In the 1990s, Johnny Carson’s talk show was playing on television in every home in the United States. Despite the fact that this show paved the way for modern-day talk shows, it still raised a lot of eyebrows. Johnny Carson often offended people with his jokes, many of which were on the topic of celebrities. Today, many of his jokes wouldn’t have been questioned, but in the 90s people responded differently to dark humor. Carson’s personal life wasn’t perfect, either. He had many deep secrets that he was hiding, including failed marriages and down-low celeb feuds he was involved in!
Horrible Honeymoon
Everyone who watched Johnny on television thought he was a funny and charismatic guy; they saw him on TV and thought they knew him. Though he won the hearts of his fans on TV, he wasn’t the same friendly guy in real life when the cameras weren’t rolling. He had a dark side, a mean personality, and those close to him in his personal life, especially his fourth wife Alexis Maas, did not find it so charming. After tying the knot, Johnny’s character changed around his wife. On their honeymoon cruise to Italy, Johnny and Alexis got into an argument and Johnny yelled at Alexis saying, “We have only been married for three weeks. If I hear you saying something like that again, don’t expect this marriage to last another three.” Soon enough, many stars around Hollywood also knew of his bad personality.
Horrible Honeymoon
Family Similarities
It was publicly known that Johnny Carson had a drinking problem, and unfortunately for those around him when he drank too much his mean behavior got even worse. In 1987 NBC threw Carson a party on the Queen Mary, and his son, Rick, who also battled with alcoholism, was there in attendance. Rick got out of control at the party, which was not a good idea, given the fact that there were many high-profile people at this gathering. The sight of his son in this state infuriated Johnny, and he started screaming at his son. He almost hit him, but luckily someone caught him in time before he did such a thing.
Family Similarities
Bad Father
Johnny had three children with his first wife- all sons. He never had other children with his next three wives, only with his first wife. Back in these days, some people saw mental illness as a socially-unacceptable issue and felt that people who suffered from mental illnesses should not be allowed in public. Johnny was one of the people who felt this way, and the fact that one of his sons suffered from a mental illness was not acceptable to him. He refused to visit his son while he was in a mental hospital. Devastatingly, his son Rick’s life ended abruptly after he got into a car accident that killed him instantly. Johnny paid a tribute to his son on his show, but that does not fix the years of troubles they had that he’d now never be able to fix.
Bad Father
His Arrest
Johnny Carson was not immortal to the fact that people do unacceptable things when they’re drunk, and given the fact that he battled alcoholism and was drunk quite often, you can probably guess that he got himself into bad situations quite frequently. In 1982 Carson was pulled over and arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. He was charged with a misdemeanor but was let off with probation and a mandated driving class for alcohol responsibility while operating a vehicle. Johnny was no longer allowed to drive unless he was going to or from work, and he was not allowed to have any sort of living creature– human or animal– in the car with him.
His Arrest
Being Upfront
Carson knew that he couldn’t completely hide the fact that he had a drinking problem, so he was open to acknowledging it, but at the same time, he tried to avoid the media because he didn’t want his life exploited. He was recognizing that he had a problem, and this made him want to change the way he addressed these jokes on his show. In an interview with 60 Minutes that took place in 1977, Carson openly admitted that he had an alcohol problem, and even said that he and Ed McMahon used to get drunk together. He was aware of the fact that he did not handle his alcohol well, but he also wasn’t changing his lifestyle. Later on, some celebs boycotted his show because they saw him as being a “mean-spirited human being.” Who was this?
Being Upfront
Unfaithful
Johnny Carson’s second marriage to Joanna Copeland was unconventional and quite questionable. They met in 1960 and decided to get married three years later. Not long after the pair got married, they both cheated on one another; Joanna cheated on Carson with a sports figure named Frank Gifford, and Carson cheated on his wife with multiple different women. After nine years of marriage, the two decided to get divorced, which was something nobody was surprised to hear. Even after their divorce, Joanna still supported Johnny’s professional aspirations, as she believed he could be quite successful with his show. Who did Johnny see as being responsible for the failed marriage?
