Word: carson
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...Under Carson, The Tonight Show became Habit Television, which is how the sponsors like it, and most viewers too. Not everyone wanted the Paar caffeine jolt after midnight; what's needed is a pleasing comedy sedative. The ratings underlined the acuity of Carson's choice. After 15 years his audience had nearly tripled Paar's, and accounted for 17% of NBC's revenue...
...Soon America got to know Johnny -what did I say!? We to know his mannerisms: the wink, which could be mischievous or genially conspiratorial; the spasmodically shrugging shoulders, a la Bogart (one of Carson's favorite and most frequent guests, Don Rickles, said the other night, "I thought he was a football player and the pads were too high"); and the sharp, brittle laugh, which was less an expression of mirth than a cue to the audience that his current guest had passed the test. This ha-ha bark was humanized by proximity to the warmer, manly, practiced guffaw...
...Carson was easy to imitate (by Rich Little in the 60s, Dana Carvey in the 90s, with Phil Hartman superb as Ed), difficult to know. As McMahon once said, in a remark I find both delphic and profound, John packs a tight suitcase. Even those closest to him had trouble figuring out if they had pleased him, and some of them suffered when, without realizing it, they fell short. He fired his brother Dick from directing the show (Dick then directed Merv Griffin's daytime schmoozathon). He summarily canned Art Stark, who had produced Who Do You Trust...
...filling the other slots. (By the end he was his own gust host.) But he didn't use the spare time for Manhattan or Beverly Hills partying. Working the room made him acutely uncomfortable. He was a loner who shrank from revealing his feelings, if he had them. Joanna Carson, Johnny's third wife, told Tynan she had seen her husband cry only once: at Jack Benny's funeral...
...most annoying thing about Carson is his unwillingness to swing, to trust himself or his guests. ... He never looks at you; he's too busy (1) watching the audience to see if they are responding, and (2) searching the face of his producer for reassurance." -Rex Reed...