at the age of 79 johnny carson has died of emphysema. for my younger readers i would explain who johnny carson was, but i know that i don’t have any younger readers because the only people who actually read this blog are my parents and pam, my wife (all the comments made by other people are just me faking it).
carson was the greatest, the king of late night. he didn’t originate the late night experience but he perfected it. i remember watching from my childhood till i was a young married guy (1992). as a kid i remember hoping that he would do “carnack” or that jim fowler would be on the show with some of his animals. i loved it when carson had animals on the show. as an adult i remember watching his last show and seeing bette midler sing “wind benigth my wings” to carson. ah, good times.
carson should have been succeded on the tonight show by david letterman but no nbc thought it could do better with jay leno. how stupid can you get. who would actually think that leno was funnier than letterman? funnier looking maybe, but that’s about it. even carson recognized that letterman was better than leno because after carson retired he still wrote jokes every now and then for letterman’s monologue. nbc’s stupidity in bringing in leno to succeed carson still floors me.
anyways a popular culture icon passed away today and that makes me sad. you can read more about carson here.