No details yet, but NBC just reported that Johnny Carson has died of Emphysema.

Bummer.

Just caught the news... very sad indeed.

They just had an article about Johnny and how he was sending some jokes to David Letterman. Apparently he missed the monologue most of all and was still writing jokes based on the daily headlines.

I didn't see nearly enough of the Johnny's tonight show. The world will be a little less funny with him gone.

A sad day for all his fans. Johnny Carson was the first celebrity I ever wanted to be. While my playmates looked up to John Wayne or Arnold Schwarzenegger, I wanted to be behind a desk or monologuing in a spotlight.

A funny guy and a class act. The only thing I can think to say about him.

To quote perhaps the weirdest song the Beach Boys ever did:

"He sits behind his microphone
He speaks in such a manly tone
Ed McMahon comes on and says 'Here's Johnny'
Every night at 11:30 he's so funny
...
Who's the man that we admire?
Johnny Carson is a real live wire!"

Johnny Carson was a class act. Anybody else remember when he apologized on-air to Jack Kirby.

Some of my most cherished memories of my Dad were the times he would let me stay up late with him watching TV. Sometimes it was SNL (the original) and sometimes it was Johnny. I miss my Dad and I'm going to miss Johnny.

The DC universe had their own version of Johnny Carson, called "Johnny
Nevada" and he hosted "The Midnight Show". One of my first issues of
Action (#474) co-starred that version of Johnny.

He will be missed. He has been missed since he quit.

One of my memories of childhood was sitting on the stairs watching (or more likely listening to) the tonight show long after I was supposed to go to bed.

My dad was messing with the tape player at one point, recording audio off the TV (this was before VCRs, honestly) I listened to one of his routines long afterward and I was amazed how well it came off with just the audio. The show, and his career had it's beginning in radio so that made sense.

How dead is he??


He is so dead.......


(I think Johnny would have appreciated that)

Here's an odd little website created in honour of Johnny's "Art Fern" character, with quotes and audio clips:

http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/eccentric/artfern.htm

"And then you come to the Shlossen cutoff. Get out of your car and cut off your shlossen!"

I started watching Johnny in the mid-70's and continued all the way through to his last show. My all-time favorite character of his was Floyd R. Turbo....American!

I liked when a joke of his during the monologue would fall flat and he would break into his Tea For Two dance....

I loved that you knew when he REALLY liked a new stand-up comics act because he would give them a big OK sign as they went behind the curtain.....and you knew when he REALLY REALLY liked them because he would would actually ask them over to the couch.

Gonna miss you Johnny <insert golf swing here>

A clip from The Johnny Carson Show, which aired about seven years before he began his Tonight Show run:

I never knew he had an earlier show.

He had an impressive amount of petroleum product in his hair.

"...And I'd like to thank this station for this platform to address you, and the use of their facilities. Otherwise, I'd have had to relieve myself in the alley."

He looks a lot like Hanzo.

That was cool.

In fact he had an even earlier television series in 1953, called Carson's Cellar:

Jack Gives Johnny Carson Advice (1955)



Johnny with his idol and inspiration, Jack Benny.