Johnny Carson

S&W45Colt

S&W45Colt

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Does anybody else miss Johnny's Tonight Show?

Maybe it's me, but I miss Johnny. I saw a special on him recently, it reminded me how much I missed him. His departure from TV left a hole that I don't think will ever be filled, certainly not by Leno etc, it was almost like losing a friend.
 
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I watched him for many years and have missed his show since it went off the air. He had some big shoes to fill and I don't think any of the current talk show hosts can match him. They each have their qualities, but none are overall as good as Carson.
 
Carson was special. It was a national shared experience, like baseball when it was truly the national past time. As a comedian, actor, public figure, you knew you'd "made it" when you were on Carson.

The way entertainment is today I doubt we ever again see a show or entertainer that is so ubiquitous in our culture, and it will be a long time before we see an entertainer so perfected in his skill.

Every now and again I cue up some youtube bits from the show, esp. when he had on some of his closer friends like Buddy Hackett or Bob Newhart. Also the Tea Time movie skits, which are classics. "Drive till you get to the Schlausen cutoff, get out of your car, cut off your schlausen"...
 
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First time I saw Steve Martin was on Johnny Carson's show. My dad let my little brother and I stay up to watch. We were in stitches and so was J.C.
 
If you get TCM (Turner Classic Movies) on cable or satellite, Conan O'Brien has been hosting some classic Johnny highlights from the old Tonight Shows. Mondays at 8:00pm EDT. Good stuff.
 
I miss him a lot. I have never thought Leno was funny or that good an interviewer, and Letterman isn't much better. Carson could be wicked but never, ever mean-spirited. He made his guests look good--having him collapse in his chair laughing launched many a young comedian.

I haven't seen anyone to equal him. When Steve Allen had his show many years ago it often was wonderful stuff. Dick Cavett was a fine interviewer. But Carson had it all.
 
The original Tonight Show host was Steve Allen. He always made me nervous. I was just a kid and my parents loved him so I watched it with them when they'd let me stay up.

When Steve left a nobody from nowhere named Jack Parr took over. It took me about 15 minutes to wish I had Steve back. Jack was a crybaby and had no humor and no personality. He was a world class wimp. The night he said the words "water closet" on the air and the network cut him off he quit with big tears in his eyes. He was pathetic.

Then we got Johnny Carson. He was a class act the like of which we are not likely to see again. I kind of got used to Jay Leno...a little bit. He had a few good features on his show but he isn't a patch compared to Carson.

Carson had the best guests and the best gags and the most humor and the most class.

Letterman is a dork. his humor is stupid (Will it float? :rolleyes: ) and As far as O'Brien if it wasn't for the stupid haircut he'd be totally forgetable and Kimmel IS totally forgetable. I may not be the best judge of anything but I do know what's funny and what's not and these guys are NOT.

I will always remember the last Carson show. One of his good friends, Bette Middler, sang a song to him, "Gimme One Drink For My Baby and One More For The Road...." The friendship and affection between those two was memorable
 
I used to love when they had various animals on the show - Johnny always seemed nervous around animals, and of course they would react accordingly. Johnny had a gift - he was funny even when he wasn't funny...I doubt we will ever see his equal.
 
Carson was a class act. Johnny had running gags about Wayne Newton. Finally, Newton confronted Johnny and told him the series of gags was harming his career. Carson discontinued the gags. Now an awful lot of the jokes are political and most of those have a left slant.

When Jack Paar was taken off the air for the joke "The Wayside Chapel" I was in High school. My Civics class was taught by the coach and he told the class that my mother had told him that joke and he didn't consider it off color. The entire class turned their heads and looked at me. Jeeze!
 
As risqué as Johnny was back in his day , he'd be too clean in today's TV world.

Face it , TV today is downright filthy compared to the 1970s-1980s.

I still like Leno's show. His monologue , Headlines , Jaywalking.
 