Unfaithful
Terrible Marriage
Though Johnny indeed cheated on Joanne, he still felt upset to know that she also cheated on him. His former lawyer and friend Henry Bushkin wrote a tell-all book about Johnny in 2013, where he held no detail out about Joanne’s affair with Frank Gifford. He said that Johnny asked him to find proof that she was cheating on him by sneaking into the home in which the affair was taking place. Henry recalls seeing Johnny devastated by his failed marriage, and that Johnny had a gun but did not know why.
Terrible Marriage
Lawyer And Detective
At first Henry was extremely against going to sneak into the home to see if Joanne was cheating, but eventually, he agreed. He found surefire signs that Joanne had been there, like seeing her undergarments around the home. After finding out she was cheating, Johnny fell into a dark place and started binge-drinking again. Despite this affair, Joanna and Frank never developed their affair into anything more than that. Frank ended up marrying Kathie Lee Gifford many years later and she was seen on TV joking about the affair.
Lawyer And Detective
Bad Guests
It was a frequent thing for Johnny to interview guests on his talk show, and it’s only natural that he enjoyed the presence of some guests more than others. Johnny spoke openly about the fact that Bob Hope was one of the guests that Johnny hated interviewing on his show most. Bob Hope was also a TV celeb, but he was not seen as being as funny as Johnny. Instead of sitting down for an engaging conversation on the show with Johnny, he said that Bob brought in pre-scripted jokes, which made Johnny’s job difficult. Because everything in Bob’s head was scripted, there was nothing for Johnny to discuss with him. Carson was a very intelligent man and wanted to discuss real-world topics with his guests, which he couldn’t do with Bob Hope.
Bad Guests
Hopeless Situation
Despite Johnny not enjoying Bob Hope being on his show, he kept inviting him back and seemed to regret it each time. Carson kept getting angry that Hope could not understand any of the questions he was trying to ask. Hope’s team gave Carson notes for the show that he had to follow word for word, as Bob studied the answers he should say in this exact order. If Carson did even the slightest thing like going out of order, it may be embarrassing because Bob may answer a different question! Hope’s age and health were catching up with him, and it wasn’t a secret. Johnny wasn’t so sensitive to the topic of aging, though. Once, he told one of his writers, “If I ever end up like that, guys, I want you to shoot me.”
Hopeless Situation
He Couldn’t Stay Away From Women
Even though Johnny Carson was married, that did not stop him from having romantic interactions with women other than his wife. While he was mid-divorce from Joanne, he had an affair with a model named Angel Tompkins. His lawyer told him bluntly that if he got caught cheating he would likely forfeit his divorce settlement, but he didn’t care. Despite unfaithfulness ruining his second marriage, that didn’t make Johnny change his ways. His third wife, Joanna, was also a victim of his wandering eyes. He tried to make up for it by buying her lavish gifts left and right, including a Rolls-Royce and a beautiful apartment, but eventually, their marriage also came to an end due to his actions. So, who did Johnny blame for his failed marriages?
He Couldn’t Stay Away From Women
Like Mother, Like Son
While everyone has issues and stresses in their life, Johnny seemed to have more issues than anyone else. It almost seemed as though he had problems in every area of his life: family, love life, relationships with friends, everything. He only had one person to blame for facing so many stressful problems in his life. That person was someone who he described as being “cold and heartless.” Johnny Carson blamed his mother, Ruth, for all of his life problems. He never had anything pleasant to say about the woman who brought him into this world. He blamed her for all four of his failed marriages and said that she messed with his life. He hated her so much that he didn’t even attend her funeral, and said, “The wicked witch is dead” when he found out. If he spoke this way toward his mother, just wait to hear how he spoke about his enemies.
Like Mother, Like Son
Distasteful Jokes
Johnny had a bad tendency to blurt out extremely distasteful jokes, oftentimes with the target being overweight women. Johnny was never afraid to tell a fat joke, and he did not care whose feelings he hurt or who he offended in the process of telling his joke. Raymond Burr used to be the target of Johnny’s fat jokes far too often, and after appearing on The Tonight show twice- in 1968 and 1976, he decided he had too much and said he’d never be on the show again.
Distasteful Jokes
Goodbye Aladdin
Johnny almost purchased the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 1980 but decided to back out for an unclear reason. Though it was his choice to leave the deal and let his competition, Wayne Newton, purchase the hotel, he was seen negatively in the media as having lost some sort of competition. This negative spotlight upset Johnny because he thought the event had no reason to be such a highlight in the media. To get back at the guy who bought the hotel, Johnny started making fun of his masculinity on his show. During these times, being seen as strong and masculine was extremely important to most men, and these jokes took a big hit to Newton’s confidence.
