YMMV / The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

• Growing the Beard: While the show always had hilarious moments, shortening the show from an hour and a half to one hour in 1980 really helped the pacing (some of those 1 ½ hour episodes could get a bit protracted).
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In David Letterman's time as a guest shortly after it was announced that Jay Leno was succeeding Carson, Johnny asked if Dave could imagine doing the job for another 20 years. Dave broke out into laughter at the thought. In the end, Dave would go on to host for over 20 years more, before his eventual retirement in 2015. He ended up hosting Late Night and The Late Show for a total of 33 years, just a few more than Johnny himself.
  • One monologue joke from 1983 is about how Charles Bronson is going to star in a Gandhi sequel where the titular character gets revenge ("Gandhi 2: No more Mr. Nice Guy! Rated R!"). In 1989, UHF would do a similar parody.
  • In a 1992 episode, Johnny asked guest Arnold Schwarzenegger if he had any political aspirations. He replied no. He obviously changed his mind a little over a decade from then (and announced his candidacy during another Tonight Show interview to boot).
• Never Live It Down: One night Ed McMahon appeared on the show visibly intoxicated. From then on, he found it impossible to escape jokes about his purported drunkenness from comedians and wags, not to mention Carson himself. In truth, it was Carson who had an alcohol problem in his private life, which led to him being arrested for drunk driving in 1982. Even Saturday Night Live eventually acknowledged this; in a skit that parodied one of Carson's anniversary retrospectives, they had McMahon, played by Phil Hartman, say "You were the one with the drinking problem" to Dana Carvey's Carson.
• Padding: The original broadcasts often held on the "More to Come" screens for upwards of a minute in some cases. The Antenna TV airings heavily trim these down to only a few seconds, greatly improving the pacing.
• Parody Displacement: Ed's introduction "Heeeere's Johnny!" has been completely usurped in the public consciousness by its use in The Shining, with many people who grew up afterwards likely assuming the quote is original to the film.