It’s mostly impossible to watch. But I will say, the Tonight show is the best of the “non-political” night shows. They do still at least TRY to be funny.
I think his assessment is correct. Johnny would be OK with the current Tonight Show.
He was a producer and is a liberal.
Producers don’t think about content and liberals don’t think.
They emote.
Ping!.................
Who cares what Johnny would think, it’s the audience you should care about, and they hate the new show.
> Too political <
Right. The old-time talk show hosts poked gentle fun at Democrats and Republicans alike. They kept you guessing as to their political beliefs.
That was smart.
Today’s hosts alternate bashing Republicans in general with bashing Trump in particular.
That’s dumb, as it alienates half your audience.
And to make it worse, their jabs are just not funny. But fortunately for me, in my region opposite the Tonight Show are reruns of Perry Mason.
Flunky nephew speaks.
I agree, Johnny wouldn’t like any of the late night shows. He did political stuff, but at least it was funny
The difference was Johnny Carson was actually entertaining and did not try to push a political agenda. He’d make jokes at the expense of each side. The current late night “comedians” aren’t funny at all. They’re just political hacks and their audience has shrunk down to a nub as a result.
I gotta admit if I were in Carson’s position, I’d have paid the $600 per day to fly in by helicopter. Saving a few hours per day and not having all that stress from driving would have been worth it.
Carson made Jeff Sotzing a producer the year he ended the show? That's telling. I'm guessing Sotzing is a zero who hates Trump. Nothing more.
He was a modest guy.
Even though he drove a Corvette he always called it a Chevy.
Too overtly political, otherwise he shared the political views of the current idiots.
Exactly what I was thinking. These guys today should be required to watch Carson tapes. He was good at joking about politics without making it overly political. And he'd ridicule both sides equally.
What would Jack Paar say?
Johnny Carson was NOT the original. Just the most flamboyant.
Carson was the best. I was a regular viewer during his entire run. I watched Leno once and that was it. It wasn’t the same. I have never had an interest in any of the other late-night hosts, nor in the guests they are likely to have. I have more free time for reading.
Johnny Carson’s show contributed to the feeling that America was a united people, more or less on the same page about most things with the voting booth being the voting booth and the public space was pretty wholesome and homogeneous, and late night TV was for mom and dad and the comedians could have a cocktail and loosen up.
Gutfeld holds the top rating in late night programs.
Non liberal makes it worth while.
It was often packed, and a friend of mine who knew the owners said that Carson would occasionally go in there to pick up food to go, but if it wasn’t ready yet he just wait like everybody else, not insisting on special treatment.
Modern late night talk shows aren’t about entertainment, they are part of a daily media pipeline that sets out talking points early in the morning and carries that message to late night entertainment.
Perhaps one could point at the 2007 JournaList as the start of this unified media message. Ezra Klein created the Google group which brought 400 academics, reporters, and political advocates together to “discuss” daily news in a private manner. It certainly skewed into a discussion of how to politically deflect unfavorable news towards messaging favorable to leftists.
Even though JournaList was shut down, there still seems to be a well practiced script legacy media operates on. Set a talking point starting with rumors and press the issue all day until it becomes a fact by night.
For example: a morning show might promote an unsourced story, “there are concerns in Washington”
By midday, as the talking point takes root, “there is a growing political scandal the public is increasingly concerned about”
By the time nightly news airs, “growing calls for elected leaders to act”
Then the nightly opinion shows cast blame for the imagined issue.
And it is all wrapped up with late night talk shows which lampoon conservatives who deny that the issue even exists.