Goodbye Aladdin
Public Feud
After a while, Wayne Newton started growing more irritated by listening to Johnny Carson’s jokes about him. He went on Larry King Live and said angrily, “Johnny Carson is a mean-spirited human being. He was deeply hurt by people for some reason, and at one point, he decided to take all his pain and anger out on me.” Newton had enough and was done letting Carson make rude and immature jokes about him. He decided to make the move to go to Carson’s office and threaten to fight him if he didn’t stop telling horrible jokes about him. Carson agreed to stop, and surprisingly, he never told a joke about Wayne Newton ever again.
Public Feud
Was He Jealous?
One of the fellow stars that Johnny Carson had a problem with was Tom Snyder, who was the host of The Tomorrow Show. Johnny thought that Snyder was a boring person and had nothing to offer him. Unlike Johnny, a vast majority of America loved Tom Snyder. After The Tomorrow Show ended, he started hosting The Late Late Show. Carson hated him so much, in fact, that he went on a violent and loud rant one night at a pub about how much he hated him. The entire pub heard what he had to say.
Was He Jealous?
Battle With Joan and John
After being guest stars on The Tonight Show, Joan Rivers and John Davidson started their own talk shows, of which the airing times overlapped with Johnny Carson’s. This upset him greatly, as he felt they had betrayed him. For the two years that Joan Rivers’ show aired on Fox, but it got canceled in 1987. When Joan appeared for an interview on Larry King Live, she said that Johnny never spoke to her again and that starting her talk show ruined their friendship. They weren’t the only celebs that Johnny cut off, though. Who else did he cut ties with?
Battle With Joan And John
A Secret Love?
After everything happened with Johhny and Joan Rivers, people started to speculate that their relationship was more than just a professional one. In Joan Rivers’ book, she admitted that during her marriage with Edgar Rosenberg, she had an affair with Johnny Carson. It makes more sense to think that there was more to Johnny’s anger toward Joan other than the start of her own talk show; perhaps his anger and lashing out had to do with their secret relationship. Unfortunately, Edgar committed suicide a few years later, leaving Joan and her daughter Melissa behind.
A Secret Love?
Joan Thought Johnny Was Talented
Joan Rivers was known for her extremely blunt personality, and when she was approached by reporters at LAX in 2014, they asked her what she thought about Johnny Carson’s manhood, to which she responded, “I saw it in real life. How do you think I got on the show in the first place?!” In the book that Joan wrote, she openly spoke about how she had more than just a professional relationship with Johnny. In addition, she mentioned that he had a sex tape and that she wanted to watch it. Of course, with Joan Rivers’ personality, these comments did not come without snide comments.
Joan Thought Johnny Was Talented
Toilet Paper Crisis
Johnny made a joke in 1973 about the world running out of toilet paper, which he meant very much just as a joke, but his viewers didn’t find it to be so funny. Before he knew it, thousands of people who were watching his show were turning their televisions off to run out to the store and stock up on toilet paper. Because of this mass-influx of toilet paper purchase, there actually was a shortage for a few weeks! Johnny made a formal apology about his joke, and the New York Times took this opportunity to discuss how the public mass spreads gossip.
Toilet Paper Crisis
Not Your Name
After Johnny’s toilet paper joke, the owner of a portable toilet company tried to name the brand “Here’s Johnny.” The problem here was that this was the same name as Ed McMahon used to introduce Johnny on the show. Of course, Johnny Carson sued this company owner, and after 10 years of court dates, the judge decided to agree with Carson. Still today, the owner of this company is trying to get rights to this name.
Not Your Name
Messing With Mr. Rogers
Johnny Carson thought it would be funny if he did a Mr. Rogers skit on his show, but the problem was that nobody thought it was funny. Mr. Rogers was a beloved television icon who aimed to spread love and kindness to his viewers. He wanted everyone to be a good person and be kind to one another, but when Johnny Carson made a joke about Mr. Rogers asking children to steal money from their parents to finance his show, everyone decided he took it too far. He ended up apologizing to Mr. Rogers for his tasteless sketch, but it left a bad feeling with many viewers.
