Johnny was in the picture, sort of

So I was watching one of the old Johnny Carson reruns on Antenna TV (in-between the Astros-Rays game on FS1).

Jackie Gleason was the top guest on the October 18, 1985 episode. To my surprise Johnny and Jackie started talking about the legendary game show flop, You're in the Picture. Hardcore game show fans will know about this doomed effort. It lasted one (1) episode in 1961. The following week Gleason turned up on TV and made a hilarious apology for the bomb.

But there's some even more arcane trivia about the famous failure. On the Tonight Show Johnny Carson mentioned that he was a player on the ill-fated game show. Except the one episode that actually ran didn't feature Johnny. Which means a second episode was taped but never made it to air.

This article discusses the lost episode of You're in the Picture and concludes that the missing ep was most likely wiped, though Jackie Gleason may have kept a copy. Who knows if that second episode will ever surface. Of course, this game show appearance by Johnny Carson would be very interesting to oldies fans...and lots of just plain game show fans.

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