On the day of his 100th birthday, a special Vintage Variety episode looks back at the arc of Johnny Carson’s early career and his rise to becoming a TV icon, as chronicled in the pages of Variety.

If Johnny Carson were alive today, he’d be 100 years old — and you can almost hear him delivering a sly, perfectly timed monologue about it. (“I’m so old, my cue cards have liver spots.”) To celebrate ...