The other, a moment in the middle of the show where Carson asked the audience if he could get serious. The studio quieted down, and he pulled out a copy of the National Enquirer, which had printed an article about his marriage headed for divorce. He addressed the camera directly: "I have not seen this until this morning. Now, before I get into this or say any more, I want to go on record right here in front of the American public because this is the only forum I have. They have this publication, I have this show. This is absolutely, completely, 100 percent falsehood ... I'm going to call the National Enquirer, and the people who wrote this, liars. Now that's slander. They can sue me for slander. You know where I am, gentlemen."

The move required balls of steel, and said to the world that "The Tonight Show" might be fun and games, but don't fuck with John William Carson. The Enquirer would print more stories about him, but they never sued.

It wasn't easy to be Johnny Carson. Nobody could tape 5,000 shows, interview 23,000 guests, without sacrificing some amount of personal life to the darkness. He ran through three wives and four producers, and developed a reputation as temperamental and emotionally distant. His three sons didn't see him that often, unless they worked on the show. A long struggle with the booze led to headlines for a drunken driving arrest. During one interview, he snapped at a journalist for not doing his homework and walked away from the table, leaving his then-publicist Gary Stevens to defuse the scene. At parties he either did card tricks, or didn't show up at all, preferring to stay home and tinker with hobbies like archery and astronomy. Other than endorsing a men's clothing line and producing the film "The Big Chill," most business investments were washouts: the DeLorean automobile, a savings and loan bank, TV sitcoms with Gabe Kaplan and Angie Dickinson, a bid to purchase the Aladdin Hotel in Vegas. His first and only concern was always the show. He'd worked in television since its inception and knew the golden rule: If the ratings dipped, you were history.

	Print story E-mail story

Running a talk show takes its toll on the host. Jack Paar would start crying and walk off the set. Dick Cavett has been hospitalized for depression. The newer successors like Letterman, Bill Maher, Conan O'Brien, Miller, Leno -- all of them reek of neuroses. But what sets Carson apart from them is that he exposed so much of himself for so many years. He went through his divorces and experienced colossal business failures, and yet somehow he was able to make it endearing to an audience. With the exception of Letterman on occasion, the next generation seems more internalized and tightly wrapped, less skillful at interviewing and more interested in interrupting with a funny line. What do we really know about any of them, except that Leno works hard and collects cars, Letterman has a mother and Maher jerks off before taping his show?

He threatened to retire for years, but kept renewing his contract, knowing that this was really all he had -- that the audience would never accept him as anything other than himself. Although he was successful as host of the Academy Awards, his lone film appearance was in a forgotten 1964 musical "Looking for Love," with Connie Francis. As the 1990s loomed, Carson found himself competing for ratings with more shows, more networks, more celebrities. Rather than end up like Jack Benny and Bob Hope -- tottering geriatrics, wobbling before the cameras to gasp a final breath of life-giving applause -- Carson saw the writing on the wall. He was in his late '60s, as was McMahon, and producer Freddie DeCordova was even older. America's sensibilities had in many ways surpassed theirs: less sexist, less Anglo-centric, less mannered. "The Tonight Show" was dated. Late-night comedy now belonged to Letterman and "Saturday Night Live." The old men had their fun, they made their money. It was time to step out of the way.

Click here to send a Brilliant Careers postcard, visit the Brilliant Career archives or check out audio and video highlights.