Johnny Carson at 99: Still Royal After All These Years

One could make an argument—a very strong argument—that Johnny Carson was the greatest star in television history.

And an equally strong argument that there will never be one bigger.

Today happens to be Carson’s 99^th birthday, which means this is jumping the gun a bit on likely widespread considerations of the late-night star’s career, one which honored him in his time hosting NBC’s Tonight Show as true television royalty: the “King of Late Night.”

The coming year is set to see at least two major books focused on Carson—the first, Carson the Magnificent, by the late Bill Zehme with Mike Thomas, is set for release on November 5th.  But whatever new information might come to light over the next 365 days, Carson will remain the standard—both in terms of ratings dominance and impact on the American culture of his time.

Those last three words are relevant. Carson was, more than most any other transcendent television star anyone could name, a man of his moment. His greatness was hugely tied up in his central role as the nation’s satiric commentator on the daily events of that period of history.

Any figure who passed through the nation’s consciousness—political, entertainment, business, celebrity of any kind—from 1962 through to 1992 likely fell into Carson’s comedic field of vision. And suffered the slings and arrows—or, more wisely, enjoyed the laughs.

Countless entertainers, especially stand-up comics and singers, saw enormous careers launched by appearances on Carson’s Tonight Show.

During his run he ranged from boyish prankster to sophisticated wit and was widely admired as both.

And the sum of it is, it would be hard to find any American alive for the years he stood center stage in studios in Manhattan and Burbank, who did not at some point see Johnny Carson perform. For three decades, across five nights a week (then four, then three) he was a constant presence, an inducement to millions to stay up later than they would have otherwise.

So yes, the biggest star in television history.

And yet: Carson’s star has surely dimmed. For anyone who absorbed Carson’s pre-eminence, it seems cognitively dissonant to acknowledge this: King Carson has now been gone from his throne for longer than he occupied it.

He was the host of The Tonight Show for 30 years. It has been 32 years since he stepped away from that role—and any other on television. Carson never accepted another show to star in, and barely appeared on television ever again.

More than a generation has entered American life and culture without any real exposure to Johnny Carson. Many younger people know who he was; that guy their parents/grandparents say was a really great comedian who had a late-night show. But most of them likely have never seen him; or if they have, it’s been a snippet of a clip here or there, or perhaps a deep fake.

Which brings up the second almost surely incontrovertible point about Carson. No one will ever be as big a television star as Carson.

The television landscape that Carson dominated simply does not exist anymore. In all probability nothing remotely like it ever will again. People, especially those under 35 or so, simply don’t watch TV the same way anymore—if they watch what the Carson era knew as television at all.

Carson was shared viewing for the nation. We stayed up late and watched Johnny all at the same time (time zone depending) and talked about his monologue the next day. That’s getting rarer in late night, where multiple hosts carve up what is left of a live-viewing audience—and mostly get watched online sometime later.

That was an advantage Carson held—and held onto tightly—in his day: he swept aside competitors like ants at his picnic.  Apres Carson, the deluge: as many as nine late-night shows at a time trying to carve a fief out of parts of his kingdom.

Of course, all things must pass. But that is not really the case with much of the rest of television. People somewhere are still watching Ralph Kramden run his latest scheme past Ed Norton even though The Honeymooners hasn’t made a new episode in 68 years.

Saturday Night Live can still run a sketch parodying I Love Lucy (as they did in this year’s premiere with Jean Smart playing Lucille Ball) 67 years after that classic show ended its run

Just about every teen girl in America has watched Friends, and comedy aficionados watch every episode of Seinfeld and The Office multiple times.

Because all those classic comedies can be binged on some service somewhere.

Carson’s comedy is available here and there, skillfully packaged by his nephew Jeff Sotzing, who leads the company Carson left behind. There’s a 24/7 Johnny Carson channel on ShoutTV, and lots of Carson monologues on YouTube. Here’s one from 50 years ago, on Johnny’s 49^th birthday, full of now obscure references to Congressman Earl Butz and Treasury Secretary William Simon, but still genuinely funny:

You can even watch complete Carson episodes on “Antenna TV,” which is, as it sounds, an old-fashioned TV service.

But it has always been the nature of late-night TV to be ephemeral. Carson’s work was as it happened, that day. Not a lot of it plays compellingly now, though it almost surely rewards those who drop in and sample it now and then.

That does not alter the historical record. We never hear Lincoln give a speech but he still ranks as the greatest president (except in the delusions of some folks who will go unmentioned here.).

Johnny Carson dominated broadcast television, the most dominant means of communication in human history at its peak of influence—before cable, before streaming. That communication system isn’t dominant anymore. That does not depreciate Carson’s achievement. He was king of the domain he lived in, and nobody is ever going to take that title away

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