Goodbye Johnny Carson (emphysema)

Yahoo! News - Famed TV Entertainer Johnny Carson Dead

Legendary television entertainer Johnny Carson (news) has died of emphysema at age 79, the NBC television network reported on its Web site on Sunday.

Oh my! This is surprising especially since just 3 days ago there were a plethora of articles on how Carson was secretly writing jokes for Letterman.

Carson truly was the king of classy comedy. Look at where the Tonight Show has gone since. The all time low, IMHO was during the OJ trial, which ironically is when the Tonight Show rose quickly in popularity. Remember the Dancing Itos? Or any of the other schlock - all making fun of a murder trial? Unfortunately, while the Late Show tried to stay class by avoiding that low brow humor, it too have to cave in, in the end.

One of my favorite clips of Carson was when one of his jokes bombed - and this was before they amped up the audience so that there would be laughter at every joke, no matter how bad it was (Conan’s show still has this feeling), and how Carson would totally recover.

He’ll be missed.