Seems the date is up for debate on when this happened but I’m going to trust the great Alison Martino; she documents the rapidly disappearing LA monuments that made the city legendary, livable and loved. Much like Austin, LA is constantly tearing down its landmarks to replace them with shitty, unaffordable hotels and condos for the oligarch class and Russian mobsters.
As for this finale, I actually watched it and was compelled. Unlike younger Gen Xers, Johnny was a part of my life. He was someone my family would often take the trouble to watch on a steady basis. It was bittersweet to see him go too. After 30 years, he was an institution on par with the Simpsons today. For me, Johnny was a living master class on how to host a comedy-driven talk show and he managed to beat back the competition unlike today in which all three of the legacy networks are duking it out via Colbert, Kimmel and Fallon. I’m surprised Fox hasn’t jumped in.
But by 1992, he was 72, his contract was over, the ratings were bad enough to push him out and he genuinely wanted to retire, probably play more tennis. It’s a pisser he only lived another decade before lung cancer got him; in private he was a voracious chain smoker. The episode was very bittersweet. I remember him crying and thanking everyone, recent events were trying too; one of his sons was having legal troubles plus NBC decided Jay Leno would be taking over, not David Letterman. It oddly wasn’t a humongous goodbye or finale like SitComs receive. NBC didn’t even drag it out over a couple weeks as Comedy Central did for Jon Stewart winding down his tenure with The Daily Show.
Regardless, Carson was instrumental in Stand-up Comedy’s growth, acceptance and maturation. The Bad: he and his producers were the primary gatekeepers to help new talent breakthrough. If they didn’t “get it” when someone did their thing at LA’s Comedy Store, it was a struggle. The Good: If they got Johnny to laugh while sitting next to his desk, they probably had a good career ahead of them, possibly a SitCom role. What I preferred were his skits and monologue. He had incredibly timing, good comebacks when a joke flopped with the audience plus a willingness to be pranked. As one of my teachers in college said, Johnny’s expressions of shock/surprise were real because the only hint he’d get from the writers was, “Wear a cheap suit today.” Ergo, he knew something was coming, he just didn’t know the specifics. One example I always remembered involved him having to help plug NBC’s Shogun miniseries. A Japanese woman dressed in traditional garb for the Edo period came out to present him a gift or something. They chatted for a minute until a samurai warrior sprung out and destroyed his desk with a sword. You could tell Johnny just about pissed his pants.
I personally believe another element that contributed to Carson’s longevity was how well he guarded his privacy. It would be more difficult today thanks to the Internet, cell-phone cameras and our gotcha’ culture. Throughout his career, he rarely gave interviews (I saw a copy of his one-page list of pre-question answers, quite funny), he avoided expressing his personal politics (a New Deal Republican yet backed the regressive St. Reagan) and knew his limits (he never took acting roles); it was a triumph if you could get him to appear on anything beyond The Tonight Show. Other than a prank-based show his production company made, I only recall seeing him on The Oscars, The Simpsons and Larry Sanders. Sadly, it was a wise, cunning decision. The few who really knew him said Johnny was a bastard and horrible human being. Robert Evans of Behind the Bastards podcast said he will have an episode covering Carson. I’m curious to learn the specifics. It won’t change my opinion. Johnny had feet of clay. He had frailties like me. His personal foibles won’t destroy the incredible body of work he left behind and 30 years ago it ended.
Nobody since has come close to duplicating his success. Has anyone exceeded him? I have no idea. Audiences change. Tastes shift. Technology forces evolution; he started when people only had two or three choices at 10:30 PM and left just as cable was exploding to offer 100+ choices while Bush the Elder was about to give non-DARPA entities access to this weird thing called the Internet. David Letterman was certainly his successor for Generation X. I could never get into Conan O’Brien because he tried too hard (stunk of desperation) and Letterman had already pushed those boundaries a decade earlier. Jay Leno was a great stand-up but The Tonight Show wasn’t a good fit beyond his guest stints. How badly he fought to get it also earned him a level of hatred from the comedy world on par with Jerry Lewis and Dane Cook. Today, the landscape is too fractured for another Carson and that’s OK. I think it’s nice Streaming and Cable have given other voices for other audiences the opportunity to engage in their own comedy, issues and in some cases, advocacy like The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight and Full Frontal.