13 years ago today Johnny Carson died

If they had stopped clapping he may have talked some. I remember watching that episode when I use to stay up late.

 

Very funny homage to Johnny. It continues thru the interview:

 

That is funny. I saw smothers brothers do their last your at magic mountain 1975 I think. It was not their last tour they lied.

 

Since we're talking impressions, Harry Shearer's Carson is the best and most accurate I've ever heard:

 

it seems longer and what we have not are jokes especially that hack Kimmel...he sickens me every time I see his mush...creature creep..

 

kimmel creeps you out?

fallon can't even do a good show with a 'this is us' and superbowl lead-in.

when he had timberlake in the chair he was consciously trying NOT to slap his desk as he always does. you could tell how bad he wanted to do it too.

he literally slobbers on timberlake.

 

more than any living or dead human...I LOATHE HIM. If I could I'd add more.

 

amazing, that is exactly how i feel about fallon...a no-talent hack.

i can't get the remote in my hand fast enough when i hear that horrible theme song "hey hey hey".

 

yup, we all have one..IMO Fallon has talent...Kimmel is a talentless...a slob.

 

Apparently Carson had laryngitis or something similar which affected his voice and so he didn't want to talk.

 

edit: not=now

 

Carson had class, as does Leno.

Not only did he become creepy, the last 10 years or so he struck me as bitter and angry. He was quite mean to people who he, shall we say, didn't see eye to eye with ideologically. Classless is how I'd describe him. Thank god he didn't succeed Carson. Leno was the right guy for the job.

 

Letterman's new show was so outstanding to me. It revealed two things to me that are deeply missing in culture...civility in political discourse and intelligent conversation . That's where Dave and johnny shined ..their ability to have a genuine conversation.

 

You know, I've heard that for years, but I don't buy it. Why did he sit at the desk if he wasn't going to speak? It looks to me like he was trying to quiet the audience
So that he could say something, but became either impatient or simply decided against it.

 

Yeah, I agree. A lot of online sources claim that "Carson later cited acute laryngitis" as the reason he didn't speak. But none of them say where Carson supposedly said this, so I doubt it's true. It's not like he gave a pile of interviews in his retirement years. In the 2002 Esquire interview he says nothing about it. But he does talk about some suggestions for TV appearances that he rejected doing (including a bit on the Oscars) because he did not want to seem like he was looking for attention or just coming out to get a cheap standing O. I think when he went on Letterman for that last time it was a spontaneous decision to sit at the desk, and then he just as spontaneously regretted it and decided he didn't want to say anything. And after that decided that he didn't want to do anymore TV appearances because it felt like he was just looking for cheap applause.

 

I think Duke Fame nailed it above.

 

what letterman did for warren zevon was just about the most classiest thing anyone ever did on TV.

 

please correct if i'm wrong, but hasn't fallon taken the tonight show from #1 to #3 in just a few short years?

 

My parents always watched him starting in NYC. Then on to sunny California. I watched him as well. Looked forward to Buddy Rich being on as he and Johnny were pals. Johnny was an interesting guy. On & Off stage.

 

That much is true. Unfortunately that's one example. Carson evidently wasn't all that great of a guy away from the Tonight Show, but he was complete and total class on air.

 

Ratings can be found for January-February here ;

Late-night ratings, Jan. 29-Feb. 2, 2018: ‘Tonight Show’ holds steady, ‘Kimmel’ ticks up

 

And speaking of Johnny, Doc Severinsen last I saw is still playing & doing good for 90 or so.

 

Johnny Carson was the best late show host, ever. Was he a complicated and less than perfect person off stage? Almost certainly, by most accounts. But when that on-air light lit up, he just was IT. Some have come close to how good he was. David Letterman, in his first few years. Craig Ferguson, for almost all of his run on CBS. Pat Sajak had some nice moments too, like the time he gave Werner Klemperer a monocle on air to replace one that had been lost or stolen.

Out of all the others besides Carson, I personally feel that Craig Ferguson came the closest. In his time at CBS, he ran the gamut from silly to downright serious. He did an entire show with puppets. He did a hilarious bit with himself, Rosie O'Donnell and others lip syncing to "Addicted To Love". But he also once did an entire show with one guest, just the two of them face to face, discussing a very serious subject.

No one on air at this time really has managed to capture and hold my attention. Jimmy Fallon is nice, but a bit bland for my tastes. Jimmy Kimmel never struck me as someone who would take risks with what he does on air. The fact that he's doing just that these days has earned my respect.

 

Come on, stop holding back, tell us really how you feel!

 

Nope. Fallon's show tends to be second place in total viewers (by a margin of about a million viewers less than Colbert) but he is still in first place in the 18-49 demographic, though his margin of victory has shrunk substantially since the election. There may be occasional nights where Kimmel beats him in total viewers, but he's not in third place in total viewers when averaged over the season so far, and I don't think he's ever come in third in the 18-49 demo.