Johnny Carson - WikiHQ

John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, and writer best known as the host of NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–1992).

During World War II, Carson served in the United States Navy. After the war, he started a career in radio, then moved to television and took over as host of the late-night talk show Tonight from Jack Paar in 1962. Carson received six Primetime Emmy Awards, the Television Academy's 1980 Governor's Award, and a 1985 Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987. Carson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1993.

Carson remained an American cultural icon even after his retirement in 1992. He adopted a casual, conversational approach with extensive interaction with guests, an approach pioneered by Arthur Godfrey and previous Tonight Show hosts Paar and Steve Allen, but enhanced by Carson's lightning-quick wit. A cultural phenomenon, Carson is widely regarded as the King of Late Night Television.

Early life and career

thumb|left|200px|Johnny Carson's birthplace in [[Corning, Iowa]]

John William Carson was born on October 23, 1925, in Corning, Iowa, to Ruth Elizabeth Carson (née Hook; 1901–1985) and Homer Lloyd "Kit" Carson (1899–1983), a power company manager. Carson was the second of three children. He had an older sister, and a younger brother, Richard "Dick" Carson (1929–2021).

Growing up initially in Iowa, Carson lived in the towns of Avoca, Clarinda, and Red Oak before moving to Norfolk, Nebraska, at age eight. There, Carson began developing his talent for entertaining. At age 12, he found a book on magic at a friend's house and purchased a mail-order magician's kit. After purchasing the kit, Carson practiced his entertainment skills on family members with card tricks. During this period, he would follow his family members around, saying, "Pick a card, any card." Carson's mother made him a cape, and his first performance was in front of the local Kiwanis Club. He debuted as "The Great Carsoni" at age 14 and was paid $3 a show. and Millsaps College. Commissioned an ensign late in the war, Carson was assigned to in the Pacific. He arrived on the Pennsylvania on August 14, 1945, the same day Imperial Japan announced its surrender. The ship was sent to Guam after a torpedo bomber attack damaged its stern prior to Carson's arrival.

Once in drydock, Carson, assigned to damage control, was given the task of supervising the removal of the bodies of 20 servicemen and their effects. He recounted the experience in an unpublished 1967 Time interview, stating "Jesus, that was an awful experience. They'd been down there for 18 days by the time, and I want to tell you, that was a terrible job." Carson returned stateside with the Pennsylvania to Seattle and was assigned to command a troop train for returning servicemen. He finished his service in Guam, decoding encrypted messages.

Carson later said that the high point of his military career was performing a magic trick for U.S. secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal. In a conversation with Forrestal, the secretary asked Carson if he planned to stay in the Navy after the war. In response, Carson said no and told him he wanted to be a magician. Forrestal asked him to perform, and Carson responded with a card trick.

Education

Taking advantage of educational opportunities from the Navy, Carson attended the University of Nebraska, where he joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and continued performing magic, then paid $25 per appearance. Carson majored in journalism with the intention of becoming a comedy writer, but instead switched his major to speech and drama a few months later because he wanted to become a radio performer. His college thesis, titled "How to Write Comedy for Radio", was a compilation of taped skits and jokes from popular radio shows with Carson explaining the comedic technique in a voiceover. It allowed him to graduate in three years. He soon hosted a morning television program called The Squirrel's Nest. One of his routines involved interviewing pigeons on the roof of the local courthouse that would report on the political corruption they had seen. Carson supplemented his income by serving as master of ceremonies at local church dinners—attended by some of the same politicians and civic leaders he had lampooned on the radio.

thumb|upright|Carson as a guest on Jack Benny's television program, 1955

The wife of one of the Omaha political figures that Carson spoofed owned stock in a radio station in Los Angeles, and in 1951, referred Carson to her brother, who was influential in the emerging television market in Southern California. Carson joined CBS-owned Los Angeles television station KNXT (now KCBS-TV).

