• by Fern Siegel , August 11, 2010

Johnny Carson is about to make his comeback -- digitally.

During his 30-year tenure at "The Tonight Show," Carson introduced Americans to David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen DeGeneres, Ray Romano and Roseanne, among others. His humor -- like his lock on late-night programming -- was legendary from 1962-1992.

When he said goodbye, an era ended. Today, Carson Entertainment Group announced the legend has returned. It is releasing the "Tonight" TV archives through the Web site www.johnnycarson.com.

CEG's second project is an online archive -- available, at first, only to industry professionals. Here, thanks to high-tech wizardry, users can search a digital inventory of Carson's work and watch nearly every surviving minute of his "Tonight Show" run -- some 3,300 hours of show content.

Most of the material, however, is from 1973 onward. It was stored -- and this sounds like a bad joke -- in a salt mine in Kansas. According to Jeff Sotzing, CEG president, there have been numerous requests for the material. "Segments have been used in films like "Fargo," "Talk to Me" and "Watchmen" -- as well as commercials and other productions," he said.

Last year, Deluxe Archive Solutions transferred the footage to a digital format and presented a searchable user-interface for clip browsing and licensing. Now, by typing in a single name, word or phrase into a search engine, a producer can browse thumbnail images representing each occurrence of the term, and view clips alongside their transcripts.

A new DVD and deluxe collector's box set will also be released this year.

"The Carson Library represents both an important record of our recent past and serves as a model for media archives in the future," said Tyler Leshney, vice president of Deluxe Archive Solutions.

Given the show's beloved status, psychic Carnac the Magnificent, one of Carson's characters, probably saw it coming.