System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show
October 23, 1925 - January 23, 2005
Late night television icon, Johnny Carson, died Sunday, January 23, 2005, at his Malibu, California home at the age of 79 years. He had been suffering from emphysema for years. Born in Nebraska, he ruled the late night airwaves from 1958 to 1992 as host of NBC's The Tonight Show, after taking over from Jack Paar.
The most popular part of the show may have been the recurring characters he created. They included the cantankerous Aunt Blabby, who often launched withering conversational assaults on Carson's eternal sidekick, Ed McMahon. There was also slithery TV pitchman named Art Fern, who hosted movies like Abbott and Costello, Visit a Leper Colony and Dracula Gets Bombed on a Wino, whose cast lists inevitably concluded with an animal star like Erecto the Wonder Eel.
And the single most memorable of Carson's characters was probably Carnac the Magnificent, a swami who drew a sealed envelope from a mayonnaise jar, held it tightly to his forehead, then answered the question inside
Off-screen, his life was not so smooth. He was divorced three times, and his social circle was surprisingly small.
In his final appearance on The Tonight Show in 1992, he hinted that there might be another project in his future.
But that day never came. Mr. Carson became ever more reclusive. When a rare photograph did surface, it was apparent that his lifelong chain-smoking habit had taken a toll.
He may have lost his taste for the limelight, but his affection for comedy never wavered. He wrote occasional short humor pieces for The New Yorker magazine, including Recently Discovered Childhood Letters to Santa, which purported to give the youthful wish lists of William Buckley, Don Rickles and others.
Just last week, his former producer Peter Lassally, a CBS vice president, revealed that Carson occasionally sent jokes to David Letterman, whose CBS show competes with the Jay Leno-hosted Tonight Show.
