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Variety Performers
It was in the variety performers that Carson's show was nothing special. The singers you'd expect, and only now and then one that seemed to matter to him (he loved Melissa Manchester, which was fine because so do I!)
The show that really used that variety slot was Letterman's, and whether the choices were his or his bookers', the fact remains that time after time I saw performers on Letterman long before they hit big, and some of the wonderful quirky choices that never became really huge are still favorites of mine. OK, so he could never quite get over the name of "Hootie and the Blowfish" — I still heard them first on his show. And those women who did an a capella version of one of the songs from Handel's Messiah still linger in my mind ... even if I can't remember their name.
As for the other mainstay of variety, the comedian, Letterman and Leno can both point to successes in introducing somebody new. But they're both drawing from the same smallish pool of available comics, and, unlike Carson, there's a sense that Letterman and Leno are still at the same level as the comedians who come to perform, while Carson had clearly moved beyond. The fact that Leno is still doing stand-up in his spare time is both a plus and a minus. It keeps his monologues better, since he can try out the material; but when comedians come on there's a collegial attitude that doesn't work. He's a buddy, not the host. As for Letterman, he was never all that good at stand-up, and he still kills his own jokes with his embarrassed-to-be-caught-trying delivery. Letterman has killed more good writing out of pure self- consciousness than most comics ever get a chance to deliver.
Carson was the man whose imprimatur could make a career. Neither Leno nor Letterman has that power, because neither of them has mastered Carson's aren't-monologues-a-gas style.
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