Messing With Mr. Rogers
A Favor For Frank
Frank Sinatra produced President Reagan’s Inaugural Gala in 1981 and wanted Johnny Carson to be the host. Carson had no choice but to say yes, as Sinatra referred to this as a “personal favor”, so it would be insulting for Carson to say no. It wasn’t until Carson was already at the gala that he found out it was actually President Reagan who requested for him to be there, not Frank Sinatra. This upset Carson, as he said, “Ronnie does know that I answered my country’s call once already, doesn’t he?” He proceeded to throw negative comments about Sinatra around all evening, but the cherry on top of his horrible night was seeing Dean Martin show up. Johnny refused to introduce him during the Gala.
A Favor For Frank
No Hope For The Future
There were a lot of very upset and saddened fans when Johnny Carson passed away in 2005. His legacy and nickname of being the “King Of Late Night Television” will live on, but he did not have very high hopes for what was to come in the future of late-night TV. Carson mentioned to Peter Jones that he was disappointed in the direction television was headed in, with the rise of tabloids and reality TV. “He had said he was sickened by what was going on and was glad he got out when he did,” Jones mentioned.
No Hope For The Future
Didn’t Like Richard Little
You’ve likely heard the phrase “if you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen”, and this is a time when Johnny Carson should’ve been told this. Richard Little, an American-Canadian impressionist, recalls how deeply Johnny Carson hated him. He said that he was banned from his show because Johnny was just too sensitive to handle Little’s jokes. He seemed as though he could say whatever he wanted about others, but he could not handle others speaking poorly about him. In all fairness, though, other people felt the same way about Little’s jokes. Henry Bushkin said he believed that Richard Little brought out the worst in Johnny.
Didn’t Like Richard Little
The Matinee Lady
Carol Wayne, a model and actress who was well-known as the “Matinee Lady”, worked closely with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. She was seen as being the “dumb blonde”, and many thought there was no one who could play this role better than Carol. In 1985 Carol had a mysterious death at a resort in Mexico, and everyone on the show decided it was best to refrain from replacing her on the show for a year to pay tribute to her. After a year, they re-cast someone else for the show.
The Matinee Lady
Her Questionable Decisions
When the new show, Late Night With David Letterman, made its way to TV, the Tonight Show got shortened from 90 minutes to 60 minutes. Because of this, some skits, including Carol’s role, had to be cut. Her lack of a paycheck made it hard for her to make ends meet and she started using drugs to try and deal with her problems. She started a relationship with Edward Durston, who was a car salesman. They went on a trip together to Mexico, and that is where she mysteriously passed away. Apparently the two got into a fight before she died.
Her Questionable Decisions
Her Mysterious Death
Shortly after Carol’s death, a few fishermen found her body floating in the Mexican bay. As this water was only about 4 feet deep, the thought that she drowned was far from peoples’ minds. According to the autopsy report, she did not have drugs or alcohol in her body, so even to this day, her death is a mystery. The employees of the hotel where she and Ed were staying were the ones who identified her body because Ed had already flown back to the United States by then. Reports state that Ed left Carol’s belongings at the airport. Even though there is no concrete evidence that Ed had something to do with her death, it is what many people speculate.
Her Mysterious Death
Can These Deaths Be Linked?
Other than Carol Wayne, Ed Durston was also present when another woman died. Diane Linkletter–the daughter of TV icon Art Linkletter–fell from a six-story-tall apartment building in 1969. Art thinks that her accident was due to a flashback caused by her LSD addiction. After she died, Art ended his TV career and started campaigning about the harms of drug use. Some people find it a bit more of a coincidence that Durston was present during both Carol and Diane’s deaths, but he was never taken to court for these deaths.
Can These Deaths Be Linked?
Johnny’s Jokes Were Not Up To Paar
Before Johnny Carson began his career with The Tonight Show, Jack Paar was the beloved host from 1957 until 1962. Paar also came with his own baggage and scandals, like his interview with Fidel Castro. One time, he made a joke that was so inappropriate that it was actually censored on air. Paar left the show very unexpectedly, in fact, he left in the middle of an episode! Right after his joke got censored he got up and walked out after saying, “This is my last night at The Tonight Show. There just has to be a better way of making a living other than this. Thank you, for always being peachy to me.”
Johnny’s Jokes Were Not Up To Paar