E-bayers wouldn't shell out more than $154,000 for Johnny Carson's boyhood home, only a few thousand more than the home's owners just paid for it.

See also this feature in AARP magazine on Carson's post-"Tonight Show" seclusion by a former writer on the show.

Highlights:

- "Pat McCormick was the only other staff member who seemed to play by different rules. He came and went as he pleased and was on and off the staff many times. During the streaking craze of 1974, Pat once raced across the stage—buck naked—during Johnny's monologue. Afterward, Johnny refused to let NBC fire him. (I'll always remember Pat not for his tush but for a classic joke he wrote after a major California earthquake: "Due to today's earthquake, the God Is Dead rally has been cancelled.")"

- "The first thing Johnny did each day was review five or six sets of jokes—usually about 20 jokes per set—submitted by each of the writers. He took pride in deciding almost instantaneously which ones to put onto cue cards for the monologue, completing the entire process within minutes. Frankly, I always thought that rush to judgment was the main reason some of those jokes died."