I find it hard to believe Johnny Carson has been gone for four years as of today. I find it hard to believe Johnny is gone at all.
I grew up watching Johnny Carson. He started as host of "The Tonight Show" when I was just a year old. And while he went from dark hair to gray over the course of the years that he hosted, he always seemed ageless.
I think after he retired from "The Tonight Show," I still had the expectation that he was going to walk out through those curtains with Ed McMahon hollering "Hi-oooooh!" To this day, it feels strange to me to see Jay Leno hosting the show, and yet Jay Leno is the second-longest in terms of time spent as host of "The Tonight Show." I've never really gotten used to him, and while I occasionally watch (I do enjoy the "Headlines" segment on Monday nights), I just don't care for his version of "The Tonight Show" and I have never stopped missing Johnny Carson.
In the early 80's, I got to take a tour of the Burbank NBC studios, and saw the set of Johnny's "Tonight Show." (I think that may have been during the era of the backdrop of Lake Carson, my favorite of the backdrops - remember that crude little Loch Ness monster that used to occasionally go across the lake behind Johnny?) Johnny wasn't there when our tour group was going through the studio, but I remember his picture was giant size on the door of that studio - you definitely knew this was where King Johnny reigned!
So many of the celebrities I grew up with are gone now, but Johnny is one of the ones I miss most of all.
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Friends and I were just speaking of how many of our childhood favorite actors are no longer with us, Johnny Carson being one of them.
It's amazing how they practically become family.
I wonder who our children will remember fondly...I mean, today's celebrities don't seem to have the same "home-y" personalities as those of my youth.
Thanks for a nice read.
I find it hard to believe that it's been what, 17 years, since Johnny did his last show, with Bette Midler and Robin Williams. It honestly feels like a couple years, no more than that. There are kids who are seniors in high school who were babies when Johnny retired? Impossible! He is to them what Jack Paar would be to my generation - somebody who hosted "The Tonight Show" when I was a baby.
At least there are DVDs of Johnny's classic moments, and many video clips on the priceless You Tube web site (isn't the Internet wonderful) to enjoy memories of Johnny. Most of those classic moments I remember seeing when they originally aired!
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