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To people under 35, Johnny Carson was at best a pop culture reference in old movies and TV shows: Jack Nicholson chopping in the door shouting "Heeeeere's Johnnnny!" to a terrified Shelley Duvall in The Shining; Bette Midler serenading Krusty the Clown on his last show on The Simpsons; Dana Carvey saying everything was "weird, wild stuff" as Johnny on Saturday Night Life. At worst, Carson was a dated curio, a Trivial Pursuit stumper.

But for an entire generation, he was a perpetual presence, a member of the family. Often he was funny, more often he was corny: but he was there every night to put a the punch line on another long day.

To prepare ourselves for the onslaught of tributes we're sure to endure from Leno, Letterman, Conan, and others this week, we went back and read Bill Zehme's June 2002 Esquire profile of the legend in exile, The Man Who Retired. Here's Zehme on Johnny's last show:

On his 4,530th night, which was his last one, he left the air and climbed into clouds. Per his instruction, an emotional-rescue mission was deployed to swiftly pluck him, via helicopter, from the teary backwash spilling through the Tonight Show studio, where he had just tendered his on-camera resignation. Within minutes, he and his blond bride, the former Alexis Maas (the fourth Mrs. Carson), had risen high above NBC's Burbank quadrant, leaving behind lachrymose staff members and a puddling audience of invited guests. (More to the point was dodging thick flocks of media buzzards eager to pounce.) "When he finished, off he went," recalls Ed McMahon...


The Man Who Retired [Esquire, sub. required]
Johnny Carson, America's Late-Night Host, Dies at 79 [NYT]
Johnny Carson on the cover of TIME, May 19, 1967 [TIME]
Johnny Carson and David Letterman on the cover of Rolling Stone, Nov. 3, 1988 [RS]
Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, and Merv Griffin on the cover of Esquire, May 1971 [Esquire]