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Just Folks. "I don't think there's ever been a mind like it in show business," says Ed Sullivan of Johnny, which may or may not be meant as praise. Steve Allen, who ran the Tonight show from 1953-1956, says that Carson "just doesn't look like show biz. He's got that just-folks, Kansas City-Oklahoma City look about him. He doesn't let that professionalism show through." Cartoonist Al Capp, a frequent visitor on the program (who is just now starting up his own late show in Boston) attests to Carson's "intellectual superiority" over the other sit-down comics. Says Capp: "Although he keeps the outward appearance of a bright-eyed Nebraska boy, he really isn't and couldn't play the part nearly so well if he were."
It may be that Carson is applying the McLuhanesque principle that "cool" performers are more popular on a "cool" medium like television than, say, a "hot" fast-talking cabaret comic. A relaxed, low-key operator like Johnny invites audience involvement, whereas someone like bellicose Les Crane, who preceded Joey Bishop on ABC, came on so strong that he blew the viewers right out of the bedroom.
Carson thus deliberately controls the temperature of discussion and avoids shooting of star shells. "People ask me," he says, " 'Why don't you have anything controversial on your show?' But all the shows that have tried to exist with that format have failed. Look at Mike Wal lace. Look at Les Crane. Anyway, people mistake what controversy means. We've talked about narcotics addiction, we've talked about civil rights, we've talked about liberalizing divorce and abortion laws. I've even discussed my own divorce. But it's all in the way you do it. Some people think controversy is inviting a homosexual on the show and asking him 'Should we legalize homosexuality?' That's not controversy—it's an obvious attempt to stir up sensation.
"I've always felt that a show that's on from 11:30 to 1 at night should be entertaining. I've never seen it chiseled in stone tablets that TV must be uplifting. Once you take yourself too seriously, as a humorist—or a comedian—once you start to pontificate, you lose your value as an entertainer. If you're a big movie star, you can do that sort of thing, because you're an actor: your audience sees you as somebody else, and when you step out of the part you're something different—it won't affect your work. But I'm myself on the show; I can't. I could name a lot of guys who have damaged their careers doing that kind of thing."
Switching Subjects. He was not referring to Jack Paar—the two politely decline to discuss each other—but it is true that Paar sometimes confused him self with Walter Lippmann, promulgated a foreign policy (pro-Castro) and in 1961, to the State Department's consternation, played the Berlin Wall. If he were still running Tonight today, Jack would probably be telecasting from a foxhole in Viet Nam, with Doris Day as his guest. On the