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Johnny Goes Home (1982)
A sweet and genuine look back to Carson's youth
All of us have varying degrees of nostalgia to our youth, but try explaining that or capturing it in a way that is as meaningful to anyone else as it is to you. Well, Johnny Goes Home comes incredibly close to doing that: Johnny combines his memories with visits to many spots of his hometown. It's surprisingly sweet to see Johnny tour the home of his youth with one of the sons of the family living there at the time. Johnny and the boy immediately bond over the same things. We also see Johnny with a handful of classmates (even one of their teachers). Johnny also hits his school and other locations in town. All the while this is peppered with home movies from all of these aspects.
As host and focus, Johnny is very engaging, drawing you in with anecdotes and why things were important, and how they changed (or didn't). Perhaps that it was a small town makes a difference, considering that is more likely to stay the same.
Any time I've gone "back home" I find less and less that's the same.
Time marches on, and you'll always have your memories, but maybe the saying is right: you can't go home again. But for this special, for Johnny and the viewers, we are able to do just that. For Johnny fans AND a view on small-town life in 1981, I highly recommend it!