Bill Zehme, the premier magazine-profile writer of the 1990s, once told me that it was like he had two fathers. “Johnny,” he explained, “was the cool dad with the television show.”
At a time when U.S. presidential candidates are fielding questions from a mulletted YouTuber named Theo Von and appearing on Call Her Daddy, it’s impossible to overstate the role Johnny Carson filled during his 30 years on television. In an era when we were a collective culture, with a common experience, he was much more than a talk-show host. Like Walter Cronkite, Carson was America.
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