. “Johnny was really quite supportive and wonderful to me,” he said. “As nice as Johnny was to me, as gracious as he was, we didn’t hang. You know? And when he moved, it was like he was like the president. You know, everything’s on lockdown: “Hold on, nobody move. We got security guys and Johnny’s moving through.” And it wasn’t that there were people clamoring to do him harm, but he likes his privacy. So you’d see him rounding a corner, or you’d see him for a second in makeup or something.”
“One of the other things is, he wasn’t a particularly big physical presence, and when you see him off camera you go, “He’s just a guy.” You know, he’s not that tall, and he’s not that big. But when you see his shot, like the monologue, you know, where he’s just at a little bit of an angle, from torso up, you go, “That’s him. That’s where he lives.” And he looks huge because we’ve just had that image of authority seared into our brains. And when you see other shots that are more human, you go, “Ah, I don’t want to see that. I just want to see Johnny from the chest up or behind the desk. That’s where he lives.”
Reiser got more and more comfortable with Johnny, and there came a point where he knew his appearances would go well. But no matter how well he did, he always had reverence for the man and the show. “It was never anything that we ever took lightly. I don’t know how much singers or actors prepare to go on a talk show, but comics, we took it seriously. We would work for months sometimes, like, “Well, I have a Tonight Show coming up in three months; I better get my five minutes ready,” and you would fine tune it every night. It was a big deal,” he explained.
“If you watch Johnny, always, any time a comic was on for the first time, he would introduce them with a quick throwaway. He’d say, “Yeah, I’m glad you were in a good mood tonight, because we have…” And as the audience you’re thinking, “I’m not in a particularly good mood, but Johnny said I am so I guess I am.” He would set the table. He would say, “This is important to this young comic, and let’s have a great time. Here we go.” And then you would step up because Johnny invited you to do that. And that was a big part of it. I mean, he wanted you to succeed.”
BONUS REASON #7: IT’S FREE!
“There’s Johnny” is streaming now on Peacock. Start binging!
