Johnny Carson, King of Late-Night TV, Dies at 79

　　Johnny Carson, the droll, puckish, near-effortless comedian who dominated late-night television for 30 years, tucking millions of Americans into bed as the host of the "Tonight" show, died yesterday in Los Angeles. He was 79.

　　The cause was the effects of emphysema, family members said.

　　Mr. Carson took over the "Tonight" show from Jack Paar on Oct. 1, 1962, and, preferring to retire at the top of his game, voluntarily surrendered it to Jay Leno on May 22, 1992. During those three decades, he became the biggest, most popular star American television has known. Virtually every American with a television set saw and heard a Carson monologue at some point in those years. At his height, between 10 million and 15 million Americans slept better weeknights because of him.

　　Mr. Carson was often called "the king of late night," and he wielded an almost regal power. Beyond his enormous impact on popular culture, Mr. Carson more than any other individual shifted the nexus of power in television from New York to Los Angeles, with his decision in 1972 to move his show from its base in Rockefeller Center in New York to NBC's West Coast studios in Burbank, Calif. That same move was critical in the changeover of much of television from live to taped performances.

　　In his monologue and in his time, Mr. Carson impaled the foibles of seven presidents and their aides as well as the doings of assorted nabobs and stuffed shirts from the private sector: corporate footpads and secret polluters, tax evaders, preening lawyers, idiosyncratic doctors, oily accountants, defendants who got off too easily and celebrities who talked too much.

　　All these oddments were sliced and diced so neatly, so politely, so unmaliciously, with so much alacrity, that even the stuffiest conservative Republicans found themselves almost smiling at Mr. Carson's Nixon-Agnew jokes and uptight doctrinaire liberal Democrats savored his pokes at Lyndon B. Johnson and the Kennedys. Members of the public couldn't say whether they were on Johnny Carson's side or he was on theirs. All they knew was that they liked him and felt they knew him - a claim most of those who were close to him in his life, including his wives, family and "Tonight" staff members, would not make with much confidence. They knew Mr. Carson was intensely private, a self-described loner who shunned the spotlight when off camera.

　　Still, Mr. Carson's scrubbed Midwestern presence was so appealing that he succeeded in unifying a fractious nation.

　　"Anyone looking at the show 100 years from now," said Tom Shales, the Washington Post television critic, at the time of Mr. Carson's retirement from "Tonight" in 1992, "will probably have no trouble understanding what made Carson so widely popular and permitted him such longevity. He was affable, accessible, charming and amusing, not just a very funny comedian but the kind of guy you would gladly welcome into your home."

　　During his reign, Mr. Carson was the most powerful single performer on television. He discovered or promoted new talent like Barbra Streisand and David Letterman; provided a consistent spotlight for show business warhorses like Don Rickles and Buddy Hackett; advanced the careers of emerging stars like Woody Allen, Steve Martin and, of course, his successor, Jay Leno; and helped keep older performers like Jimmy Stewart and William Demarest in the public eye. All the while he earned millions of dollars for himself and for his network, the National Broadcasting Company. In his heyday he generated approximately 17 percent of the network's total profit and was, by any reasonable assessment, its most lustrous star since Toscanini.He held an overwhelming majority of late-night viewers in the palm of his hand, and his show was the biggest single money-maker in television history.

　　For a generation every performer of any consequence eventually made a visit to Mr. Carson's famous couch. An appearance there often signaled a performer's official acceptance as a star. Generally these performers paid homage to Mr. Carson's position of influence in show business. He was a generous host, as long as he did not feel crossed. Those on the outs with Mr. Carson frequently saw their careers damaged - most memorably the comedian Joan Rivers, who went from being his most regular guest host to a pariah for daring to mount a late-night show to challenge his without first informing him.