Johnny Carson was so popular during his heyday that a late-night quip about a toilet paper shortage caused a run on the product at grocery stores across the country in 1973, nearly a half-century before widespread pandemic hoarding of that important bathroom product. Such was Carson’s sway on our culture as host of “The Tonight Show” from 1962 to 1992. “No one else has had that kind of influence,” says Jay Leno, who found himself at the center of a succession drama when he became Carson’s “Tonight Show” successor rather than David Letterman.
Jimmy Kimmel, another showbiz offspring of Carson, considers him the Abe Lincoln of late-night TV, his stature qualifying for Mount Rushmore status in the comedy world. “There are a lot of presidents we don’t think much about because we’re always thinking about Lincoln,” says Kimmel, who has now spent two decades as a late-night host himself. Props should go to Steve Allen, who “invented the whole thing,” while Letterman gave the format an absurdist twist, “but Johnny was the most important,” Kimmel says.
“Johnny was just such a part of the fabric of our lives.” Carson at his peak averaged 9 million viewers nightly; Stephen Colbert now leads a crowded field with about 3 million. Even people too young to have watched Carson acknowledge his legacy.
“He really was the monarch and owned the airwaves,” says Eric Andre, 41, who studied the master before launching his self-named Adult Swim show in 2012. No.