From Althouse comes news that one of the illustrious occupants of my Gallery of Jacks, Jack Paar, has died.

Paar was Johnny Carson's predecessor on The Tonight Show, a place where he made a name as a skilled monologuist and interviewer. There and on a subsequent Friday night prime time show that I used to watch as a kid, Paar was a master of spontaneous entertainment. Unlike today's mostly formulaic talk shows, Paar's was one in which viewers were never quite sure what they were going to get.

Paar was temperamental. He famously stood up to the Network Weasels when he walked off his show for a few weeks in protest of censorship. When he came back, we felt that the proper order of the world had been restored.

So long, Jack. Thanks for the good times.