JOHNNY CARSON BECAME A LEGEND
by keeping Americans awake for thirty years. Although Steve Allen originated the Tonight show and Jack Paar polished its format, it was Johnny who made the genre his own. Here are some highlights from our coverage of late-night talk TV and its king, Johnny Carson.
Of all the week's comedians, Steve Allen had the most arduous chore. His Tonight (Mon. through Fri., 11:30 p.m., NBC), starts off in New York, at intervals picks up more stations across the nation, finally signs off the air at 1 a.m.
From Review of the Week
Oct. 11, 1954
About 5,000,000 fans ...think that Jack Paar should be precisely what he is: a first-rate, refreshingly different TV performer who in a single year has come out of nowhere and made a huge hit of a special kind of entertainment.
From Late-Night Affair
Aug. 18, 1958
Filling in until Johnny Carson takes over the Tonight show next fall, some of television's tinniest princes have presided over the show, and each has left the unmistakable mark of his inability to master Paar's charismatic tricks.
From The House that Jack Built
May. 11, 1962
'And now—here's Johnny!' called Announcer Ed McMahon as the star skipped onstage—fetchingly handsome, slat-thin, loose-limbed, and wrapped in a Continental-cut suit. 'My name is Shirley Hoffnagel,' he began with eyes laughing,...
From Midnight Idol
May. 19, 1967
Is there, somewhere, another Johnny Carson? Not likely. He has eased America through 3,328 midnights on the Tonight show with wit, some surprises and shrewd, guarded irreverence....Excerpt from a 1977 press conference with Carson: Q. What would you like your epitaph to be? A. I'll be right back.
From The Magician of 3,328 Midnights
By Jay Cocks
Oct. 4, 1982
Carson's retirement is another milestone in the slow withering of the network mass audience. Even if Leno manages to succeed, much of Carson's audience will undoubtedly disperse to other hosts and other shows. TV's late-night living room will never be quite so inviting again.
From And What a Reign It Was
By Richard Zoglin
Mar. 16, 1992
For his final show, Carson dispensed with guests and spent the hour reminiscing and screening clips from past years. 'And so it has come to this,' he said, perched on a stool at the end.
From And One for the Road
Jun. 1, 1992
In his Midwestern modesty and reserve, Letterman recalls no one so much as the man he publicly idolizes, Johnny Carson. Like Carson, much of Letterman's appeal comes from the counterpoint between his heartland Wasp looks and his edgy irreverence.
From New Dave Dawning
By Richard Zoglin
Aug. 30, 1993
This longtime talker will be remembered — and damnit, kids, remember this — as the creator of "The Tonight Show." Emerging from free-form comedy radio in the early '50s, Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen, the son of vaudevillians, became the father of the modern talk show.
From Bye-Bye, Steverino
By Richard Corliss
Nov. 03, 2000
He followed the Garbo rule: do it as well as you can --maybe better than anyone has -- and, when you’re done, disappear.
From Whoooooooo’s Johnny?
By Richard Corliss
Jan. 25, 2005
Our Presidents serve for four to eight years, even F.D.R. went just over 12. Carson ruled the Tonight Show for nearly 30. The greatest Presidents have mere administrations. Johnny Carson had a reign.
From The Great Telecommunicator
By James Poniewozik
Jan. 30, 2005
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