I haven’t the energy, or the talent, to best some of the comments above. I was disappointed that you had nothing to say, being a showbiz guy yourself.

Did you know Mr. Carson? How would you place him within the show business establishment in terms of character and achievement? We know the public side of the man, but because you are behind the stage, so to speak, you might be able to offer some insight unavailable to us.

I think Johnny Carson was an important man in a way that other major celebrities, Katherine Hepburn, for example, are not. It has something to do with the comment that has been made to the effect that he was the Walter Cronkite of comedy. He provided a center, in terms of human behavoir, at least for many years of his program. I think this relates to the many comments about “class” that have been made about him.

Steve

I’m not suggesting there aren’t great talents out there worth of icon-ness (Spielberg, Hanks, Robin Williams, Tiger Woods come to mind), but I’m not sure that just being on top of each one’s game for long periods of time is enough to elevate them into the American Hall of Fame. There needs to be a strong connection with something new, and new things seem to cycle too quickly for long-term stardom these days. The digital world is increasingly faceless.

You know, that’s one of the things that has struck me for years, not about Teachout per se, but more generally about many pundits and politicians: they don’t seem to have an error-correction loop. “Does what I’m saying make sense? Does it fit with anything anyone else has thought? Is it at all consistent with other things I’ve said, and if not, what changed? Are my predictions borne out by later events?”

Johnny Carson helped define comic timing for a couple of generations of Americans. I certainly know I learned how to tell a joke from him. While there are some specific lines that we’ll remember (I’ll always know what to do when I come to the famous “Slaussen cutoff”) what was really important was his overall ability to deliver a joke, whether as a part of a monologue or as a conversational aside. He really served as a role model for humor – hell, for panache – among American males of a certain age.

Plus, I’ll always respect the man for his retiring and staying retired. There’s nothing sadder than an old celeb (or athlete, for that matter) who just can’t go gracefully into the good night.

(Incidentally, the thought that there are kids in my office who really have no notion of how big Johnny Carson was just makes me feel so very, very old…)

He pulled the same rubbish when Brando died – he wasn’t so great, really, just an actor after all.

Dip.

Note that his entire assessment of Carson is built around a bit of half-assed mind-wandering speculation he did while sitting in the audience at a play when he was supposed to be paying attention:

“I asked myself, How many people in this theater recognize the man on the screen? Not many, I fear.”

I wonder how many vacuous questions Terry Teachout has answered to his own satisfaction, while nevertheless getting it entirely wrong? A great many, I fear.

It’s almost Olive Garden-esque in its lack of seriousness.

http://www.newsfromme.com/

To me, Carson was always funniest when a joke in the monologue died, and he was digging his way back out. My absolute favorite Carson moment,though, came from a segment where after reading a list of new laws, he ventured into those (fictional) new laws that hadn’t made the list. One was:

In the future, it will be illegal to say ‘Abe Lincoln could turn his head around like a big ol owl’

This was so totally unexpected and bizarre that my college roomate and I practically fell off our cots laughing. I think it may have been the only time I laughed until it really hurt. Why was it so funny? It’s hard to say just looking at it, but that was part of Carson’s talent.

When I was a teenager in the mid 60’s there were only 3 TV channels in our area and what a thrill it was to be able to stay up late on Friday nights to watch Johnny…..urbane, witty and sophisticated in a way that we teenagers in West Texas aspired to be. What memories of watching with several of my closest friends. Thanks Johnny!