A little bit of ranting never hurt nobody!

 
:::johnny:::

"And so it has come to this..."



I had the honor of growing up during the "Late Night" wars. David Letterman, Arsenio Hall, Chevy Chase, Magic Johnson...and so many others. But I'll never forget hearing those words that night in 1992, tearing up along with my parents, as the true King stepped down graciously and humbly after 30 years. I'll never forget when I finally became old enough that my parents would let me stay up and watch the monologue with them before I went to bed. If I didn't understand something he was talking about, my parents would always encourage me to look it up in the newspaper or other sources. Yes, you could say that Johnny was my political science and pop culture teacher growing up. Then, through my Jr. High and High School years, I would stay up and watch his mastery as an interviewer...always making the person in the other seat shine, and always coming out looking and smelling like a rose even when the person was as dull as a plastic spoon. I loved his comedy bits, his wonderful band, his ever-faithful sidekick Ed, and those God-awful ugly curtains. Through it all, it was that little smile, the ability to poke fun at himself when a joke bombed, and his way with the people who were invited on his show that made it work.

I think David Letterman summed it up very well in his statement:

"All of us who came after are pretenders. We will not see the
likes of him again. A night doesn't go by that I don't ask
myself, 'What would Johnny have done?' He has been greatly missed
since his retirement. Thank God for videotapes and DVDs. In this
regard, he will always be around. He was the best, a star and a
gentleman."

Thank you, Johnny. Thanks for all the laughs and for being one of the classiest acts to ever come out of the "Media Machine." There will never be another one of you. God bless your family in this difficult time. Godspeed, and goodnight.

Peace out, yo.

posted by Stacie @ 4:27 AM