Goodbye Johnny...

No matter what happened when I was a kid, through good and bad, there was always Johnny Carson. Every blogger in the United States between the ages of Thirty-Five and Sixty-Five, I'm sure, just wrote that same sentence. That was the wonder of his appeal. During an era of revolution that was characterized by the widening "generation gap", fathers and sons could agree on two things. One was Peanuts. Charles Schultz never wrote a bad strip. The other was Carson. The tonight show probably did more for father/son relationships from 1962 to 1992 than any amount of therapy could have. Hell, it was a serious right of passage to finally be allowed to stay up and watch Carson. The Tonight Show and puberty went hand in hand. And a good thing too, because when your body and the world around you is changing so rapidly, you need a constant. And you sure as hell need a laugh. Carson provided both.

All through my teens and right up through graduate school, Carson was always there when I needed him. I could be having the worst day of my life, but as soon as I heard Ed McMahon's voice and saw Carson appear from behind that big curtain, I knew everything was going to be alright. Thanks Mister C.