This one got right by me in the article I linked to yesterday morning — the one about how NBC will soon be relocating their studio…
"The Tonight Show put us on the map" said Burbank Mayor Marsha Ramos. "Without that line from Johnny Carson, about 'beautiful downtown Burbank,' most people wouldn't even know that we exist. When The Tonight Show leaves, there will be a portion of our heart that will be empty."
As several of you reminded me, Mr. John Carson did not coin the term "Beautiful Downtown Burbank." It gained national fame on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, especially as uttered by the show's announcer, Gary Owens. And it actually originated years before that on Gary's radio show here in Los Angeles. He used that term many a time and introduced it into the Laugh-In library of catch-phrases.
I called Gary earlier today to double check and he said he'd been flooded with calls about it and had done several TV and radio interviews in the previous few hours. A lot of folks are sad that NBC will be vacating those historic premises and, of course, some are irate that the Mayor of the city doesn't even know who gave the town its famous nickname. Maybe Congress can vote a resolution condemning her. That would be a lot more important than addressing the problem of Iraq…or as we call it, Beautiful Downtown Baghdad.