Comments on: There’s Johnny

by: Murray

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Theeeeeeeere goes Johnny!
Good by old friend.

by: ch

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

perhaps there are many who are johnny fans by association by way of letterman. i am one, too.

i’m not sure about “dependable to stay just sober enough.” didn’t i pass you with a fifth of maker’s in your fist in monterrey?

by: Sharon

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

While still a youngster, I stayed up way too late to watch Johnny with my mother. As an adult, I suffered many more years of sleep deprivation because of him. You just never knew what you might miss if you didn’t.

Goodnight, Johnny!

by: lovable liberal

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

If there’s a liberal conspiracy, where do I sign up to be a mindless drone of free-thinking? Will anyone give me air time? Air America is getting close to 50 markets, but the VRWC can rightly say, Whoop-de-doo, about that. Or is the second great cabal the commercial cabal that doesn’t care about your politics so long as you buy lots of stuff?

by: J. Deighton

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been reading Fan Ap for about two years now, and this really takes the cake. This was a masterpiece. Thank you, Adam!

by: Deno the Untergeek

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

“The Melville reference,” a classic tale of one man’s tongue out of control. Hahah. Drinkage and computers don’t mix.
If you’re unqualified, Adam, then the ones that are must have eulogies written by Johnny himself. Very good.

by: tess

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I was far too young to stay up late to watch the Tonight Show before Leno’s buffoonery took over. But an era has passed, and the old vangaurd is passing away. I remember feeling this way when that old Nazi, Herbert von Karajon, passed away, and then Berstein, that a generation was passing me by and it was somehow important, but I wasn’t entirely old enough to understand.

And I guess I’m still not quite old enough to understand. It’s sometimes a pity being young.

by: David

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Damn I’m old! I remember Jack Paar. I was a sophomore at the University of Florida when Johnny Carson took over “The Tonight Show.”

It was a different time. Adam is right about that. We had just emerged (mostly) from McCarthyism, although the lt. governor of Florida was on a crusade to root out the homosexual and/or communist profs at UF. And our incredible rush of hope hadn’t yet been murdered.

America was mostly an open place, there were no propaganda juggernauts, and intellectual development based on discernible facts and sound reasoning was still valued, even by the Southern Baptist parents I knew. Those threads are even stronger on the left today, even as they have become generally anathema on the right. What will save our asses is that the dominant right, resting on cheap myths and lies, is a majority only in its dreams. Common sense, science, and liberal American intellectualism cannot forever be boxed in.

A tribute to Floyd R. Turbo, because this is what Johnny Carson means to me, and to the people I know who used to watch Johnny Carson. Those characters were why we watched the show. The Great Carnack was salutatorian. And we knew we were hearing a humorist with more than just a sense of humor. Kinda like Adam.

by: Landis

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

This just confirms the fact that I’m one of the oldest younguns around. I’m only 27, but I remember watching Johnny Carson quite a bit. In fact, I never liked Letterman too much and when Johnny retired and Leno took over, I called it a night (how old could I have been then?). Haven’t been able to watch any late night TV since Johnny retired. Now there is The Daily Show, but I gave up on TV too long ago and so only watch the clips on the web site.

Sorry to see ya go Johnny. But I’ll bet the Great Lobster will appreciate having you around.

by: Katie

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I discovered Johnny thru my stepmom. If I rested quitely on the couch, I could stay up thru the monolog. I was hooked by age 9 (late 70s). I never really got into Letterman or Leno, but when the Daily Show hit the air, I was immediately hooked by the ‘tip of the hat’ toward the classic Johnny understated, sly, dry, midwestern humor (and as Craig Kilborn graduated from my neighboring highschool, there was also a certain affinity… ) I was prepared to hate John Stewart, but I think I like him even more. He has the wit and timing down pat, without the narcissism of Craig. He most reminds me of the classic Johnny…. especially when he delivers a ‘2 second delay zinger’ and just shoots that look to the audience.

Good bye Johnny. I hope you held an envelope to your forehead as you met St. Peter…..