Bad Father
Johnny Carson had three kids with his first wife and they were all boys. He never had any more kids with any of his next three wives. Back in those days, people tended to view mental illness as a socially unacceptable problem. They felt that people who suffered from mental illness shouldn’t be allowed out in public. As a matter of fact, Carson just so happened to be one of the people who felt this way, and the fact that one of his sons suffered from a mental illness was not acceptable to him. He wouldn’t visit his son while he was in a mental hospital. Unfortunately, Rick’s life ended suddenly when he got into a car accident that instantly killed him. While Johnny paid tribute to his son on his show, that doesn’t mend the years of trouble the two had.
Bad Father
His Arrest
In terms of people doing unacceptable things while they’re drunk, Carson was no exception. Seeing as he struggled with alcoholism and was drunk rather often, you can only imagine what kind of situations he got himself into, and frequently. In 1982, he was pulled over and arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. Even though he was only charged with a misdemeanor, he was let off with probation and a mandated driving class for alcohol responsibility while operating a vehicle. Carson was no longer allowed to drive unless he was going to or from work. Not to mention, he wasn’t allowed to have any kind of living creature – human or animal – in the car with him while driving.
His Arrest