The Discerning Texan
All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.
-- Edmund Burke
-- Edmund Burke
Monday, January 24, 2005
For Johnny
When I heard that Johnny Carson had died it was similar to when I heard my father had been killed: I was too shocked to recognize the enormity of what had happened. And it a way Johnny was like a father to me, and to millions of others. He was always there for us. No matter what had happened to us during the day, even on those days when nothing went right, you could always count on Johnny to put a smile on your face.
The great thing about Johnny Carson was that when he made you laugh, he didn’t really do it at the expense of others; for even those who were the brunt of his jokes were laughing with him too. For years my routine was simple: do whatever the hell we do with our days when we are young and stupid …then go home and catch the monologue. We took it for granted.
And him… the man himself… Certainly he had flaws, and the media certainly made sure we knew all about them. But we didn’t care, did we? In fact we knew better…we knew that this was a man who was just so……good. At the deepest unconscious level the entire nation loved Johnny Carson. I certainly never met a soul who didn’t love Johnny or identify with him at an elemental level.
This was a guy who enjoyed life. He had FUN for a living. Not to discount how hard he worked. But once the lights came up and Ed McMahon let fly with “Heeeeere’s Johnny!”, you could expect that within about 30 seconds you were going to be laughing. It was a gift, a treasure. And we took him for granted.
Then one day we were suddenly told that NBC wasn’t going to be renewing Johnny’s contract. And not long afterward there were those last two shows; our last two nights with the legend. And a large portion of the country was there too; for above all else Johnny Carson embodied all that is great about America itself:
Good looks. A positive attitude, in fact this man was cocky. Ambitious and dynamic. Wealthy in a carefree way, but also generous. And above all generous in heart. We saw in Johnny everything we liked about ourselves and each other. Like a fellow Midwesterner, Ronald Reagan, Johnny Carson was a person who just made you feel good about yourself and lucky to be an American. And to lose men like Ronald Reagan, Ray Charles, and Johnny Carson, all within a year of each other: what a terrible body blow to our collective psyche. Now I know what Don McLean meant about “the day the music died…”
Imagine if countries like France had grown up with Johnny. How much better would they have understood us if only they had... because Johnny’s optimism and joy were contagious; there is no way any European could have gone through all that time with Carson without catching that optimism and goodwill. Which is why we were so very very lucky to have him here.
As with my father, it is going to take a while for the loss of Johnny Carson to sink in. When it does I hope I am better equipped to handle it than I was then. Probably I will be, because at least I am old enough to know now how lucky I was to have had him in my living room for all those years. But it is a stunning loss.
The great thing about Johnny Carson was that when he made you laugh, he didn’t really do it at the expense of others; for even those who were the brunt of his jokes were laughing with him too. For years my routine was simple: do whatever the hell we do with our days when we are young and stupid …then go home and catch the monologue. We took it for granted.
And him… the man himself… Certainly he had flaws, and the media certainly made sure we knew all about them. But we didn’t care, did we? In fact we knew better…we knew that this was a man who was just so……good. At the deepest unconscious level the entire nation loved Johnny Carson. I certainly never met a soul who didn’t love Johnny or identify with him at an elemental level.
This was a guy who enjoyed life. He had FUN for a living. Not to discount how hard he worked. But once the lights came up and Ed McMahon let fly with “Heeeeere’s Johnny!”, you could expect that within about 30 seconds you were going to be laughing. It was a gift, a treasure. And we took him for granted.
Then one day we were suddenly told that NBC wasn’t going to be renewing Johnny’s contract. And not long afterward there were those last two shows; our last two nights with the legend. And a large portion of the country was there too; for above all else Johnny Carson embodied all that is great about America itself:
Good looks. A positive attitude, in fact this man was cocky. Ambitious and dynamic. Wealthy in a carefree way, but also generous. And above all generous in heart. We saw in Johnny everything we liked about ourselves and each other. Like a fellow Midwesterner, Ronald Reagan, Johnny Carson was a person who just made you feel good about yourself and lucky to be an American. And to lose men like Ronald Reagan, Ray Charles, and Johnny Carson, all within a year of each other: what a terrible body blow to our collective psyche. Now I know what Don McLean meant about “the day the music died…”
Imagine if countries like France had grown up with Johnny. How much better would they have understood us if only they had... because Johnny’s optimism and joy were contagious; there is no way any European could have gone through all that time with Carson without catching that optimism and goodwill. Which is why we were so very very lucky to have him here.
As with my father, it is going to take a while for the loss of Johnny Carson to sink in. When it does I hope I am better equipped to handle it than I was then. Probably I will be, because at least I am old enough to know now how lucky I was to have had him in my living room for all those years. But it is a stunning loss.
