Heeeere's Johnny! From Beyond the Grave...

Johnny Carson was the King of Late Night television and an all American class act

You folks know me. I've never been one to take sides, politically speaking. No, sir. I always prided myself on fairness, giving an audience to both ends of the political spectrum. Why, I interviewed President Reagan three times – twice when he was governor of California. And a lot of people think I had something to do with rehabilitating Bill Clinton's political image after that, uh, shall we say, enthusiastic speech of his at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Fair play has always been a hallmark of how I conducted myself on The Tonight Show, though we often took some liberties and had some laughs at the expense of some notable fellows. But there was always an understanding, you see, that The Tonight Show was for everyone: left and right, Republican and Democrat, and for everyone in between.

I have of late found myself here, trapped between worlds, between life and afterlife, and I've had the peculiar privilege of watching from this position the cultural and political changes that have occurred since my bodily departure in 2005. The country's changed, indeed so has the world, and this is to be expected. There are few things in the world that are quite as constant as change. It comes as no surprise to me that twenty years after my passing, our nation would be a different place than it was when I left it.

What I wasn’t prepared for however, is how drastically different late-night entertainment has become. Rather than being a non-partisan venue, designed mainly for laughs and secondarily for information, these late shows, well, they've become strongholds of political fervor. Perhaps the most poignant example these days is The Late Show. You know the one.

Now, late-night comedy shows, they're supposed to provide everyone with an opportunity to laugh at each other and to laugh at ourselves. Lord knows I had many moments on The Tonight Show when my face was pink with embarrassment, but that just goes with the job. I never considered myself above this vital part of the human experience; I always considered myself one of you. I never put my politics ahead of my mission: to make you laugh and to be a charming and welcome guest in your homes, night after night.

Stephen Colbert, bless his heart, doesn't seem to understand this purpose of late-night comedy. It's his personal soapbox. It's his show, and you, the viewer, are his guest. And if you don't subscribe to his particular political bent, then, well, you can just go and do something unpleasant to yourself. Fallon and Kimmel aren't much better, and together, those three represent a radical and unwholesome shift away from the true mission of late-night. Yeah, it's a shame.

It's a shame to see political fervor and entrenchment spoil what was, for decades, a winning formula that transcended the boundaries of person and party. Perhaps the demise of Colbert and the wholesale cancellation of The Late Show may serve as a chance to learn anew the formula that worked before, and then, maybe, we can begin again, together.

What do you say?