H-ee-e-e-e-ere's Harry! He was the first person of any color who Johnny Carson asked to guest-host a week’s worth of The Tonight Show. Nebraska-born Carson didn’t feel qualified to talk about the Civil Rights Movement, but recognizing both the significance and immediacy of the subject — the date was February 1968 — he asked Harry Belafonte to assume a spot behind a desk heretofore reserved exclusively for white males. At a time when blacks were largely ignored on television, Belafonte was a household name, thanks to his work on stage, screen, and music. (He’s credited with Americanizing calypso.) “He was a black artist with a white fan base,” observes the Clive Davis Institute’s Jason King, “at a time when there was still legal segregation.” Director Yoruba Richen’s pithy time capsule of the era shows a culture in desperate need of healing. Belafonte seized every opportunity to engender discussion of critical issues, most notably racial equality among Black Americans. (The next time a black man would hold a similar seat of power was Arsenio Hall.) Carson gave Belafonte creative control, right down to the guest list: a catalog of activists, celebrity and otherwise, that included Lena Horne, Sidney Poitier, Aretha Franklin, Nipsy Russell, the Smothers Brothers, Zero Mostel, Robert Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, etc. When might we expect a blu-ray release of all five shows? Never. Videotape was expensive; the two-inch quad recordings that housed the shows were degaussed and recycled immediately upon broadcast. It wasn’t until the early ’70s that Johnny Carson paid, out of pocket, to have the shows preserved. All that remains of Belafonte’s week from February 1968 are a half-hour with Dr. King, another half hour with Robert Kennedy, and Leon Bibb singing Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne.” Add to that a local collector wise enough to retain audio recordings of the first two nights, and we shall be thankful for what we have. Now streaming on Peacock. (2019) — Scott Marks