Posted on 05/13/2012 5:19:39 AM PDT by fight_truth_decay
A PBS 'American Masters' documentary investigates the mystique of the elusive 'Tonight Show' host, 20 years after he left TV.
Barbara Walters, Peter Jennings and Diane Sawyer all made their best pitch but were turned down. Johnny Carson, the man who changed forever the world of late-night talk, wasn't talking.
The network news powerhouses had separately attempted to secure interviews with Carson to get him to speak about his life and his place as one of the most influential figures in TV history. But from his 1992 retirement after 30 years on"The Tonight Show"until his death in 2005 at age 79, Carson steadfastly refused to cooperate with almost all interviews,
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Nothing beats this, though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9i6A6LGwa4
I had forgotten about that...thanks for posting it! I’m very glad to have experienced many years of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. A piece of Americana!
There was a time when David Letterman was funny, and I think Carson saw it. But unlike Carson, Letterman didn’t have the class or self-control to keep his personal views out of his work, and he devolved into the unfunny, angry leftist he is today. I haven’t watched him in almost twenty years.
My favorite Carson memory three of us 10 year old kids having a sleepover and deciding it was time to crash. The second before he tv went off Johnny announced his next guess was Rachel Welsh. “Click”, the TV went of and the room was pitch black. A couple of seconds went by followed by three kids knocking each other down in the dark to get to the TV to turn it back on.
I don’t think Johnny Carson loved and admired anyone more than he did Jimmy Stewart, who was very conservative.
“the big guest that night was Jimmy Stewart”
Mega WOW.
Was that the show were he read the poem about his dog?
Too bad he was such a lefty.
Surely you jest.
Though he was hilarious and didn't do politics all the time, when he did he was definitely a liberal. Remember his "Floyd Turbo, American" sketches or his ongoing ridicule of Dan Quayle?
Sis..boom...baa. What is the sound an exploding sheep make?
That was one of my two favorite Carson moments!
The other was teh Zsa Zsa Gabor pussy cat segment.
I drive a lot.
I listen to Johnny when I feel like it....he was so clever.
He went to college near where I grew up.
LOL. That was the one that almost put Ed McMahon into a seizure
Nice to see that Letterman's ratings have dropped about 1/2 mil below Leno's. I consider his actions toward women to be morally corrupt.
No he had done that a few years before I think but Johnny liked it so much he was happy to have him as a guest anytime. I looked up Jimmy on IMDB and at that point he was pretty much retired from acting. His final credit is a voice for the animated movie An American Tail Feival goes West in 1991. Jimmy left us in 1997. He did a mini series in 1986 (North and South) A tv movie in 1983 and 2 others in 1980. So he did 4 acting gigs in the 1980s but he started showing up on Carson because I think Johnny saw a lot of the American everyman in Jimmy which I think Carson was also but in a very different way.
His jokes never at the expense of another.
Interesting..thanks..note Post #34—hope you were able to see the show.
McMahon: Until he gets caught.
Carnac: How long does a United States Congressman serve?
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