Thank You Mr. Carson

[MTI]

For all the laughs, great characters and showing how late night talk shows could be worth staying up for when hosted by a talent with impeccible timing and wit.

[GermanStar]

That really shocked me to hear of his passing. Possibly the single most influential entertainer of my lifetime. His retirement was the end of an era in commercial television. He will be missed.

[Ara T.]

Was that the guy Dana Carvey always imitated on SNL?

[LaughingGravy]

Originally Posted by Ara T.

Was that the guy Dana Carvey always imitated on SNL?

Yes. If you can get your hands on a videotape or DVD of The Tonight Show's greatest moments, it would serve you well.

This reminds me of my brother's wife who had "heard of" Laurel and Hardy but had never seen anything by them, except parts of March of the Wooden Soldiers at Thanksgiving.

I'm either getting old or ...no. I'm getting old. Today's television has so much new, rude, garbage on it. Nobody shows good old stuff,anymore. I don't know why. You'd think the older stuff would be less expensive to show.
Is there anyone here in the TV field who may care to shed light as to why local affiliates are only showing new programming? I used to be able to pick up an Abbott & Costello or Godzilla movie after school or on Saturday afternoons. I've had "Marx" on my TiVo wishlist for over a year in hopes that one of my 40+ channels might show a Marx Bros. movie. No dice.

[VollkommenWar]

Heeeere's Johnnnnnny....

Of course, Johnny, like most talk show hosts, had a staff that helped write his monologue. His writers had heard earlier in the day about a Wisconsin congressman named Harold Froehlich. Froelich claimed that the federal government was falling behind in getting bids to supply toilet paper and that "The United States may face a serious shortage of toilet tissue within a few months".

His writers decided to include a joke based on this quote in Carson's monologue. He said "You know what's disappearing from the supermarket shelves? Toilet paper. There's an acute shortage of toilet paper in the United States."

Too bad they couldn't see the consequence of this statement. You may not be aware if you are young, but the early 1970's was a time of shortages - oil in particular. The next morning, many of the 20 million television viewers ran to the supermarket and bought all the toilet paper they could find. By noon, most of the stores were out of stock! Stores tried to ration the stuff, but they couldn't keep up with demand.

Johnny Carson went on the air several nights later and explained that there was no shortage and apologized for scaring the public. Unfortunately, people saw all the empty shelves in the stores, so the stampede continued.

Scott Paper showed video of their plants in full production to the public and asked them to stay calm - there was no shortage. The video was of little help. The panic fed itself and continued.

They finally got the shelves restocked three weeks later and the shortage was over. It is the only time in American history that the consumer actually created a major shortage (I don't think that the "shortage" of Barbie or Power Ranger dolls at Christmas time could be classified as a real shortage!).

And to think that it all started as a joke.

Useless? Useful? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

[azimuth]

i understand he made a bet with a collegue that he could tell a dirty joke on air (back in the days when that would have been impossible) without being censored.

the contortions he had to go through to adequately describe the scenario while maintaining the adult nature of the joke and while retaining the other controlling feature, overshadowed the comedy of the original punchline to the point of the stuff of legends.

in another interview, he was asking questions of a well known golf pro's wife (live, if memory serves). when asked if she does anything for him to give good luck before a tourny, she replied,"I kiss his balls". (remember, this is an era of at least overt innocence on the air). when everyone was still reeling over the original answer and the apparent innocence of the wife, without missing a beat, Jonny says,"i bet that makes his putter stand up!"

a master is gone and in good company with peter sellers et al.

[kott]

Somebody's quip the other day was about how great it was working with Carson.... and some younger person responded, "You've worked with Carson Daly?! What's he like?"

I was in an overcrowded high school, so freshmen attended from 11:30am-5pm. No early mornings, so I almost never missed Carson during that year, 1979-80. It was great-

[MTI]

BTW, he owned a few Mercedes, including a 560 SL.