15 Things You Didn’t Know About Johnny Carson
He did better on camera than off.
Johnny Carson has been gone for 17 years now, and he is still considered the king of late-night comedy. Nobody has come close to having the same impact he had. I really don’t watch any late-night guys now. For a period of time, I watched Jay Leno, in part because I was submitting jokes to him, and even managed to sell to him. But Jay wasn’t close to being as good as Johnny.
Of course, David Letterman wasn’t either. Carson was the best combination of stand-up comic, skit player and interviewer TV has ever seen. But as good as he was as a talk show host, other aspects of his life weren’t so smooth. So, with that backdrop, here are some things you might not have known about Johnny Carson.
1: Johnny did some boxing while in the Navy.
He actually had a record of 10–0. That stands in stark contrast to his divorce settlement record of 0–3.
2: Johnny’s first TV show was based in Omaha and called ‘The Squirrel’s Nest.”
During the show, he would interview pigeons and get their insights on the questionable dealings of the politicians they saw.
