The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

This show is downright hilarious! Johnny Carson is the funniest comedian ever! Period. You have to love Johnny. The moments on his show can't be beat. Ed Ames' tomahawk toss, Don Rickles breaks Johnny's cigarette box, Bob Hope's stand-up act about Johnny, the spoofs of Mr. Rogers, Walter Cronkite, and Tarzan, and many, many more. However, I wasn't even a year old when Johnny retired, so I didn't get to see him on NBC. But I have DVDs featuring highlights of his show which are hilarious. They ought to show reruns on E or TV Land or somewhere. I mean this is the King of Late Night, the Silver Fox,America's King of Comedy for 30 years. As my title of this review says, "Funny+Awesome+Classic=Johnny Carson." No matter what anyone says no one will be better than Johnny. No one! Not at all!

As great as Steve Allen and Jack Paar were, Carson took the ball, reshaped it, and sent it in for a shot heard round the world. There is a reason he hosted the show for 30 years, 4 times longer than his 2 predacessors behind him. He was brilliant at making anyone seem interesting. Steve could do it, and so could Jack (though not as well from what I've seen), but Johnny really had a grasp of finding the way to question people to fit their response style. He really was the first true King of Late Night. If others say it's Paar or Allen, then I say Carson became Emporer!

The skits were done cheaply, but they were so much fun, you laughed with them, not at them.

Originally, the Carson's show was 90 minutes, and it was trimmed to 60 in the early 80's since he felt he could not keep the level up like he had in the past, which made the way for David Letterman. Thank You Johnny!

Carson – the best at what he did. Enigmatic off camera, from what I understand, but absolutely brilliant on camera. His easy interview style and ability to let his guests be the focus stands in contrast to so many pretenders to his late night throne. His jokes and skits, even the ones that flopped, made you feel like you were "in" on the jokes. I don't remember all of his tenure, but I remember over half of it and can still quote from long ago evenings. Example – Doc Severinson wearing a loud jacket with flowers on it. Johnny: "That's some jacket Doc. Put some fertilizer on it and it might bloom". Doc: "We could dip it in your monologue". Johnny: "I'll suggest that to the new band leader". Spontaneous? Probably not. Hilarious? Absolutely! As fun and nostalgic as it is to see current superstars early in their careers as Johnny gave them their first big break, it is even more of a treat to see so many legendary stars, many still in their heyday. Bob Hope, Lucy, Dean Martin, etc. Like Johnny, they are gone now. And like Johnny, they don't make'm that way any more. Sad, but thank God for DVD and video.

Here's Johnny!!! - What did the Pearly Gatekeeper say when...Johnny arrived there? There will never be another Johnny Carson. The entertainment he provided with the help of thousands of guests over 30 years will never be equaled by anyone. I don't even know that anyone can ever do justice to comment on one of the rare things that rates more than a 10 on a scale of 10 in our lifetimes.

Even before Johnny Carson died, a greater loss was when NBC lost most of his Tonight Shows from the 1960's. If only somebody could find these shows because these are the shows which made him number 1. They were 90 minutes each of Carson arriving at the top of his career. It has been forgotten how hard nosed an interviewer he was during that decade. Also lost are some of the most famous guests in show business during that era & the fact that he would have controversial guests on & face them on any subject during that era.

The greatest thing was Carson arrived at his peak in the 1960's & then amazingly stayed there for three decades. Thank goodness NBC didn't lose any of those other shows. How they got lost makes me wonder if they didn't want the tough hard-nosed Carson who was not afraid to face any guest remembered or if they wanted to lose some of the early images of Johnny smoking on air. I mean, NBC managed to archive all the Original LET'S MAKE A DEAL programs in the same era. Why not the Johnny Carson's?

I have the set of clips of his & every so often I turn them on. I taped his last show, & keep it in my archives. I wish somewhere, somehow, someplace those 1960's shows would show up. At least now that I've seen the best, I can only wish to see it again. We were all blessed to have had Johnny Carson.

For thirty years Johnny Carson's tonight show defined main stream late night television. For thirty years main stream was a very good thing. I think that the fact that his show hasn't been on since 1992 makes us realize what we have truly missed. Fortunately a lot of his shows have been saved. In the beginning his guests included Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, George Burns, Buddy Hackett and many others too numerous to list. In the end he was discovering the talents of Jerry Seinfeld, Roseanne Barr, and Drew Carey. Bob Hope of course was pretty much on his show through out. Thirty years with thousands of quality guests and thousands of quality laughs, that is his legacy. An unmatched legacy indeed.