In 1953, comic Red Skelton—a fan of Carson's low-budget sketch comedy show, Carson's Cellar (1951–1953) on KNXT—asked Carson to join his show as a writer. In 1954, Skelton accidentally knocked himself unconscious during rehearsal, an hour before his live show began. Carson successfully filled in for him. In 1955, Jack Benny invited Carson to appear on one of his programs during the opening and closing segments. Carson imitated Benny and claimed that Benny had copied his gestures. Benny predicted that Carson, who readily admitted Benny's substantial influence on aspects of his comedic delivery, would have a successful career as a comedian.

Carson hosted several shows besides Carson's Cellar, including the game show Earn Your Vacation (1954) and the variety show The Johnny Carson Show (1955–1956). He was a guest panelist on the original To Tell the Truth beginning in 1960, becoming a regular panelist from 1961 to 1962.

After the primetime Johnny Carson Show failed, Carson moved to New York City to host ABC's Who Do You Trust? (1957–1962). It was on Who Do You Trust? that Carson met his future sidekick and straight man, Ed McMahon. Although Carson believed moving to daytime television would hurt his career, Who Do You Trust? was a success. It was the first show where he could ad lib and interview guests. Because of his on-camera wit, the show became "the hottest item on daytime television" during his six years at ABC. From his experience as a radio host, in 2000 Carson wrote a parody for The New Yorker of former talk-show host Dennis Miller having the new role at the time as an NFL sports announcer, titled "Proverbs of Dennis Miller".

The Tonight Show

thumb|upright|Carson in 1957

NBC's Tonight was the late-night counterpart to its early-morning show Today. Originating in 1954 with host Steve Allen, Tonight was somewhat experimental at the time, as the only previous network late-night program was NBC's Broadway Open House (1950–51), which starred Jerry Lester and Dagmar. Tonight was successful. Allen moved to primetime comedy-variety shows in 1957 when Jack Paar became host of Tonight. Paar left the show in 1962.

Carson's success on Who Do You Trust? led NBC to invite him to take over Tonight a few months before Paar's departure. Carson declined the offer because he feared the difficulty of interviewing celebrities for 105 minutes each day. Bob Newhart, Jackie Gleason, Groucho Marx, and Joey Bishop also declined. NBC finally convinced Carson to sign by early February 1962. He can be seen discussing his upcoming job for the first time on the February 11, 1962, episode of What's My Line? Due to Carson having six months left on his ABC contract, NBC used multiple guest hosts until he could take over. Guest hosts included Bishop, Marx, Merv Griffin, Art Linkletter, Arlene Francis, Bob Cummings, Jerry Lewis, Donald O'Connor and others.

Although he continued to have doubts about his new job, Carson became the host of Tonight (later called The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson) on October 1, 1962. After a difficult first year, he overcame his fears. While Tonight under its previous hosts had been successful, especially under Paar, Carson's version eventually did very well in the ratings. Billy Wilder said of Carson:

thumb|left|Carson with [[Dick Cavett and Alan King in a publicity photo promoting the 1968 California Friars Club roast of Carson.]]

McMahon followed Carson from Who Do You Trust? as his announcer and sidekick, and Skitch Henderson was installed as the maestro of the NBC Orchestra. McMahon's famous introduction, "Heeeeere's Johnny!!!" was followed by a brief monologue by Carson. This was often followed by comedy sketches, interviews, and live music. Carson's trademark was a phantom golf swing at the end of his monologues, aimed stage left toward the orchestra. (Guest hosts sometimes parodied that gesture. Newhart rolled an imaginary bowling ball toward the audience.)

Paul Anka wrote The Tonight Shows theme song, ("Johnny's Theme"), a reworking of his "Toot Sweet"; given lyrics, it was renamed "It's Really Love" and recorded by Annette Funicello in 1959. Before taking over The Tonight Show, Carson wrote lyrics for the song, and so claimed 50% of the song's performance royalties (though the lyrics were never used). The theme is heard being played on sound recordings of Carson's first Tonight Show, and it was used without interruption through to his last broadcast on May 22, 1992.

