Posted on: Tuesday, January 25, 2005

JOHNNY CARSON: 1925-2005
Carson gone but not forgotten

By Ellen Gray
Knight Ridder News Service

If Johnny Carson's death came as a shock Sunday, it was probably because the retired "Tonight Show" host always knew how to leave an audience wanting more.

Though hardly a recluse, Carson slipped quietly from the public eye after stepping down from the top-rated show — which he'd hosted for 30 years — in May 1992.

He avoided altogether the nastiness that ensued when NBC chose longtime "Tonight Show" guest host Jay Leno over "Late Night" host David Letterman to succeed him — a move that precipitated Letterman's departure for CBS. And in letting the "Tonight Show" stand as his legacy and resisting invitations to return to TV, he also managed to fix himself in our memories as a vigorous, charming man on the very top of his game rather than as an aging retiree who suffered from emphysema.

Just as we now have red states and blue states, there are Leno fans and there are Letterman fans. But in Carson's day, despite some ill-fated attempts by other networks to challenge NBC's dominance in late night, there was only Johnny.

Carson didn't invent the late-night format, but in his low-key way, he shone as an interviewer, actually appearing to listen to his guests' answers. His approval helped launch many a performer's career.

"He defined the original talk show, and I think there is not a person who has watched him over the years — or certainly those of us who had the honor of experiencing him in person — who don't realize what a great loss this is," Oprah Winfrey said.

"I remember the very first time I was invited on his show. His was, in our generation, what 'Ed Sullivan' was to that generation. And you know the very first time I got invited to the show, that defined, 'You have now made it,' " she said.

On his final night as "Tonight Show" host, Carson said, "I'd like to do the whole thing over. It's been a hell of a lot of fun."

If only.