Flashback Friday: Johnny Carson

With the OSCARS this weekend, I remember when the late, great Johnny Carson hosted the ceremonies for a few years. Carson was a big part of our family's life and the reason we moved to Los Angeles. My Dad produced the now classic 1979 60 minutes interview with Mike Wallace. You can read more about it and see video clips by clicking here.

Dad won an Emmy for it. He went on to work with Carson on two other shows, producing and directing JOHNNY GOES HOME and JOHNNY CARSON'S GREATEST PRACTICAL JOKES. The latter was combined by NBC with DICK CLARK's TV BLOOPER specials and morphed into the 80's series, TV's BLOOPERS AND PRACTICAL JOKES, which my Dad produced and directed the practical jokes segments on.



Back in 1979, we were living in New York. I wrote a silly poem about Carson and mailed it to my Dad while he was in L.A. working on the 60 minutes interview. Unbeknownst to me, He showed it to Carson. A few days later, I got this in the mail...


On the back, Dad transcribed my poem, I was no Robert Frost....