I miss Carson more than anyone in showbiz history. Even in high school, I watched every night, not wanting to miss moments of what I knew would be historic stuff. Johnny was very funny himself, but when not, he was fun. Many good clips on the world's most popular video site.

Regardless of their politics, Tom Smothers still a hoot. Wish more routines were on video, but this is a start. Lots of clips on youtube.(Mustn't forget the important contribution of brother Dick in his 'Bud Abbott' role.)

Fred Willard(above) has been on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno over 80 times. His occasional sketches and bits are usually original and entertaining and should be collected somehow.

See immediately above.

ROBERT CULP has to be mentioned here as Cosby's partner in this series. His comedic work HERE was fabulous. I hate almost everything he has done since though.

Kudos to all involved in this series, especially to Ms Moore, my favorite actress but also to Ed Asner, Ted Knight and Cloris Leachman. And THE WRITERS.

All the cast and writers.

Martin on SNL and in his various talk show appearances is almost always inventive and funny. Unfortunately in recent years, like Cosby, he has predominantly been in 'family' fare, which usually means for kids.

JIM ABRAHAMS/DAVID ZUCKER:The writers of this,its sequel AIRPLANE II and the good short-lived TV series below. Some subtle, some in your face. Some gags work and some not, but they keep on coming.

Not for these specials particularly. But on the Carson show, he and Jack Benny(his best friend) would come on individually periodically and tell amusing true stories about the other.

Concert pianist turned comic. His routines involved attempts to perform classics, but interrupted by bits of comedy. Frustrated my parents who wanted to hear the music, but I loved the comedy.

His character GERALDINE was a brilliant creation. Good standup comic too.

Not for these specials. These days, the lib-turned-conservative uses witty acerbic barbs to score political points on the Bill O'Reilly Show on FOX, usually Wednesday nights. I used to hate when he laughed at his own jokes, but he doesn't do that much anymore.

In the early days of TV talk shows, Rickles was always fun when he appeared with Carson and on other shows. His routines have diminished in later years, not fresh and now a one-note-samba, but I have fond memories of those early days.

I think Atkinson is a superior visual comic to both Chaplin and Keaton. Blasphemy, I know, so stone me.

Showcases Gracie Allen during her years with husband and comedy partner George Burns. They also had a pretty good TV series many years later. This movie includes W.C.Fields' classic billiards routine, a gem.

Mark Twain was amusing himself, but so is Hal Holbrook's embodiment of him. For awhile I was afraid this would never be preserved on video. Thank God it has been!

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO. 'The Naughty Nineties' includes their justifiably famous 'Who's On First' routine. I like some of their other vaudeville routines too. Can't say their movies were that good(beyond those routines) though they amazingly dominated the boxoffice for a decade(in the 40's and 50's).

Groucho was pretty funny with his brothers and also on his TV show YOU BET YOUR LIFE(I've only seen reruns and clips). Before my time.

When Rush is gone, I'll miss him as I do Johnny Carson now. Aside from his wisdom, he is the most SPONTANEOUSLY entertaining and amusing personality since Johnny left. I only put Rush at the bottom here because he's not PRIMARILY for laughs. I'm talking about his RADIO show(haven't seen this video). His TV show was good too.