Johny Carson

I think the Children of God story was pre-empted on Sunday's Dateline NBC by a Johny Carson retrospective. I don't have a Johny Carson memorial on this blog because I was, like, 10 when he retired, but I do have a lot of respect for his Houdini-esque efforts to expose sham psychics and other fakers. (I hear Uri Geller is still trying to live down his appearance on Carson's show.) Nobody on network TV is doing this kind of thing today. No one dares put Sylvia Browne or Jonathan Edwards on the spot, even when they're spewing rivers of bulls*** on national TV.
At the same time, Carson was open-minded enough to invite people like Whitley Strieber on his show, giving them a chance to describe experiences that may not have actually happened, but were definitely real in their own minds.
I love Conan O'Brien, and Letterman's pretty cool, but I can't picture them doing some of the stuff that Johny Carson did.