Entertainment – Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson was a form of entertainment in itself. When he retired and was replaced by Jay Leno, he ended an era of television. When he died, an era of humanity died with him. There was never anything like Johnny Carson before him and there will most likely never be another Johnny Carson again.
Carson hosted “The Tonight Show,” which had a long line of hosts before him, including Steve Allen, Ernie Kovacs, and Jack Paar, the last regular host whom Carson eventually replaced. After his death, Carson went on to host the show for nearly 30 years, a feat unmatched by anyone else.
Carson’s partner on the show was a guy named Ed McMahon. McMahon was really just there to play Carson and be the serious man out of him. He really didn’t have much talent, but he didn’t have to. He played him to perfection and the two formed a chemistry that rivaled all-time great couples.
The premise of the show was very simple and practically set in stone. At the beginning of each show, McMahon would introduce who the guests would be for that night after announcing the star of the show and then break out with the now famous line, “Here’s Johnny!” Carson would then come out and do a short monologue. In his monologue, he would basically cover the current events of the day, mainly upsetting the sitting president of the United States. Most would say that his monologue was the funniest part of the show.
After the monologue, the show would go on a commercial break, and upon returning, Johnny would be sitting behind his desk. The rest of the show would mainly focus on attracting the various guests. This was a chance for rising stars to shine. Getting into the show was almost a free ride to success if you were good at it. Many big stars got their start in the Carson storefront. Who could forget the first time George Carlin first appeared on the show?
After the guests performed, they would sit down with Carson and chat. Some of the guests, like Carlin and Robin Williams, were outrageous and provided some of the show’s most memorable moments. Carson was a master at interviewing people, as he made them feel very comfortable.
But the show wasn’t just about guests. Carson also had his cast of characters that he played on the show, like Karnac the Magnificent. This is where Carson would put on his little turban and pretend to be able to guess what the individual envelopes contained. Every time McMahon got to the last envelope, he would announce this, drawing huge cheers from the studio audience, as the jokes were pretty bad. To this cheering, Carson would make some sort of comment like, “Fleas from a thousand camels infest your armpits.” The laughs were some of the biggest on television.
Carson filled our homes with some of the greatest television moments ever. And for that we will always be grateful.
