What Johnny Carson had that his successors don’t
I’ve watched late-night TV off and on since the mid-1960s. While I don’t agree with the general assessment that TV is going downhill — F Troop and Gilligan’s Island were not as witty as South Park or The Simpsons — I believe Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show was far better than today’s late-night crop, and that the primary reason for this has nothing to do with the hosts’ personalities.
I watched several nights’ worth of late-night TV talk last week, and it was a parade of “name” actors and actresses, with a top-selling musician or two thrown in toward the end. The only interactions I saw with non-celebrities were attempts to embarass ordinary people or to use them as the butt of jokes.
The old Carson show, on the other hand, had authors and knitters and magicians and comedians as guests. You saw animals and jugglers, children who had won academic awards, and others who might otherwise not have gotten on TV but were worth knowing about.
There was also more focus on the guests and less on the host. Both Leno and Letterman occupy the first halves of their shows with monologs, skits, and other features that star themselves or staff members, leaving only half of their shows for guests. I seem to recall Carson spending no more than a quarter or a third of his show by himself — and even then, Ed McMahon was there and got a fair amount of face time, as did Doc Severinson, whose band seemed to get just as much exposure as the bands on today’s late-night shows.
In other words, Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show was less about Johnny Carson than Jay Leno’s Tonight Show is about Jey Leno or David Letterman’s Late Show is about David Letterman.
One advantage Carson had, at least before 1980, is that the Tonight Show back then was 90 minutes long, compared to 60 minutes for the current crop.
But Carson’s show was worth watching for 90 minutes, while the imitators’ celebrity schmoozefests are barely worth 60 minutes of our time, so I suppose we ought to view the shortened format as a blessing, not a curse.