Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Carson Stuff (Cont.)

Here's a roundup of editorial cartoons about the passing of J. Carson. You may notice a certain repetition of a couple of ideas.

And here's a link to the cartoon by my pal, Mike Peters.

• Posted at 11:13 PM · LINK

Carson Stuff (Cont.)

Richard Corliss of Time writes one of the best pieces I've read on Johnny, even if he does misspell "Slauson cut-off." He also notes that during much of the time Leno guest-hosted for Carson, he got higher ratings and better demographics. This is one of those facts that no one ever dared mention aloud when Johnny was alive.

Nick Clooney, who was the local news anchor whose broadcasts preceded Johnny in L.A. for years, writes about his encounters with Mr. Carson.

• Posted at 10:43 PM · LINK

Carson Stuff (Cont.)

Every print interview Johnny Carson ever did seems to be turning up on the Internet these days. Here's one of the earliest — a 1967 chat he did with Alex Haley for Playboy. It's kind of interesting since it was done at a time when he hadn't been doing Tonight for much longer than Jack Paar had hosted and, despite a recent, messy renegotiation of his contract, he still wasn't being paid megabucks.

• Posted at 10:16 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Frank Rich on what it means to support the troops.

And while we're at it, this article over on Salon [membership or watching ads required] says that wounded soldiers who are being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center have to pay for meals. I wish people in this country would get the idea that saying "I support the troops" is, literally, the least you can do. I mean, it's nice but on a list of things that could be done to benefit these people, thinking good thoughts is right at the bottom in terms of usefulness to their lives. Maybe we can change it to "I support giving the troops what they need."

• Posted at 10:01 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

William Saletan on how Democrats can win over pro-choice voters.

• Posted at 9:20 PM · LINK

Train of Thought

Leaving the subject of John W. Carson for a moment...I'm sure we're all properly horrified by the train derailment this morning in Los Angeles that has (so far) left ten people dead and at least 200 injured. It touched a little close to home for me because I have a friend who routinely takes one of those trains every weekday morning. I awoke to an e-mail that he sent to everyone in his address book saying, "I'm home today. I have the flu and I was feeling sorry for myself, but it turned out to be one of the luckiest breaks of my life." Also, if you read the reports, you'll see that it all happened right behind a Costco outlet, and the Costco employees stopped selling original Picassos and ran out to treat the injured. That's the Costco I most often visit when I'm in a Costco kind of mood...and I think next time I'm there, I'm going to stop every worker and express my admiration for their efforts.

According to reports, the accidents were caused by a man who was intent on killing himself. The guy had a police record for drug dealing and had tried slashing his wrists and stabbing himself in the chest. When those didn't work, he parked his Jeep Cherokee on the train tracks, but changed his mind at the last minute, got out and watched the trains hit it and derail. I don't want to be flippant about this but, boy, talk about a guy who can't do anything right.

The news report says he's been arrested, that he'll be charged with multiple homicides and that they currently have him on a "Suicide Watch." Yeah, right. Wouldn't want anything to happen to that lovely fellow. Let's make real sure he doesn't do anything crazy and hurt himself.

As I've mentioned here before, I have mixed feelings about the Death Penalty, especially because I think a lot of innocent people are wrongly convicted. An incident like this train disaster inflames the part of me that thinks if we're darn certain someone is guilty, the Death Penalty may make a lot of sense, and not just in the specific "first degree" situations to which it generally applies. (Amazingly, parking your SUV on railroad tracks and causing something like this probably wouldn't qualify.) But on top of it, I also believe that adults who are relatively sane should have the right to kill themselves. I figure: It's your life and if you want to end it, fine. There should be a little service where you can go, pay a couple of bucks and they'll check you out to make sure you're not just upset because the Lakers lost...then, if all is in order, they'll administer some quick, painless lethal injection or stick your toe in a light socket or make you eat tofu or whatever it takes.

This concept might horrify some but wouldn't that be better than forcing someone to park his car on railroad tracks or (as an acquaintance of mine once did), leap off the top of a Manhattan hotel in front of hundreds of traumatized spectators? In this case, it would also spare us wrestling with the morality of the Death Penalty and having a trial, and making survivors come in and testify and then keeping someone locked up forever. This guy who caused the wreck...we don't need to give this guy a trial. We just need to give him a very large bottle of strychnine — you can probably get them at Costco — and take him off that Suicide Watch.

• Posted at 5:57 PM · LINK

Carson Stuff (Cont.)

I was going to try and get out of the Carson-linking business but this one's too good to deny you. An old friend of mine, Donna Schwartz Mills, wrote to thank me for all I've posted here and to tell me she has her own weblog where she's posting things about Johnny. Donna was on the Tonight Show staff for a number of years during the Carson Era, so her recollections are personal and quite interesting. Go to this posting and then use the links at the top of the page to read forward to the most recent.

And since I'm back doing this, I'll mention that Pat Sajak, who was among those who went up against Carson and failed, has written an article that's mostly about himself. It's also a little odd in its history. He says that in 1986, he was asked to guest-host for Johnny but that (a) there was a Writers Guild strike in progress and (b) the Directors Guild was also threatening to strike. The rest of the article may be true, and probably is, but neither of those unions entered into negotiations in 1986. The WGA struck in 1985 for 13 days and in 1988 for 22 weeks. The DGA negotiated a three-year contract in 1984 so they couldn't threaten a strike again until 1987...which they did. That was the year of the only DGA strike ever, which lasted all of five minutes. (I'm not kidding. Five minutes.) At no point during those years was there ever a moment when the WGA was on strike and the DGA was threatening to go out.

• Posted at 12:09 PM · LINK

Two More Carson Links

Comedian Larry Miller tells us about appearing with Johnny. And Rolling Stone has posted the text of a 1979 interview with Mr. C.

• Posted at 2:19 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Veteran entertainment reporter Bob Thomas reports on the 100th birthday (today) of veteran character actor Charles Lane.

• Posted at 1:08 AM · LINK