No, they never said anything about him hitting any of his wives. They did discuss his drinking several times and included an interview snippet where Carson acknowledged that he was a mean drunk.
And he had a temper. Anyone remember the incident when Don Rickles guest hosted and broke that wooden box that was always on Johnny’s desk? When Johnny returned and noticed the broken box, he walked (on camera) to the studio where Rickles was filming something and tore him a new one. He was pissed.
I always thought – still do – that that was a planned thing. All of it. If you get a chance to see it again, notice how rigged it looks.
My very favorite Carson memory is when Dean Martin flicked ashes in George Gobel’s drink. Talk about a tool!
Oh, I agree with all that and realize it’s a generational thing. Learning what his appeal was after not seeing it at the time was a bit of a revelation for me.
I caught the end of it while channel surfing and saw just the parts that dealt with his decision to retire and then retirement. It was really well done and I want to see it again.
DAYUMN at that yacht he lived on. I think it was a secret at the time that he and his final wife were separated until his second wife, Joanne (with whom he remained extremely close), let it slip on an episode of Larry King when she misunderstood a question; the documentary was the first time I ever heard it specifically addressed though- they said he was still married to her because he didn’t want it said he was divorced four times. The other great secret was how much money he gave away during his lifetime and in his will; he gave more than $100 million to the University of Nebraska and other schools alone, and very quietly.
I don’t know if James Randi was in the documentary, but he has said on other shows that without Johnny Carson there would have been no James Randi Educational Foundation; Johnny bankrolled it in the beginning and left them a substantial endowment, but was adamant that his help remain anonymous in his lifetime (particularly when he still had his show- you can imagine how it would probably hurt his image and thus the show’s success to be known as such a huge skeptic).
I don’t remember Randi appearing in the documentary. That’s really fantastic.
My Johnny Carson story: his nephew was a Partner at the consulting firm I worked at. At this point, in his late 50’s/early 60’s, the nephew beared a strong resemblance to Carson, which was interesting enough, but his voice! Jeez, everyone regularly commented on how much he sounded like Johnny Carson - even if they didn’t know the connection.
Anyway, we had a talent show one year for hoots and giggles. A few of us pulled a band together, a couple of folks did magic for a hobby (actually pretty good), etc. Who was the MC? You guessed it. But what was cool is that this partner reached out to Johnny for tips, and Johnny had his writing team write the monologue and some topical jokes for his nephew - and he killed! It was hilarious becuase: a) the jokes were funny (sorry, can’t remember them), but also b) because he totally sold them as Johnny Carson with as many gestures and phrases like Johnny’s as possible. It was hilarious and fun and we all knew he was doing it with Johnny’s support.
I think there was a mention that Carson and (I think) the second wife battled frequently and publicly but I don’t recall any allegations in this show that he had struck any of his wives.
Randi was instrumental in helping him humiliate Uri Gellar.
He was definitely a complex guy. He was one of the richest and most generous men in show business (and as mentioned much of his extreme generosity was anonymous), yet also amazingly petty. He let his first wife, the mother of his sons, live in extremely modest circumstances even when he knew she was having trouble paying the bills, and he made all of the tabloids when he let the biracial lovechild of one of his sons live in poverty. (The child was biracial, which led to allegations of racism on his part, though he could have had more of a “that’s my son’s responsibility, not mine” attitude.) If you offended him, like Joan Rivers did, you were dead to him.
Ed McMahon was interviewed a lot when Johnny died, and I think people were surprised to learn that they really weren’t that close. He said they had spoken on the phone several times but hardly ever saw each other. They were basically co-workers. He was apparently closest to Doc Severinsen (who has changed remarkably little in the past generation).
I don’t know if Geller or Popoff happened first, but Randi said that when he showed Johnny the video of his jamming the wireless feed that gave evangelist Peter Popoff his miraculous revelations about members of his audience that Carson couldn’t stop laughing for several minutes. As a magician himself, he absolutely loathed charlatans claiming real powers. (Popoff’s commercials are all over late night cable now- he hawks “miracle water” and “miracle crackers” and other crap that’s basically voodoo for the super-duper-uneducated-and-desperate fundamentalist Christian set.)
Trivia:
He hated prop comics. When Gallagher was the Number 1 comedian in the country he was only on The Tonight Show on nights Johnny wasn’t. When his agents tried to get him on with Johnny, promising “he’ll do straight stand-up, no props”, Johnny still said no.
The film The Aristocrats was dedicated to him as well because, per the producers, that was apparently his favorite joke.
You may be the exception that proves the rule (if you believe an exception proves a rule).
Apparently, he was the same with his own kids, even though he cared for them (judging by his reaction when one of them was killed in a car accident). He just didn’t have the ability to express it to them, which is a special kind of tragedy all its own.
Definitely rigged. The Rickles show was CPO Sharkey, and especially back in those days you didn’t drag cameras down the hall with no warning. I suspect it was part fun, part respect for Rickles, and part plugging Rickles’ show which needed plugging.
I watched it, loving the guy, but it wasn’t very good.
Besides this, he did a lot for science education having people like Carl Sagan on. He was interested in astronomy and never did the “poor old stupid me” bit. Colbert has scientist on, but Carson was a pioneer. He always seemed like a very smart guy to me.
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I’m still not sure if it’s a country-related issue, which, if it is, pisses me off since I have contributed to PBS in the past. (Sending moolah, I mean.)
I missed this, but fortunately PBS is rerunning it on Sunday, so I set my DVR and can’t wait to see it. I loved Johnny and as David Letterman said when he died, “Johnny was the true King of late night. All the rest of us are pretenders to the crown.” The Monday after Johnny passed, Jay Leno had Ed McMahon and Bob Newhart as his guests on the Tonight Show and they spent the whole show paying tribute to Johnny.
Sagan gave Carson shout-outs in a couple of his books; he respected him both as a supporter of the sciences and a very well informed amateur astronomer. Though he did say he got tired of the “BILLIONS and BILLIONS” imitation of him that people did which was actually an imitation of Carson imitating Sagan (so, very meta).
Jon Stewart is as close as any hosts come to Carson today imho in terms of making the guest look good, effortless humor, and obvious intelligence. Though because he’s so political he’s obviously not that close. Carson never pandered and while I’m sure he had strong political views I have no idea what they were, which is the way it should be. (To my knowledge Leno keeps his views to himself, but I can’t imagine they’re that informed as he sees primarily completely self absorbed, while Letterman just seems like he wishes all these kids would go the hell home so he can get some sleep.)
Is that true? Gallagher’s fast-talking huckster for the Sledge-O-Matic isn’t a million miles away from Carson’s fast-talking huckster Art Fern (“keep driving until you get to the fork in the road!”, with a map showing a huge fork). And I remember Carson having props on the show, upcoming Christmas toys, and such.
One review I read said it was a shame that Buddy Hackett didn’t get to be in the movie. I’ve seen some old Hackett clips from The Tonight Show. He could have killed with that joke.
It may have been that same show but on one tribute program Doc (and I believe Tommy Newsom) played “Here’s That Rainy Day” and mentioned that it was Johnny’s favorite. It was so moving to hear Johnny playing guitar and singing it in the PBS programs. Tears flowed.
Well, per Gallagher it is, but then it might just be Carson couldn’t stand Gallagher and Gal prefers to say it’s prop comics.
One of my favorite Carson moments was when he decided to just say what he was thinkingto Dolly Parton.