Johnny then Dave or Dick Cavett on one channel and Johnny on the other. Late night talk shows were never better. Plus the guests were far better back then.
There were some really wild characters back then. Especially on Letterman, but also on Carson. Nowadays, nobody has anything very interesting to say, and everybody's just trying to push their latest project. In the old days, I actually thought they wanted to be there.
Yeah! Watching Johnny Carson with guests such as Don Rickles or Dean Martin was magical. Nowadays, it is just stuff like Colbert virtue signaling how much he hates Trump.
It was really a slow death after Johnny Carson. Johnny was just huge. People put TV’s in their bedrooms just to watch Johnny Carson.
Dick Cavett is still around. At age 85, Dick is almost as old as Crazy Nancy. Dick has stayed out of current events completely for at least the last 30 years.
I guess he had gotten his fill of the limelight.
Some celebrities never do.
Their predecessors Steve Allen and Jack Paar blazed the trail and should not be forgotten.
Also part of the "golden age" of late night tv that needs mentioned is SNL and Midnight Special. Not talk shows, but both shows had brief moments of brilliance before fading to irrelevance.