You know you are getting old when:

[tonyb]

… you watch a late-night TV talk show for the first time in a long time and you are familiar with none of the guests.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

… you watch a late-night TV talk show for the first time in a long time and you are familiar with none of the guests.

And who are those hosts?

 

[tonyb]

And who are those hosts?

That too.

 

[GHT]

And who are those hosts?

The UK had a TV journalist who hosted one of those late night shows, his name was Michael Parkinson. Anybody who was anybody wanted to be a guest on what everyone knew as Parky.

There was a photo of him in the newspaper today, his appearance came as a shock, then I learned that he has been battling cancer. Here he is at the age of eighty-eight, and as I remember him on TV.

 

[belfastboy]

… you watch a late-night TV talk show for the first time in a long time and you are familiar with none of the guests.

I watch "The Voice" from time to time. More often than not the singers choose songs/singers of which I have no knowledge whatsoever and apparently the singers are stars and the songs are hits.

 

[belfastboy]

I came across the name of a former boss (my mentor). I immediately flashed in my mind a picture of him from back then, his wife and two young boys. It then hit me......his 'young' boys would now be over 50 years old...........damn I must be old.

 

[tonyb]

I know the names of a couple-three late night talk show hosts, but others came and went without ever entering my consciousness.

Most Americans over age 50 or so would say “Johnny Carson” when asked to name the archetypal talk show host. He left his gig more than 30 years ago and has been dead since 2005, yet he remains the standard.

A person might think the model would have run its course by now. But no, every major entertainment network and a few minor ones still have shows following the same basic format.

 

[tonyb]

I watch "The Voice" from time to time. More often than not the singers choose songs/singers of which I have no knowledge whatsoever and apparently the singers are stars and the songs are hits.

It would seem that popular music (and other entertainments) most appeal to a younger audience. Most people prefer the pop from their earlier years.

I recall telling a younger fellow, a fan of “classic rock” (a somewhat oxymoronic phrase) that was current decades before he was born, that most popular music from that era was as instantly forgettable as most of what’s being produced today. The better stuff is what survives. I suppose that’s generally true of “Golden Era” (1930s through the early post-war years) popular entertainment as well.

 

[GHT]

I recall telling a younger fellow, a fan of “classic rock” (a somewhat oxymoronic phrase) that was current decades before he was born, that most popular music from that era was as instantly forgettable as most of what’s being produced today. The better stuff is what survives. I suppose that’s generally true of “Golden Era” (1930s through the early post-war years) popular entertainment as well.

A classic example of that, Tony, is Christina Aguilera's remake of The Andrew's Sisters' "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." The title was changed to: "Candyman," so I guess most of those who made it a hit had never heard the 1941 version.

 

[Trenchfriend]

This song really helped my through a bad time in 2008. And when I think about, that this is FIFTEEN years ago, wow! But it absolutely feels like yesterday.

 

[steve u]

You know you are getting old when: Days are long,but months and years go fast.​

 

[tonyb]

This song really helped my through a bad time in 2008. And when I think about, that this is FIFTEEN years ago, wow! But it absolutely feels like yesterday.

Fifteen years ago feels like yesterday because it was yesterday.

Don’t blink.

 

[tonyb]

A classic example of that, Tony, is Christina Aguilera's remake of The Andrew's Sisters' "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." The title was changed to: "Candyman," so I guess most of those who made it a hit had never heard the 1941 version.

And this is the first I‘ve ever heard of it. You prompted me to look into it. It‘s from more than a decade ago. And the video? Sexxxxxy! And there’s really nothing subtle about those lyrics.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I came across a journal I kept in 2003, and in one entry I was complaining about watching David Letterman, and how I could remember when he "used to be funny." Now he seems like a figure out of the Byzantine Age.

 

[Tiki Tom]

There was a time when one of the litmus tests of being in the know —or even cool— was that you had to know who the Tonight Show host was. Preferably you even made a point of catching his monologue. I suspect that those days are long gone.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
Carson often took days off and the show filled his seat with guest hosts, especially in the later years of his tenure, when the show was cut to 60 minutes from 90 and his work week to three shows.

Our TV offerings were far fewer then. I doubt any of our more recent talk show hosts will ever occupy such a large place in the public consciousness.

I was a fan. Still am. Johnny Carson was a regular part of my life for nearly 30 years.

 

[Zombie_61]

There was a time when one of the litmus tests of being in the know —or even cool— was that you had to know who the Tonight Show host was. Preferably you even made a point of catching his monologue. I suspect that those days are long gone.

I didn't even know The Tonight Show was still in production; I had to look it up. Not that it matters--I'm now at the age when I have no idea about who 90% of the guests are or why they're on television.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Never mind Johnny Carson. Ed McMahon (sp?) was the guy who I always wondered about. Thirty years of getting paid to be Johnny’s wingman and to laugh at his jokes? Yikes. No, thanks.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The idea of announcer-as-stooge goes all the way back to Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Wallington on radio in 1931. Some announcers, who were good at stooging, -- Wallington, Harry Von Zell, Don Wilson, George Fenneman, to name a few -- could make a very very good living at it. McMahon never had need to fear the wolf at the door.

 

[tonyb]

I hesitate to read Henry Bushkin’s biography of Johnny Carson, because it seems a violation of a largely unspoken code.

“Bombastic Buskin” was Carson’s lawyer and friend (of sorts) for several years. Bushkin’s “warts and all” account of his former client amounts to capitalizing on that connection and, in my book, comes awfully close to crossing an ethical line. And besides, I’ve already heard of most of the salacious bits in his book, so why bother with it at this point?

Bushkin wouldn’t have been the first to tell of the enigma that was Johnny Carson. He wasn’t a saint, but he was the best at what he did. As David Letterman, who was close to Carson, put it on the occasion of his death, every talk show host who came after owes his livelihood to Johnny Carson.

Kenneth Tynan’s New Yorker magazine profile of Carson from 1978 is as enlightening as Nancy Franklin’s remembrance of him from 2005 is touching. So read that and skip Bushkin. It’ll take less time, and is likely more engaging.

If there ever was a celebrity with wide public appeal, that celebrity would be Johnny Carson.

To this day I tell myself and others silly enough to heed my advice to “do a Johnny Carson, not a Bob Hope” when contemplating a career move. Get out while people will still be sorry to see you go, and not when they get to whispering about when this guy is gonna step aside.