Word: carsons
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Whether they are in bed or chairs, the viewers' reward is the most consistently entertaining 90 minutes to be seen anywhere on television. Tonight was a lively enough show in the five years when it was run by that mercurial madcap Jack Paar, but since Carson took over in 1962, it has become brighter, smoother and more sophisticated. Carson's opening six-minute monologue is generally humorous, despite an unfortunate preoccupation with bathroom jokes. The rest of the bill is filled with two or three musical turns, a guest comic's bit or a mildly satirical skit...
Muzzy Hours. But Carson's chief attraction is Carson. An assured, natural entertainer-he was already a network headliner at 29-Johnny is the epitome of cool. He is intelligent, laconic, deferential and facile. On occasion, he asks the studio audience to submit questions to him on any subject. Somebody once asked: "Are women permitted in Hurley's bar [the NBC hangout in Rockefeller Center]?" Replied Carson swiftly: "Permitted to do what...
Most of all, Carson is a master of the cozy pace and mood that he believes are appropriate for the muzzy midnight hours. Unlike Paar, he avoids meet-the-press-style interviewing, and never goes beyond his intellectual depth. Neither does he use his terrible swift wit to cut down his guests. One night, Zsa Zsa Gabor hogged the show terribly. While Carson will sometimes needle her to her face ("Any girl who has a drip-dry wedding dress...
...says Carson, "I get annoyed when people tag me as a loner. Jackie Gleason loves to mix with people, so they say he's a boozer. You can't win. Because I don't like cocktail parties, some writers translate this to mean 'Carson is hostile to people.' " If he is not precisely hostile, he at least shares a celebrity's distrust of strangers-and distrust sometimes seeps over into contempt. Johnny and Joanne are people who do not need people. "Johnny," says McMahon, putting it mildly, "is not overly outgoing or affectionate...
...also visits a good deal with his three sons who attend boarding school on Long Island. Carson divorced their mother, a University of Nebraska girl, in 1962. That subject is barred from discussion, although one associate explains: "Johnny is a man of tremendous growth, and people who don't grow with him, don't stay with...