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GOODBYE, JOHNNY
Jan. 28, 2005
I suppose, these days, kids have TVs in their bedrooms by the time they are enrolled in Kindergarten. It wasn't that way for me. Maybe it was my parents making sure I got a proper night's sleep. More than likely, it was the times. In the '80s, not every 10-year-old had a 27-inch plasma sitting on the nightstand. You had a 13-inch, color TV with cable … and that's if you were lucky.
After a while, I did get lucky (or my parents caved), and I remember what a big deal it was to finally get a TV for my bedroom. And in those early days of gleefully clicking around passed bedtime, it didn't take long to find the two shows that would become appointment viewing. One was "Saturday Night Live." The other was "The Tonight Show," starring somebody I previously only heard my mom and dad talking about--Johnny Carson. So that's what I'd been missing all those years!
And I did miss quite a bit. After all, Carson took over "The Tonight Show" from Jack Paar in October of 1962, almost 12 years before I was born. Factor in another 12 or so TV-less years, and the math posits it was the mid-'80s before I discovered the joys of watching Johnny wisecrack about the world, put on those classic skits, and interview the celebrities of the moment.
Today, it's all old hat. Turn on the TV any time after 11:30 p.m., and you can find a cornucopia of late-night programming and two fistfuls of talk shows. Back then, however, you pretty much had two options--watch Johnny or go to sleep. The choice was obvious. But you know what? Even if Carson had to go up against today's myriad of TV options, the decision to watch Johnny would still be an easy one to make.
I'm not sure that Carson's "Tonight Show" is my favorite late-night talker of all time. Letterman's old NBC show was divine, and for the last 10 years, I've been awfully partial to Conan O'Brien. But Carson was, without question, the best host who ever manned a late-night desk. He was cheerful, witty and appropriately droll. He made bad guests seem interesting and turned lame sketches into classics with a self-aware look to the audience that said, "Yes, I think this is just as ridiculous as you do."
Carson's "Tonight Show" served as the template for those that followed--Arsenio, Letterman, Conan, all of them. Yet, even the best of today's shows (including Conan's) have settled into a predictable pattern, where it feels the entire hour is pre-assembled on cue cards. Carson's show was much more loose and free-flowing, as evidenced by the times he would call a new comedian over to his desk for an unplanned chat after a funny few minutes of work. Conversations that started in one topic would quickly diverge to another on some random, entertaining thread. Today, I have doubt that talk-show hosts even listen to their guests. (In Jay Leno's case, I'm sure he doesn't.)
By the time I was old enough to start watching, Carson was in his third decade as "The Tonight Show" host. At that point, I could not say whether his material was still fresh for those who had been watching all along. But to a young TV viewer, new to the pleasures of passed-bedtime network programming, Johnny was the man.
The news that he died this weekend hit a lot of people quite hard. That's not a surprise considering how many late nights so many of us spent with him. His reclusiveness upon retiring only guaranteed that we would all remember him as the charming host who walked away while at the top of his game in 1992.
Tonight, Johnny, I'm going to bed early. Without you, there just doesn't seem to be anything good on TV to watch.
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