Johnny Carson’s longtime friend and neighbor Howard Smith is reflecting on their friendship 20 years after the late-night ...

Johnny Carson‘s sacred legacy was invoked over and over as Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien vied for his “Tonight Show” throne this month. But who was Johnny, really? The lawyer, known to Carson ...

“Johnny packs a tight suitcase.” A reactive comedian, Carson stood just outside of a joke in case it tanked—and he could play off of that, too. It’s an ideal quality for a man tasked with ...

5. Nelson, who plays Andy, is 22. The actor didn’t know “much at all” about Carson before auditioning for the role. “I read Ed McMahon’s “Here’s Johnny!: My Memories of Johnny Carson ...

As his senior thesis, Carson produced a 45-minute recording, “How to Write Comedy for Radio,” which examined an approach to comedy and timing that would play out for the ... the idea of Johnny Carson, ...

Fifty years ago, Johnny ... Johnny Carson truly was. I thought that after having access to all this material, I would be able to pull the curtain a little bit further and see the man.

Offstage, nobody called him Johnny – not even when ... Zehme describes Carson, a loner who guarded his emotions, as “the man who wasn’t there, except that he was always there, night after ...

Johnny Carson was by all accounts an exceptionally secretive man offstage, as Americans watching him during the 30 years of his "Tonight Show" reign (1962-92) perhaps came to understand.

From Ed McMahon’s indelible introduction, “Heeeeere’s Johnny!” to the golf-swing pantomime that concluded each opening monologue, Carson turned “The Tonight Show”—pioneered by Steve ...