Carson's 'Tonight Show' archived at exclusive website

For three decades, Johnny Carson tucked his audience into bed while welcoming thousands of guests to "The Tonight Show." Now the full Carson canon has been restored, digitized, annotated and transcribed.

One result of this huge archiving effort will be an upgraded website with dozens of clips, The Associated Press reports. There will be a boosted product line of "Tonight" DVD sets for purchasing through the website.

"But it will also become more of an entertainment site," said Jeff Sotzing, president of Carson Entertainment Group, a former "Tonight" producer and Carson's nephew. "There will be 40 to 50 clips, which we will change on a regular basis." A companion clip-licensing website is also going live this week.

Accessible only to media professionals with accounts, this site takes full advantage of the "Tonight" cataloging project. While certain early episodes were erased by NBC, the library reaches back as far as Carson's first weeks on the air, including an Oct. 31, 1962 session of "Stump the Band" with then-bandleader Skitch Henderson).

This treasury would make Carson devotees drool - if only they could get in. The public will have to make do for now with a relative handful of selected video samples.

But even though ordinary viewers are barred from the "licensing.johnnycarson.com" site, Sotzing promised that the public site will soon give them many of the same viewing goodies.