Ed McMahon says farewell to Johnny Carson

Johnny Carson, the longtime host of "The Tonight Show," was a TV icon — and behind every icon is a loyal second banana. For 30 years, Ed McMahon heralded the arrival of the king of late night television in his familiar way, and was the amiable and relaxed set-up guy for Johnny’s famous one liners. As Carson's reign on the “Tonight Show” came to an end, he graciously acknowledged McMahon’s steadfast friendship. Now, McMahon has written about that friendship in a new book, "Here’s Johnny." Read an excerpt.

“Johnny,” I said a few months before he died, “we’ve had so many wonderful memories, both on and off the show, that nobody knows about.”

“We’d better keep it that way,” he said, “especially that night at Jilly’s when those two nutty …. Of course, we didn’t do anything.”

“No, not that memory, but all the others. I’d love to share them with everyone in a book.”

“Well, you’re the only one to do it,” he said. “And you can do it anytime in the next century.”

“But so many people ...”

NBC VIDEO Ed McMahon on Johnny Carson Sept. 12: The "Today" show's Al Roker talks with Ed McMahon, author of "Here's Johnny," about working with the long-time host of "The Tonight Show." Today Show Entertainment

“Ed, write ‘A Boy’s Life of Wayne Newton’ first. Or ‘The Wit and Wisdom of Fats Domino.’‘ Or the story of the Lincoln Tunnel: For Whom the Tolls Toll.’ Or ...”

“Stop!” I said, laughing hard. “Johnny, there are so many worthless books being published.”

“And you want to write another one? Hey, how about writing ‘The Joy of Zinc’ for all the people who find romance in minerals?”

“Seriously, Johnny,” I said, “every day a dozen people ask me, ‘What’s Johnny Carson really like?’ ”

“The same dozen? Well, just tell them the truth. I’m an easygoing sociopath whose hobbies are bungee jumping, collecting swimsuit pictures of Jack LaLanne, and doing Zen meditation with P. Diddy. We pray for a new name for him.”

Too Soon
My heart breaks to think that I do not have to wait until the year 2100 to write my memories of Johnny Carson. At a few minutes after seven o’clock on the morning of January 23, 2005, the telephone rang in my Beverly Hills house. My wife, Pam, answered it and her hand fell to her heart. As the blood drained from her face, she silently handed the phone to me. I didn’t need Sherlock Holmes to know what had happened.

“Johnny,” I said.

Pam’s look said it all. In dismay, I took the phone.

“Ed,” said Johnny’s nephew, Jeff Sotzing, “Johnny just died.

“Oh, no, no.”

“You’re my first call. He would have wanted me to call you first. I know how much you two meant to each other.”

Being at a loss for words isn’t my style, but it was then.

“Jeff … I … I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I’m reeling now. Let me call you back.”

Then I started to cry — the first tears that Pam ever saw me shed.

The following day, I just lay in bed, watching all the tributes to Johnny, crying one minute, laughing the next. It was a style of mourning you don’t often see.

“Ed,” I can hear Johnny saying, “You needed a grief counselor. Or maybe one for volleyball.”

In the following weeks, I went on many radio and TV shows, on each of them paying tribute to Johnny. And one day, his widow, Alexis, called.

“Ed,” she said, “I’ve seen everything you’ve done. You’ve been magnificent.”

“Johnny would’ve hated it all,” I said.

“Yes, wouldn’t he? But it’s so wonderful you’re doing it. I love you, Ed, just as Johnny did.”

Friends
Skitch Henderson once said that I treated everyone with love, an observation that made me sound more like a captain in the Salvation Army instead of a colonel in the U.S. Marines. Well, I haven’t always treated everyone with love. In 1952, I dropped several unloving things on some North Koreans. But I always felt a little extra love for Johnny, who dropped a few bombs of his own when we were together.

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