It is sad, my parents were big fans early and me in the 80's.

This guy had a great life and seems to me that he lived it the way he wanted, including smoking. 79 isn't so bad.

I appreciated the class that he showed while in the spotlight as well as out of it.

From watching TV yesterday and reading these posts, its obvious that he touched the lives of so many.

Classy, funny and admittedly shy, he was an extremely private person, which is unusual for someone so much in the public eye.

Several years ago, while living in the L.A. area, we had friends visit from Michigan and took them to the Tonight Show. We were somewhat disappointed when it was one of his nights off and Sammy Davis Jr. was the guest host. I liked Sammy, but was looking forward to seeing Johnny.

I feel as though I've lost the final link to my own father, who was a HUGE Johnny Carson fan. My dad passed away a couple of months after Johnny retired. My dad's brain was affected by metastatic cancer, but he was so sad when he could no longer watch Johnny each night, as it was the one program he watched that made him laugh out loud.

Just knowing Johnny Carson was alive out there still making someone close to him laugh gave me some kind of link to my dad in my mind.

How sad for us all and for his family.

God bless.

DD

Johnny Carson will sure be missed. My favorite shows were when he had animals on, either from the San Diego zoo or someone's talking bird. He had the deadpan reaction down perfectly. Oh and who can forget the potato chip lady?

ddcnga: Smile and think of your dad actually meeting Johnny in Heaven!!

The animals--oh, geez, remember when the marmaset climbed onto his head and peed on him???

I had the same feeling of losing a link to my father who has also passed. I hope there is "Tonight Show" debuting in heaven! Whenever I see a fat woman it stretch pants I think of his line regarding the issue "it looked like two Volkswagons battling for a lane on the freeway"

I've alternated between chuckling and leaking tears today while watching all the 'Johnny clips' on tv. I so appreciate his aversion to the limelight and aw shucks attitude--you just don't see that anymore. Being from Nebraska, I know how many millions upon millions of dollars he's donated to his home state--everything from $2.25 million toward construction of a cancer center to $4.5 dollars for a performing arts center. I join those in feeling like I've lost a link to my past--too many dear people are leaving us lately, it seems.

My favorite clip of the day? When Johnny was interviewing a small child and asked if he'd ever seen the show before. The little boy looked right at him and said, "Only when I've been up vomiting." The look on Johnny's face was priceless. God love him...and I'm sure He does!

Ummmm, that would be $4.5 MILLION dollars

I'm watchin the Larry King guest tribute. husband watching a ball game

I understand Jay Leno will be doing a tribute show to Johnny tonight and Letterman will do one later.

He will be missed.

The Jay Leno tribute was so good. There were so many great laughs! He did an excellent job.
Good night, Johnny~

Forgot to put this on my post yesterday...
I'll bet that somewhere, right now, Johnny's at the Slaussen Cutoff, approaching the Fork in the Road. (see, this IS a travel thread)

Viamar, I loved the animal shows too! They are classics! Scarlett, I was too tired to watch Jay Leno last night....

Watched it last night and still had to get up at 5:30am, but it was worth it.

This is the only time I felt that I saw the true Jay leno come out. He was reserved after 9/11, but I felt like he finally let the gate down yesterday, and was just himself. His tribute speech was simple, honest, and just an A plus all around. Kudos to him.

All else was so enjoyable. I've met the Polish lady with her accordian, and it was nice to see her again. Ed McMahon, Bob Newhart, and Don Rickles were all terrific. You could see that Drew Carey still has a hard time talking about the minute Johnny called him over to his desk without tearing up or choking, and that he knows it is the moment that changed his life.

If they rerun it, watch. The younger ones will get a kick out of seeing, Letterman, Seinfeld, Leno, S.Martin, Eddie Murray, all back in the day. Some of the sets, suits were really really awful.

Yes - Leno was fantastic last night. He's a real class act too. Wish I had stayed up for the whole show - went to sleep at it's half time... .

Good for Jay Leno, considering he was not Johnny's first pick, nor was he well liked by Carson. On Johnny's final show, he did not even choose to acknowledge the "passing of the torch" to Leno. From all accounts, Johnny was emailing jokes up until very recently to Letterman and Letterman was using some during his monologue.

I am not a Leno fan and have always watched Letterman as I honestly enjoy his acerbic wit much more. I did not see the Leno tribute, but good for him if he took the high road as he was well aware of Carson's opinion of him according to what I've read over the years.

DD

Exactly so.

We have a split household one for Leno, one for Letterman. And I am not the Leno fan. But because of this I "over-hear" when I am reading, cooking to freeze etc.

And I was so glad that Leno did what he did- it upped him about 50 points on an 100 point scale IMHO. He actually said at the end, undertoned it, but said-"this is still his house." And his tribute speech was concise, heartfelt and original/personal.

I can not wait to see the Letterman tribute.

Has anyone heard anything about when Letterman will do the tribute. I notice that he is in repeats this week - expected or unexpected?

Lori: It said in the paper today that Letterman, who is on hiatus this week, will do a Carson tribute next Monday night.

Leno was great last night as has been said. I like them both and I'm kind of glad I didn't have to flip back and forth.

I started watching Johnny in 1965 when I got my own little black and white TV at age 11. He was there through everything, all the national upheaval as well as my personal ups and downs. He was almost like a second father.

By the way, I've read that both the Arnold Palmer and "cat" stories are urban myths. Carson denied the latter when Jane Fonda (though she thought it was Zsa Zsa Gabor not Raquel Welch) asked him about it one night. Though I don't remember seeing either, I certainly heard the Palmer one all my life.

Anyone actually see these?

Gualalalisa, I found the following on snopes.com:

"Although this legend is apocryphal in the forms cited above, it may have a kernel of truth to it. When Palmer appeared on Tonight Show (now hosted by Jay Leno) on 11 October 1994, Leno asked him about it:


Leno: . . . apparently Johnny said, "Is there anything your wife does to bring you good luck?"
Palmer: No, Johnny said, "Does your wife kiss your balls before you go to play?" and I said, "I don't even go to bed without pajamas."

Leno: I thought that was a tactful way . . . but thanks for getting right to the point. So we cleared that up. That's like a famous one, like Jack Benny's, "Your money or your life . . . I'm thinking it over." I wanted to find out . . . so it is true?

Palmer: There you've got it. And I don't want to hear about it any more.

So, if there is any truth to this legend at all, the "balls" joke was one deliberately made by Johnny Carson, not one that innocently slipped from the lips of Arnold Palmer or his wife."