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Sun 23 Jan, 2005 03:28 pm
For thirty years, from 1962 to 1992, Johnny Carson was the king of late night television. He died today, at 79, from emphysema.
To me, he was a showman beyond peer. No one has matched him since he left television over a decade ago. I will miss him.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6504445/
I'm old enough to remember that Steve Allen was the original MC of the Tonight Show, but young enough to still think of the Tonight Show as the Johnny Carson Show. Ia gree, Phoenix, that nobody has matched him as a late night variety show host. There was a charm, a panache, a dash of elegance about him that's wholly lacking in the likes of Leno and Letterman.
Carson endeavored to be subtle with his pandering... and often succeeded.
Leno and Letterman are ham-handed in comparison.
Anybody remember the bit with Ed Ames and the arrow, on the Carson show? That was a classic.
What really shocks me is that this thread has not gotten more "action" Johnny Carson was an icon, and had a tremendous influence on people for thirty years. I suppose most of the folks on A2K were too young to really remember Johnny in his heyday, before he cut the show down to an hour, and relied quite a bit on guest hosts!
Unless my memory has gone to shambles, Phoneix, I think there are some posts missing here. I remember checking last night and there were more posts. The hamsters burp again?
MA- Since I wrote my last post, I noticed that there were a couple of other threads on Carson.
Another thread was started yesterday as well. Sorry Phoenix but it was the first one I got to.
Quote:"Democracy is buying a big house you can't afford with money you don't have to impress people you wish were dead. And, unlike communism, democracy does not mean having just one ineffective political party; it means having two ineffective political parties. ... Democracy is welcoming people from other lands, and giving them something to hold onto -- usually a mop or a leaf blower. It means that with proper timing and scrupulous bookkeeping, anyone can die owing the government a huge amount of money. ... Democracy means free television, not good television, but free. ... And finally, democracy is the eagle on the back of a dollar bill, with 13 arrows in one claw, 13 leaves on a branch, 13 tail feathers, and 13 stars over its head -- this signifies that when the white man came to this country, it was bad luck for the Indians, bad luck for the trees, bad luck for the wildlife, and lights out for the American eagle.
--Johnny Carson
Good night, Johnny.
Not many people can say they were the best for thirty years.
Wow! Was that one of his monologues?
I read the NYTimes earlier but somehow, I missed that.
The New Yorker has re-published a profile of Johnny Carson from 1978 - too long to copy, so here's the
LINK.
http://www.aarpmagazine.org/entertainment/Articles/a2003-01-21-wheresjohnny.html/page=1[URL=Here's the link]Webpage Title[/URL] for the AARP online obit. It'll be published as hard copy in AARP's forthcoming issue.
Dang! I still haven't learned how to do that thing where you don't post the whole URL. Oh, well. Hope the link works.
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