It's worth commenting on Carson's passing, even though I know everyone already has. I can't say that I was gripped by any real deep sadness when I heard. It took a while for it to sink in, I think, because it wasn't immediately apparent why it was significant. The man had been "away" (as many are fond of putting it) for more than a decade, and the nation of TV watchers had moved on to other pursuits. Certainly, the landscape of television was very different because of him, not the least of which is the Leno/Letterman paradigm, but also his indirect responsibility for things like Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show. But his absence and the nearly complete change in society (at least the stuff we see on television) since he left The Tonight Show make it hard to comprehend what his passing meant in broader terms and in more specific terms, too.

I, for one, only really got a few good years of Carson-watching in before he left: I was 17 when he quit. Still, I have fond memories of the man, and even with my overdeveloped-hipster sense of humor, I recognized the presence of greatness when I saw it. I remember getting teary when he signed off that last night. (I also remember being rather unimpressed when Leno took over, but that's neither here nor there.)

But here's the thing: Carson may very well be the last big figure that everyone could agree on. He is, and I'm not exaggerating (I don't think), on the level of JFK: one of those figures that the entire country agreed on and loved. Everyone knows Carson, and everyone, it seems, has fond memories of him. Even Reagan and Clinton, popular as they were, are highly divisive figures. I have been wracking my brains to think of anyone with that sort of cross-generational appeal, and the only one I can come up with is Steve Martin, and even he doesn't have the same sort of generational penetration that Carson did. And his "replacements": Letterman? Nope. Leno? Hell no.

We've become a divided nation in so many ways. A million channels, a million late-night TV shows, a billion websites, a billion factions. Sure, 9/11 broughts all together in a brotherhood of man for a moment, but a few days later we were more factionalized than ever.

I don't know what it means. Everybody dies, and Carson, though he died somewhat before his time, was hardly a young buck. We should have been prepared for it, in many ways. It can't be a shock. The sadness I feel now, as I read countless memorials and eulogies is one of sadness for the passing of an era, though I suppose it passed a long time ago. There is simply no way to go back. Men of Johnny's and JFK's caliber don't come around often, and odds are I won't get to see anyone of their caliber in my lifetime. More than that, the country just isn't set up for that anymore. Even if a new Johnny came along, only a fraction of the people are going to follow.

Still, in spite of all the sadness, I'm left with something more. He sure made a lot of people happy, didn't he? Remarkable, really, and not such a bad legacy, I think.