SHORT TAKES : Leno Loses Carson’s Curtain

What’s different about “The Tonight Show” when Jay Leno replaces Johnny Carson?

Ed McMahon is missing, and so is Carson’s multicolored curtain.

Some of Leno’s fans believe that the gray curtain makes the lantern-jawed comedian look washed out, according to People magazine.

But “Tonight Show” producer Fred de Cordova told the magazine in its Sept. 17 issue that gray will have to do for Leno, the Carson heir-apparent.

“The colored curtain has been part of the Carson look for many years,” De Cordova said. “So it didn’t look like somebody was stepping in for Johnny, we have the gray curtain.”