I had no idea he was sick with emphysema. RIP.

so sad. :( shocking to hear.

Every time I see the clip of he & Bette Midler singing on his next to last show, I tear up. And I give him so much credit for retiring and staying retired...being able to walk away from the attention with dignity instead of being so addicted to it he had to keep coming back like so many "stars" today.

David Letterman, as usual, was right in saying "We will not see his like again."

RIP Johnny...you were the last thing that held everyone in this country together.

How sad. I loved to stay up and watch his opening monologue....he was the best!

:(

Heard about this on the BBC a few hours ago, and was stunned. I used to stay up and watch his opening monologue. RIP. :(

My favorite Carson clip...
 

The Tonight Show episode on October 16, 1987. That evening a woman from Fort Wayne, Indiana named Myrtle Young proudly showcased her delicate and rare collection of potato chips whose shapes resembled such images as "an angry dog" or a "little sleeping bird." A few minutes into the interview, Ed McMahon distracted the woman, as Johnny Carson appeared to eat one of the potato chips. Hearing a crunching noise coming from Carson's direction, the woman's mouth opened wide in disbelief and clasped her chest as if having a heart attack. After moments of uproarious laughter Johnny finally revealed a bowl of regular potato chips he had stashed out of sight and then returned the irreplaceable potato chip to the custody of his befuddled guest; but not before the audience and America got a good belly-laugh at her expense.

I taped his last episode. I'll have to try to watch it this week as a memorial. There will definitely be less laughs down here now. :(

beyond being funny, he seemed like a great guy.

i think conan o'brien is a lot like carson. he doesn't have the sidekick anymore, but they both started off writing, and are sometimes funniest when their joke bombs.

God bless, Johnny Carson. Here's to you, Johnny.

*golf swings*
R.I.P.

One of the streets in Burbank adjoining the NBC lot is named after Bob Hope. I'll bet there will soon be one named after Johnny Carson.

Johnny Carson set the Standard for Late Night T.V. Even though Jay Leno and David Letterman are talented and funny, Johnny will always be the King.

Thank you for sharing your gift to the world.

R.I.P. :(

This just made me cry.

If you watch Adult Swim on Cartoon Network, you know they have a black screen with the "not suitable for children" disclaimer, just white writing on black screen. Well tonight they followed it with these screens in succession:

Johnny Carson died.

We used to stay up to watch him when we were little.

Sometimes we'd fall asleep.

We'd feel happy, even if we didn't understand why.

And even though we didn't know it at the time

He shaped our lives.

Thanks and goodnight.

1925-2005

There is supposed to be a tribute to him tonight on The Tonight Show. I'm trying to stay awake to watch.

They just did another one:

We're sure The Tonight Show will air lots of Johnny Carson tributes tonight.

But the Tonight Show hasn't been The Tonight Show since Johnny left.

The real Tonight Show is the Late Show.

Hosted by a guy named David Letterman.

The opinions expressed are only those of Adult Swim - and you, the viewers.


no offense Dee ;) but I'll be watching Dave, and I'm not going anywhere near anything with Leno since he couldn't even say thanks to Johnny when he took the show over. F.O.

eta a really good link to an article from a few years ago in Salon. If you're too young to remember him really, this comes the closest I've seen to explaining why this is such a big deal.

http://dir.salon.com/people/bc/2001/...ndex.html?pn=4