Word: carsons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Frrrrrrom Hollywood, New York and Nebraska, a scandalmongering biography, King of the Night (Morrow; $19.95) by Laurence Leamer, who invites you to join Johnny Carson and his uninvited guests: resentful ex-wives, assorted children, girlfriends, colleagues, producers, comedians. And now, ladies and gentlemen, heeeeere's Johnny...
Funny? Dumb? Outrageous? That depends, but this is politics, late-night style. Talk-show monologues may still lean heavily on the latest TV mini- series, Rob Lowe's videotape and beautiful downtown Burbank, but more and more they are turning for their yucks to real-life politics. Johnny Carson, who slides easily from Doc's wardrobe to Noriega's goon squads in his Tonight show monologues, has long been TV's most reliable barometer of what Middle America thinks about the issues of the day. But now Johnny is just one of a late-night crowd. Jay Leno, Carson...
...Exxon oil spill undoubtedly aggravated the company's public relations disaster and spurred pressure for White House action. Deposed Speaker Jim Wright was tougher to lampoon -- the charges against him involved abstruse House rules rather than booze and women -- but that didn't stop the monologuists from trying. (Carson on Wright's negotiations with the House ethics committee: "Part of the deal was he would resign if the committee would buy 10,000 copies of his book...
...political gibes are drawing more than just laughs. In Washington the TV jokes are repeated in Capitol cloakrooms and quoted widely in the news media. The Center for Media and Public Affairs, a conservative watchdog group, tapes Carson, Leno and Letterman each night and catalogs their jokes by subject. During the Bush Administration's first 100 days, the most joked-about political figure was Tower (61 jokes), followed by President Bush (52) and Vice President Quayle...
What does America think of Jim Wright? Dan Quayle? The Exxon oil spill? Find out by turning to the comedy monologues of Carson, Leno, Letterman and Sajak...