Johnny Carson Died....
The “King of Late Night,” a mentor to a legion of comics, dies of emphysema. His 30 years on the show ended in 1992.
By Joanne Ostrow
Denver Post TV Critic
AP file
Johnny Carson is seen during the final taping of "The Tonight Show" in Burbank, Calif., on May 22, 1992.
Los Angeles - Johnny Carson, whose genial bedtime presence was a given for generations of American television viewers, died Sunday at age 79.
"Mr. Carson passed away peacefully early Sunday morning," Jeff Sotzing, Carson's nephew, told The Associated Press. "He was surrounded by his family, whose loss will be immeasurable. There will be no memorial service."
NBC said he died of emphysema at his home in Malibu.
With an inimitable combination of Midwestern accessibility and showbiz class, Carson came to define the role of "The Tonight Show" host in a 30-year run that ended in 1992.
He served as mentor for a generation of comics that included David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld, Albert Brooks and Roseanne. Any comedian who succeeded in delivering a few minutes of material on Carson's "The Tonight Show" was considered launched in the business. If they then were invited to sit on Carson's couch for a debriefing, they were en route to stardom.
Just last week, former "Tonight Show" producer Peter Lassally told television critics here that Carson was still feeding jokes to Letterman.
"He can think of five jokes off the bat that he wishes he has an outlet for," Lassally told reporters.
When Letterman would use the punch lines, Lassally said, "Johnny (would get) a big kick out of that. I think the thing he misses the most is the monologue."
Carson started delivering those monologues in 1962 when he succeeded Jack Paar in the job.
"Heeere's Johnny!" sidekick Ed McMahon would bellow, and the skinny former amateur magician would come through the curtains in a well-tailored suit and stroll onstage at NBC's Burbank studios. And the party would begin.
Carson's monologue became an institution, a barometer of American sentiment on topics both silly and serious. When Richard Nixon became the butt of jokes from Carson during Watergate in the early 1970s, the president's fall from power seemed inevitable.
When the comic had run-ins with the network over salary and vacation time, the NBC brass were roasted on-air.
Carson would rock back on his heels, mug innocently at the camera or direct a sideways glance at bandleader Doc Severinsen. Sometimes the gags were hilarious; sometimes his reaction to duds was even funnier.
John William Carson was born Oct. 23, 1925, in Iowa and raised in Nebraska. He launched his career as a teen with a magic and ventriloquism act, "The Great Carsoni." In 1951, he landed his first television show, "Carson's Cellar."
In 1955, "The Johnny Carson Show" was his network debut, on CBS. A daytime game show followed on ABC from 1957 to 1962, during which he joined up with straight man McMahon. When Paar unexpectedly quit "The Tonight Show" in 1962, Carson was named the program's third host (Steve Allen was the first, from 1954 to 1957). Carson debuted Oct. 1, 1962, with McMahon as sidekick. Groucho Marx was the first guest.
Carson punctuated his sly delivery with his signature golf swing, before taking a seat at the desk for a procession of guests. The much-married Carson (four wives, three divorces) got monologue mileage out of his alimony payments over the years.
Sketches rounded out the show, including the characters "Aunt Blabby," "Floyd R. Turbo," "The Mighty Carson Art Players," and, best of all, the wonderfully inept "Carnac the Magnificent."
As Carnac, he would read an answer and, holding an envelope to his ridiculous turban, divine the question. (Answer: "Ben Gay." Question: "Why didn't Ben Franklin have any children?")
Many of the bits are preserved in the home video set, "Johnny Carson: His Favorite Moments From The Tonight Show." There is Carson cracking up with Don Rickles, Rodney Dangerfield and Buddy Hackett; flirting with Angie Dickinson; being pawed by zoo animals; introducing newcomers such as Seinfeld and Garry Shandling; and tearing up at Bette Midler's farewell serenade in 1992.
He remained the "King of Late Night" despite competing bids by Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin, Joey Bishop, David Frost and Joan Rivers.
In later years, Carson cut his work schedule from five nights a week to four, from 90 minutes a night to an hour. He served as Oscar host five times, but it was as a constant evening presence on "The Tonight Show" that he became an icon.
"It's a sad day for his family and his country," Letterman said Sunday. "All of us who came after are pretenders. We will not see the likes of him again. ... He was the best, a star and a gentleman."
"This is the end of an era," Rivers, a frequent guest host on the show, told Reuters. "With Carson, you went on once. You had his blessing, and the world knew you were funny."
Oprah Winfrey said she was "stunned" at the news. She called Carson "one of the greats of our time."
"He defined the original talk show," she said. "He was in our generation what Ed Sullivan was in that generation. Being on his show defined having made it."
NBC released statements from Bob Wright, a boss and personal friend of Carson's, and from Jay Leno, who replaced him as host of "The Tonight Show."
Wright, chairman of NBC Universal, said, "With his lightning-quick wit, effortless delivery and immense charm, he was without peer in late-night television. His death marks the passing of a show-business legend and a man of warmth and sincerity."
Leno said, "No single individual has had as great an impact on television as Johnny. He was the gold standard."
An intensely private man, Carson lived in seclusion in Malibu, playing tennis well into his 70s. In a rare interview in Esquire in 2002, he said, "I think I left at the right time. You've got to know when to get the hell off the stage, and the timing was right for me."
In addition to his wife, Alexis Mass, Carson is survived by two sons, Christopher and Cory, by his first wife, the former Jody Walcott. A third son, Richard, also by Walcott, died in a car accident in 1991.
In his final show, he told his audience: "And so it has come to this. I am one of the lucky people in the world. I found something that I always wanted to do, and I have enjoyed every single minute of it."
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-820-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
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