The Tonight Show was originally produced at NBC's headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, with occasional stints in California. The program began videotaping in advance during the Jack Paar days, although during the 1970s NBC fed the live taping from Burbank to New York via satellite for editing (see below). Carson had a talent for quick quips to deal with problems. If the opening monologue fared poorly, the band would start playing "Tea for Two" and Carson danced a softshoe to laughs from the studio audience. Alternatively, Carson might pull the boom microphone close to his face and announce, "Attention K-Mart shoppers, clean up in aisle four!"

Move to Burbank

On May 1, 1972, The Tonight Show moved from 30 Rockefeller Plaza to the NBC Studios in Burbank, California, because of the studio's proximity to celebrities.

From 1980, Carson stopped hosting five shows per week. Instead, Mondays featured a guest host, leaving Carson to host the other four weeknights. Shows were videotaped in Burbank at 5:30 pm, fed from there to the Central and Eastern Time Zone stations via cross-country television line at 8:30 pm Pacific time (11:30 pm Eastern time), and later sent from Burbank to the Pacific Time Zone stations at 11:30 pm Pacific time. Since only two feeds originated from Burbank, Central Time Zone stations received the Eastern feed one hour earlier at 10:30 pm local time, and Mountain time stations received the Pacific time zone feed one hour later, at 12:30 am local time.

Carson announced in April 1979 that he was leaving The Tonight Show after 17 years hosting the program. At the time, media analysts estimated the show generated 17% of NBC's pretax profits. He negotiated a three-year deal to remain with the show in May 1980, reducing the program's length from 90 to 60 minutes, while decreasing his workload from four to three nights each week. Tom Snyder's Tomorrow added a half-hour to fill the vacant time. Joan Rivers became the "permanent" guest host from September 1983 until 1986. The Tonight Show then returned to using rotating guest hosts, including comics George Carlin and Garry Shandling. Jay Leno became the exclusive guest host in fall 1987, later joking that although other guest hosts had upped their fees, he had kept his low, assuring himself more bookings. Eventually, Monday night was reserved for Leno and Tuesday night was reserved for The Best of Carson—rebroadcasts usually dating from a year earlier, but occasionally from the 1970s.

Although Carson's work schedule became more abbreviated, The Tonight Show remained so successful that his compensation from NBC continued to rise; by the mid-1970s, he had become the highest-paid personality on television, earning about $4 million a year ($ today), not including nightclub appearances and his other businesses. Carson refused many offers to appear in films, including title roles in The Thomas Crown Affair and Gene Wilder's role in Blazing Saddles. He also declined director Martin Scorsese's offer to co-star with Robert De Niro in the 1983 film The King of Comedy, with the role of a TV talk-show host then going to Jerry Lewis.

In recognition of his 25th anniversary on The Tonight Show, Carson received a personal Peabody Award, the board saying he had "become an American institution, a household word, [and] the most widely quoted American". They also said they "felt the time had come to recognize the contributions that Johnny has made to television, to humor, and to America".

Uri Geller

In 1973, television personality and self-proclaimed psychic Uri Geller appeared on The Tonight Show. In the NOVA documentary, "James Randi – Secrets of the Psychics," magician and skeptical activist James Randi recalls that Carson "had been a magician himself and was skeptical" of Geller's claimed paranormal powers, so prior to the date of taping, Randi was personally asked "to help prevent any trickery". Per Randi's advice, the show's staff prepared its own props without informing Geller and did not let Geller or his staff "anywhere near them." When Geller joined Carson on stage, he appeared surprised that he was not going to be interviewed, but instead was expected to display his abilities using the provided articles. Geller was unable to display any paranormal abilities, saying, "I don't feel strong" and expressing displeasure at feeling like he was being "pressed" to perform by Carson. According to Adam Higginbotham's November 7, 2014, article in The New York Times:

However, ironically, this appearance on The Tonight Show, which Carson and Randi had orchestrated to debunk Geller's claimed abilities, backfired. According to Higginbotham,