Late night talk shows ain't what they used to be. I'm not a Letterman fan, Leno seems like a nice guy but that's about it, Fallon and the redheaded guy are sketch comics. Maybe someone who is good with improv like Johnny was could do a nice job, like maybe a Ryan Stiles or Colin Mochrie. Johnny was a master.
 
S&W45Colt said:
Does anybody else miss Johnny's Tonight Show?

Maybe it's me, but I miss Johnny. I saw a special on him recently, it reminded me how much I missed him. His departure from TV left a hole that I don't think will ever be filled, certainly not by Leno etc, it was almost like losing a friend.
Click to expand...

Yes....along with Frank John and Dino...they left a huge hole.
 
Carson was a natural - pretty much every one else is playing the part of a TV Show host.

I saw an interview with Harrison Ford where he talked about one of his first roles - a tiny part where he payed a bell hop paging someone for a message. He was only on screen for less than two minutes. Someone told him that he would never make it because watching that seen he thought, there goes a bell hop, whereas if Mickey Rourke had played the part he would have thought, now there goes a great actor. Ford's comment on that was that he thought the entire purpose of being an actor playing a part was to convince the audience that you actually were the person you are portraying and that the highest compliment the viewer might give is if they believe (in that scene) that he was in fact an real life bell hop.

As that relates to Johnny Carson, he was and shall forever be remembered as being THE late night TV show host. Whether it came naturally to him (which I suspect is the case) or if he had to work harder than anyone else to make it look entire natural makes no difference - no one would say look at that comedian trying to be an interviewer, whereas you can say that about nearly every one else.

Similarly - the first time I saw Willard Scott in my life was when I got to college and turned on the TV and the weather report was on - I immediately thought - who is this clown - it was only later that I learned that he was in fact a clown/comedian.
 
Carson was unmatchable. I will never forget the skit he did in 1968 with a deadpan Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday, the "Copper clapper caper." It's one of those things where you can't help but laugh out loud so hard that tears come to your eyes. And you can see it coming, too! Here's the link:

Jack Webb and Johnny Carson - YouTube

John
 
sipowicz said:
Yes....along with Frank John and Dino...they left a huge hole.
Click to expand...

2nd that. I've got both of their entire collections. I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite of the two.

Frank was the personification of the word "presence" on the stage and records. He was also one of the two or three greatest voices of this century.

Dino was the personification of cool. His show was almost as classic as his voice and "Ain't that a kick in the Head," is as good as it gets. Call me simple, but his movies with John Wayne are some of my favorites.
 
Walkin' Jack said:
The original Tonight Show host was Steve Allen. He always made me nervous. I was just a kid and my parents loved him so I watched it with them when they'd let me stay up.

When Steve left a nobody from nowhere named Jack Parr took over. It took me about 15 minutes to wish I had Steve back. Jack was a crybaby and had no humor and no personality. He was a world class wimp. The night he said the words "water closet" on the air and the network cut him off he quit with big tears in his eyes. He was pathetic.

Then we got Johnny Carson. He was a class act the like of which we are not likely to see again. I kind of got used to Jay Leno...a little bit. He had a few good features on his show but he isn't a patch compared to Carson.

Carson had the best guests and the best gags and the most humor and the most class.

Letterman is a dork. his humor is stupid (Will it float? :rolleyes: ) and As far as O'Brien if it wasn't for the stupid haircut he'd be totally forgetable and Kimmel IS totally forgetable. I may not be the best judge of anything but I do know what's funny and what's not and these guys are NOT.

I will always remember the last Carson show. One of his good friends, Bette Middler, sang a song to him, "Gimme One Drink For My Baby and One More For The Road...." The friendship and affection between those two was memorable
Click to expand...

Kimmel is P*A*T*H*E*T*I*C at best. I admit I liked it when he and Adam Carolla did The Man SHow-but since Kimmel got a job on ABC--he's turned lunatic.
 
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