For those of you who feel the need to read or hear about Johnny Carson on this sad day…
- Roger Ebert has a nice essay up on what it was like to appear with Mr. Carson.
- ABC News is out interviewing celebrities on Johnny's impact.
- TV critic Sid Smith has a pretty nice overview of Johnny's skill. [registration required, I think]
- NBC will do a Carson tribute tonight on Dateline NBC, which runs at 7 PM in most markets. And there seems to be a special on MSNBC at 8 PM.
- Here's the Los Angeles Times obit [registration required] and here's the New York Times [registration not required]. The latter also reprints this old Frank Rich column [registration perhaps required] on Johnny's last night and the text of Johnny's last monologue [registration maybe required but maybe not].
- Looks like Larry King will have Ed McMahon and many close associates on his show tomorrow night. One assumes Mr. Leno will do some kind of long tribute tomorrow night. Letterman is scheduled to be in reruns this week but, rumor has it, will not let this go unnoted until the following Monday.
One of many other things I could have mentioned in the piece I posted earlier: Johnny did a lot to boost the careers of certain stand-up comedians who appeared on his show…but he also did a lot to simply boost the art and commerce of stand-up comedy for all. Before the advent of HBO, Showtime, Comedy Central and other venues that like to air stand-up acts because that means you don't have to hire writers, Carson's show was one of the few places where a stand-up could get on television, perform and bolster his career as a stand-up. A lot of the clubs, like the Comedy Store, almost seemed to exist as try-out rooms for Carson. We all know how it helped Leno, Letterman, Seinfeld, Stephen Wright, Roseanne, Ellen, Shandling and so many more to do well on the Tonight Show stage. But everyone who performs stand-up owes a little something to the Tonight Show, to Johnny Carson and to his scouts, like Jim McCawley.