My memories of Johnny...

[hollywood926]

When I was serving in the Gulf during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, I briefly became pen-pals with Johnny Carson's assistant. She was great and she told me she read one of my letters to him and he said I was funny. I never knew whether she was telling me the truth (I think she was!), but that's one of the reasons I now live in L.A. and am trying to make it as a writer.

A year or two later, I was back in the States and I remember staying up to watch his final episode, with Bette Midler sitting on his desk and serenading him as he fought back tears...

And when I moved here, his was the first celebrity house I wanted to see. He lived in Malibu, right around the corner from Streisand.

Now...as I sit here three weeks smoke-free, I have to hear that smoking has claimed yet another.

So sad. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

R.I.P. Johnny.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. The best known memory of his shows, and I had the luck to have actually

seen it as it happened, was the night that Ed Ames demonstrated his talent with a tomahawk. Remember that one?
It turned out to be the longest sustained laugh in TV history. And Johnny of course came up with his typical one-liner. "Welcome to Frontier Briss".

[graywarrior]

2. What a classy guy he was.

I was just thinking of him the other day. There'll never be another Johnnie.

[yellowdogintexas]

3. My favorite was the 'whipped cream, leather suit, necktie snipping,

egg smashing slapstick orgy" with Johnny, Burt Reynolds, Dom Deluise and Ed.

That absolutely had me in the floor in pain I laughed so hard.

Burt came out in the leather suit, and Johnny made some sort of comment about it and one thing led to another and they started attaching one another with whipped cream, burt cut off Johnny's tie, and it just got messier and messier, and Deluis comes out with a dozen eggs and smashes them on everyone's head.

One of those golden free for all moments that just happen....