Johnny Carson Brother, 92-year-old Emmy Award-winning director – The Hollywood Reporter
Dick Carson, five-time Emmy Award-winning director who has directed parts of Merv Griffin Program, Rotation luck and, for his brother, Johnny Carson, Tonight’s show, has died. He is 92 years old.
Carson died on December 19 at his home in Studio City after a brief illness, his family announced.
Dick Carson moves from Los Angeles to New York to direct Tonight’s show shortly after Johnny informed him that he had been hired to succeed Jack Paar on NBC’s late-night show in 1962.
With Johnny unable to take on the show for months because he had a contract with ABC, Dick directed episodes that featured guests like Groucho Marx, Art Linkletter, Joey Bishop, Bob Cummings, Jan Murray, Mort Sahl , Jerry Lewis, Florence Henderson and Griffin until Johnny gets on board in October.
After nearly seven years, Dick Carson is gone Tonight’s show and returned to Los Angeles, where he directed an ABC variety show hosted by Don Rickles that lasted only 17 episodes between 1968-1969. He also did Get smart and Performances by Sammy Davis Jr. and directed and piloted advertising.
He called the pictures for Merv Griffin Program from 1972-86, winning Daytime Emmys for her work on talk shows in 1974, ’83 and ’85. During that time, he also started running for 22 years on the game show created by Griffin Rotation luck; he won two more Emmys for that before retiring in 1999.
The youngest of three children (Johnny Carson is over four years old), Richard Charles Carson was born on June 4, 1929, in Clarinda, Iowa. He and his family moved to Norfolk, Nebraska, where their father, Homer, worked in the public utility sector.
His brother “is my hero, you know,” Dick said in a 2015 interview for the DGA. “He fell in love with magic very early, very early. And start participating and start performing magic for different places. I’ll come along and carry luggage or bring props and the like. “
At the University of Nebraska, Dick acted in school plays and in the community theater in Lincoln before graduating from college in 1952, then serving three years in the United States Navy and another 11 years in the Reserve Force. by the United States Navy.
He directed commercials and local news and sports programs at KOGO-TV in San Diego, then joined KABC in LA as stage director and associate director in 1960, after that directs children’s shows. Chucko the Birthday Clown and Soupy . Sales Exhibition before he continues Tonight’s show.
Griffin’s first talk show set up at CBS to compete Tonight’s show, he noted in his DGA interview.
“I think Merv would love to have Johnny Carson’s brother there,” he said. “But first I called Johnny and I said, ‘John, you won’t believe it [this], I just got a call from the Griffins to direct his program, opposite you. And how or how does that affect you, what do you think? ‘ He said, ‘Hey, that’s work,’ because he stopped working many times in the early days. ‘It’s work.'”
Survivors include his wife of 33 years, Karlyn; children Douglas, Christopher and Kathleen; grandchildren Lindsey, Melissa and Chase; and the late niece Peyton. His 34-year-old first wife, Patricia, died in 1986.
Donations in his memory can be made to Providence St. Joseph.
