And now...

Rotating pies!

No

And, yet, Carson loved what Letterman was doing and after Letterman moved to CBS, Carson would write jokes for him. Whenever Letterman told a Carson joke, he'd do the signature Carson golf-swing.

If your definition of "destroyed" is "There are now more options than ever for late-night talk show viewing, and the late night landscape is home to many hosts, all of whom have viable shows with their own dedicated fan bases" then yes, he completely obliterated it.

Stupid article is stupid.

I still miss Larry "Bud" Melman and the Dancing Waters.

The funny thing is, as much as Letterman tends to be pegged as an influence on the current generation of late night hosts, the Letterman model of hosting feels like a dying animal

So, Letterman destroyed late night and at the same has no influence over late night. Anyway, I don't see how the "monologue-sketch-interviews" format has been radically altered by anyone. Even The Daily Show and Colbert Report are basically following this model.

Even the squirrels in Central Park think this story is nuts.

Letterman owns his show, something Jimmy Kimmel, Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon don't. That means he can be "personal" and invite guests on the show he wants to have rather than just have the latest actor/singer on to promote their new movie or CD. Johnny did that, too, towards the end (even though he didn't own the Tonight show). That explains the heart doctor or the scientists who talk about climate change, the Pacific trash island or any other non-standard guest he might have on.

D-Liver: The funny thing is, as much as Letterman tends to be pegged as an influence on the current generation of late night hosts, the Letterman model of hosting feels like a dying animal

So, Letterman destroyed late night and at the same has no influence over late night. Anyway, I don't see how the "monologue-sketch-interviews" format has been radically altered by anyone. Even The Daily Show and Colbert Report are basically following this model.

It seems to me the Daily Show is more of an SNL Weekend Update rip off.

/still a stupid article

Late Night TV died May 22, 1992.

*snif*

I still miss you, Johnny.

Even if other late-night hosts sleep with members of their staff, it's doubtful that they'd announce that fact on national television.

That's how he's great? Wow.

/slow clap
//haven't watched Letterman since that story came out
//haven't watched Leno since he jobbed Conan

Tor_Eckman: Destroyed? I'm not sure what that means. Johnny had a captive audience. He was the thing to watch after the local news. There was no competition for stars or writers back then, and Johnny was a bona-fide genius at what he did. Now we have lots and lots of choices, not only between competing late night talk shows, but between those shows and everything else available to distract us from our miserable lives.

You cannot compare the current late night landscape to what it was when Carson was on. It's apples and potatoes.

Well put. I think that's the obvious thing the writer is missing. There's choices now. In this age of internetnetflixhuluvuducablesatellitetenthousandchannelsand24hourcover age you have to have a niche in order to have a market. You will never have another Carson-esque late night show, because through most of his run there were 3 networks and virtually no competition. It wasn't till he retired and Letterman jumped ship that there even started being options. Now there are so many between daytime talk shows, evening, late, late late, and late late late night that it's almost to the point of oversaturation.

Besides, other than the occasional 5 minute clip on the internet, who actually bothers watching an entire show whether it be Leno, Letterman, or someone else anymore? Old people and shut-ins maybe. Everyone else has 50 other things they could be doing.

We need our entertainment in 4-10 minute clips, or it's too long. Hell, this post is too long. 90% of you won't do more than skim it.

Tor_Eckman: Shenanigans!: If your definition of "destroyed" is "There are now more options than ever for late-night talk show viewing, and the late night landscape is home to many hosts, all of whom have viable shows with their own dedicated fan bases" then yes, he completely obliterated it.

Stupid article is stupid.

Damn, man. Are you me?

Yes...FROM THE FUTURE!!

I loved the Johnny of the late 70s; coked up and pencil tapping and having fun, making dirty jokes and being hip.

Once the DeLorean cocaine trial, where Johnny was implicated in a 6 figure cocaine deal, happened and Johnny took a hiatus for a few months or whatever it was, he returned bitter and unfunny.

A friend of mine loaned me their new dvd collection of classic Carson, and 80% of it was from that later, unfunny period. Some from the early-mid 70s, but none of the good stuff. I think Dana Carvey really nailed him on SNL, and I remember seeing the Carson show where Carvey was a guest and was treated rather rudely, while these relics went through the motions around him with formula routines. It was surreal. Carvey came back the following week on SNL and skewered Carson. It was sad to see, as a formerly dedicated fan.


Not enough credit is given to Dick Cavett, I've been watching dvds of his show in the late 60s and it was way ahead of Late Night, IMO. He was a great host.

bluorangefyre: sinanju: And, yet, Carson loved what Letterman was doing and after Letterman moved to CBS, Carson would write jokes for him. Whenever Letterman told a Carson joke, he'd do the signature Carson golf-swing.

Also, let the record show that Carson's last late night TV appearance was on The Late Show.

And then there's last bit of pure Carson win, once again airing on The Late Show. (new window)

Thank you for that link!!!!!!

/is there any chance to find part 7?

///again thanks for the link.

I miss the Prancing Fluids.

Once the DeLorean cocaine trial, where Johnny was implicated in a 6 figure cocaine deal, happened and Johnny took a hiatus for a few months or whatever it was, he returned bitter and unfunny.


[citation needed]

The only reason I watch Letterman is so that I don't miss the cold-open on Ferguson. True story.

I used to prefer Letterman. But he has been phoning it in for about the last decade.

crab66: I used to prefer Letterman. But he has been phoning it in for about the last decade.

THIS!

I can't stand Leno either. They're both kind of out of touch.

