Every night for an hour and a half I attended the university. I learned the best way to tell a joke and how to get rid of my hard Southern accent (or scrape as much of it off my tongue as I could). I saw things a small town kid would never see down on the farm – famous writers, musicians and actors and everyone who was anyone from politics to industry. I also saw a few things that were all too familiar; like the old man who made sculptures from cow manure and the woman who won a spitting contest and a lot of yodelers.
Johnny Carson was the professor, coach and president of his own nightly university. And I stayed up taking class until the smoking baritone of Tom Snyder lurched his way on to the screen past midnight. Johnny was like Jon Stewart, Oprah, Leno, Letterman, O’Brien, Kimmel, Seinfeld, Rock and Chappelle all in one. Actually, with only three networks, Johnny was bigger in his day than all of those combined.
The people he interviewed and the clumsy skits and the jokes he told seldom confronted the personal pain he went through in his life except when he made fun of himself for having wife after wife after wife. He was no saint and few would say he was. He had an ego and could be cruel to those out of favor. He was a pioneer, however and you will not easily find anyone to argue with that. Almost everyone on that list up there owes their celebrity and salaries to Johnny Carson.
I am not alone in my late night educational pedigree as anyone my age was likely watching him as well. Johnny reached a lot of people, both young and old, in his decades on TV. He is dead and gone now, only visible on rare reruns or specials. His faithful sidekick Ed McMahon is still out there somewhere riding the stardom of a million “You are correct, sir!” retorts. My kids would likely not even know his name. That’s how fame works. And he knew it better than anyone.
It was just entertainment after all. It was a talk show with stars touting their latest movie or musicians singing their latest hit or comedians looking for the nod from Johnny to come over and sit beside his desk (the sign you were going to be a star). It was topical fluff. But hiding under all of that was an amazing academic course in communication that enlightened millions of Americans whether they will admit it or even know it. It was an MBA in human interaction.
He smoked on the air, drank stuff that wasn’t coffee from that cup and broke more than a few pencils. He joked once that millions of people were conceived during his show. His ubiquitous golf swing was imitated by garbage men, kings and presidents. Krushev and Castro tried to emulate him when they were interviewed on American TV. His smile made people feel that America was doing something right, even when we weren’t.
We could use him right now.
