Johnny

Johnny by _Ingrid_.

My father died a few days after Johnny Carson's last show... I watched the last show while in the hospital waiting room, which was my makeshift hotel room for a few days.

Dad didn't care much for watching The Tonight Show, always complaining about Carson's "dirty jokes" — like he'd never told any!

Thankfully, he would go to bed at about 11:30 anyway, so we'd still be able to watch the show.

I think that he was more turned off by Ed McMahon, actually, and I'd like to believe that one of his better moments while in the hospital was when I told him that the show was going off the air — that Mcmahon was losing a job.

Of all the many laughs I enjoyed watching the show, my favorite Carson moment took place when Richard Pryor made his first public appearance after he'd suffered major burns from a fire. As Johnny was about to go to commercial, he reached over (as he often did with guests) and lightly touched Pryor on his forearm.

Pryor then recoiled and howled as if in pain and Carson about crapped his pants as he thought he had done something to hurt Pryor. The look on Carson's face at that moment was priceless, as was the look of relief when he realized Pryor was joking.