/Kimmel FTW!

chuggernaught: Once the DeLorean cocaine trial, where Johnny was implicated in a 6 figure cocaine deal, happened and Johnny took a hiatus for a few months or whatever it was, he returned bitter and unfunny.


[citation needed]

Yeah, I don't recall that one. I know he got busted for drinking and driving while in a DeLorean. And supposedly he had abused cocaine, but I don't know about any big drug deal busts.

I could be wrong, I'm old enough to remember Carson, and to have grown up watching his show. But he retired around the time I was finishing high school.

Me, I thought a lot of the Letterman "zany" stuff was just a straight-line evolution (if that) of pre-Carson Steve Allen Tonight Show.

*******************

Other than that, you can view Carson's era two ways:

1) audiences didn't have many choices (unlike today) so they "settled" for his show;

OR

2) Carson--unlike today's late-night hosts in a fragmented market--was able to appeal to a broad demographic.

/I don't watch Dave much any more, but it always feels like a soap opera I haven't seen in three years--yet I drop in and I haven't lost a thread of the plot at all.

For those who didn't RTFA, the author means "destroyed" in a good way.

FirstNationalBastard: Shenanigans!: Tor_Eckman: Shenanigans!: If your definition of "destroyed" is "There are now more options than ever for late-night talk show viewing, and the late night landscape is home to many hosts, all of whom have viable shows with their own dedicated fan bases" then yes, he completely obliterated it.

Stupid article is stupid.

Damn, man. Are you me?

Yes...FROM THE FUTURE!!

All the way from the year... 2000!

Subby, here's a protip.

Johnny died, late night died. Simple.

RumsfeldsReplacement: No

EW likes to write articles like this every few years "Did (insert name of great work/artist/transcendant figure in medium) destroy (medium)?" I remember one about "Nevermind" by Nirvana.
And Carson was phoning it in by the time I started watching him. Leno was hosting two or three nights a week most of the time. Plus, Carson sounded like a real prick, or possibly a genuinely unhappy guy.

softshoes: Johnny died, late night died. Simple.

How old ARE you?

EW just misspelled J-a-y L-e-n-o.

Craig Ferguson still manages to do a rather bizarre, funny late night show. And his interviews tend to be far more entertaining than those on the other shows.

GQueue: Craig Ferguson still manages to do a rather bizarre, funny late night show. And his interviews tend to be far more entertaining than those on the other shows.

THIS. I love the Fergs. His show seems much more spontaneous than the usual late night fare.

Dave didn't destroy Late Night, just the Late Show. I haven't been able to get through an episode in a good four or five years, and I watched almost every night on NBC starting about six months into the show because he was just so damn good. I think he lost something when he stopped showing up in khakis and Adidas and started wearing suits that cost more than I make in two months.

fusillade762: GQueue: Craig Ferguson still manages to do a rather bizarre, funny late night show. And his interviews tend to be far more entertaining than those on the other shows.

THIS. I love the Fergs. His show seems much more spontaneous than the usual late night fare.

Do you want Awkward Silence or Mouth Organ?

For a 50 year old host Ferguson is really funny. I just caught all his Paris shows that I missed in the summer and they are really great! Plus he gave me a list of things I want to see when I go back to Paris.

Some people don't like Geoff but I think he's pretty funny.

And Letterman needs to retire now. Sometimes he's pretty good but he tends to ramble on about stuff.

fusillade762: GQueue: Craig Ferguson still manages to do a rather bizarre, funny late night show. And his interviews tend to be far more entertaining than those on the other shows.

THIS. I love the Fergs. His show seems much more spontaneous than the usual late night fare.

He's the only one that gets me to laugh out loud. He actually tries new things.

I do wish we could get a late night show like Carson. It'll never happen again though. Hollywood was bigger then, everybody hung out together in bars instead of Scientology meetings, all the guests were drunk/coked, nobody worried about saying the wrong thing and having every paper go on about it fro days on end until they make you do a forced apology (shiat like Don Rickles wouldn't fly today). Having Dean Martin and Sammy Davis on together doing inside jokes, Carson going to a next door studio to yell at Rickles for breaking his cigar box. The spontaneity is gone.. Now we have Conan doing the same self depreciating jokes and the same stupid dances until the crowd applauds out of apathy. Fallon looks like he's terrified of being on tv, like a kid giving a speech in 6th grade. Leno, it's been said over and over, he just sucks.

Destroyed it? I wouldn't know, I don't much follow late night tv, but watching that clip from post 9/11 made it dusty in here. I miss that time when we were cohesive as a nation. I don't wish for another attack, I just miss that feeling of justified intrinsic patriotism that followed the attacks, man that felt good.

He certainly doesn't make it any funnier...

They all changed it to the degree they were successful and no more. Even Arsenio. The author shows us how to make something out of nothing.

NotoriousW.O.P: EW likes to write articles like this every few years "Did (insert name of great work/artist/transcendant figure in medium) destroy (medium)?" I remember one about "Nevermind" by Nirvana.
And Carson was phoning it in by the time I started watching him. Leno was hosting two or three nights a week most of the time. Plus, Carson sounded like a real prick, or possibly a genuinely unhappy guy.

In Carson lore, unless you were a huge entertainment name, and were a guest on his show, during the commercial breaks Johnny would sit and smoke and not speak or even acknowledge you were there until the cameras started rolling again.

The late night formula, going back to Steve Allen and Jack Paar, has the guests ALWAYS sitting to the right of the host. Have they NO imagination? Any of them?