BOP Daily News
January 25, 2005
The spirit of BOP News lives on in
This is So Last Week,
our pop culture week-in-review,
presented in a pleasing quiz form.
The king is dead.
Television legend and American icon Johnny Carson died Sunday from emphysema. The 79-year-old former host of The Tonight Show is receiving accolades from friends and colleagues throughout show business, and is being remembered fondly by fans as the charming, self-deprecating host who came into their homes five nights a week, easing the tensions of the day with a few laughs and some scintillating conversations, sending them off to sleep with a smile. We here at BOP would like to remember the comedy legend who, as all wise clowns are admonished, left the audience wanting more.
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John William Carson was born in Iowa in 1925, but was raised in what he always considered his hometown, Norfolk, Nebraska. Carson began his entertainment career at 14 as a magician called The Great Carsoni; he worked children’s parties and talent shows, and began to develop the split-second comedy timing and feel for an audience from his local appearances. After serving his country in the Navy during World War II, Carson returned to performing, this time in radio. But it was the emerging medium of television that would bring Carson his great fame, and on which he would leave his indelible mark.
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Carson’s first TV break was born of misfortune. A writer for Red Skelton, Carson was tapped to fill in when Skelton suffered a concussion after walking into a breakaway door that didn’t during rehearsal. He displayed the wit, charm and audience savvy that we would later all come to know and love, which led to a local TV show on the LA O&O, then known as KNXT. The program, Carson’s Cellar, wasn’t a hit, but it did give Carson valuable experience in the medium. Over the ensuing years, Carson had various shows on various networks, none of which lasted long, but in 1956, he became host of the game show Who Do You Trust? This was the gig that lasted longest, save for the Tonight Show, and allowed Carson to further hone his gift for ad-libs. It is also where he met long-time friend and Tonight Show sidekick Ed McMahon; the two remained close until Carson’s death.
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Some little-known facts about Johnny Carson: In 1960, he did a pilot for a sit-com called Johnny Come Lately, which never made it to the air. He was first brought to NBC’s attention when he guest-hosted for then-Tonight Show host Jack Paar in 1958, but turned down the network’s offer to take over from Paar four years later (thankfully for all of us, NBC persisted until Johnny said yes). He has marked his retirement with a new career as a writer of short humor pieces. Urged on by friend Steve Martin, he has contributed to The New Yorker a number of times over the 12 years since he left Tonight. He created the John W. Carson Foundation, which donated millions to various charities close to his heart. His hometown of Norfolk not only has the Johnny Carson Theatre at its high school, but also the Carson Regional Cancer Center; like much of his life, he kept his philanthropy out of the limelight. No doubt he found it slightly vulgar to trumpet his good deeds.
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Under Carson, the Tonight Show became known as a launching pad for the career of many comedians. An appearance on Tonight was an instant ticket to better gigs and greater recognition, and a list of those Carson helped reads like a who’s who of current comedy stars: David Letterman, Gary Shandling, Tim Allen, Jerry Seinfeld, Roseanne Barr, Joan Rivers, Bill Maher, Jay Leno, Steve Martin, Drew Carey, and countless others credit Tonight with making them stars. The goal of every young comic was to make Johnny laugh; that was not only the key to being invited back, but if you could make Johnny laugh, you were golden. An even greater encomium was to be invited over to the couch on your first appearance; comics were instructed not to expect this honor, but it was always a brass ring in the back of the performer’s mind, the sign you had "made it". A demonstration of this came during Drew Carey’s first appearance; after finishing a killer set, Carson waves Drew Carey over to that couch. Carey’s reaction – literally a “who, me?” take – is priceless, and indicative of the value of that little invite.
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Carson spent the last years of his life in quiet retirement, allowing the work, as he told one interviewer, to speak for itself. Wisely, Carson realized the expectations that would attend any return to television would almost surely scuttle the project before it got very far, so he never returned to the public stage. There were no sad appearances trying to recapture former glory, no embarrassing performances to tarnish our memories. Thus we are thankfully left with the memory of the gracious man with the quick wit and the easy charm, who could make the lady who collects potato chips as interesting as Richard Nixon. He never talked down to his guests, was never mean-spirited or cruel, and he loved the oddball as much as the famous entertainer. He was a gentleman, a class act, and we shall not see his like soon again.
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Goodnight, Johnny.
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"Democracy means buying a house you can't afford with money you don't have to impress people you wish were dead."
Previous edition's quote: A Hard Day's Night
Box Office Prophets offers quality, reliable news about the entertainment industry. BOP is also entertaining. To that end, please be advised that some content in this column is intended to be humorous and should not be considered factual.
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