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Carson the Magnificent: An Intimate Portrait
A much-anticipated biography—twenty years in the making—of the entertainer who redefined late-night television and reshaped American culture.
In 2002, Bill Zehme landed one of the most coveted assignments for a magazine writer: an interview with Johnny Carson—the only one he’d granted since retiring from hosting The Tonight Show a decade earlier. Zehme was tapped for the Esquire feature story thanks to his years of legendary celebrity profiles, and the resulting piece portrayed Carson as more human being than showbiz legend. Shortly after Carson’s death in 2005 and urged on by many of those closest to Carson, Zehme signed a contract to do an expansive biography. He toiled on the book for nearly a decade—interviewing dozens of Carson’s colleagues and friends and filling up a storage locker with his voluminous research—before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. When he died in 2023 his obituaries mentioned the Carson book, with New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman calling it “one of the great unfinished biographies.”
Yet the hundreds of pages Zehme managed to complete are astounding both for the caliber of their writing and how they illuminate one of the most inscrutable figures in entertainment history: A man who brought so much joy and laughter to so many millions but was himself exceedingly shy and private. Zehme traces Carson’s rise from a magic-obsessed Nebraska boy to a Navy ensign in World War II to a burgeoning radio and TV personality to, eventually, host of The Tonight Show—which he transformed, along with the entirety of American popular culture, over the next three decades. Without Carson, there would be no late-night television as we know it. On a much more intimate level, Zehme also captures the turmoil and anguish that accompanied the success: four marriages, troubles with alcohol, and the devastating loss of a child.
In one passage, Zehme notes that when asked by an interviewer in the mid-80s for the secret to his success, Carson replied simply, “Be yourself and tell the truth.” Completed with help from journalist and Zehme’s former research assistant Mike Thomas, Carson the Magnificent offers just that: an honest assessment of who Johnny Carson really was.
In 2002, Bill Zehme landed one of the most coveted assignments for a magazine writer: an interview with Johnny Carson—the only one he’d granted since retiring from hosting The Tonight Show a decade earlier. Zehme was tapped for the Esquire feature story thanks to his years of legendary celebrity profiles, and the resulting piece portrayed Carson as more human being than showbiz legend. Shortly after Carson’s death in 2005 and urged on by many of those closest to Carson, Zehme signed a contract to do an expansive biography. He toiled on the book for nearly a decade—interviewing dozens of Carson’s colleagues and friends and filling up a storage locker with his voluminous research—before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. When he died in 2023 his obituaries mentioned the Carson book, with New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman calling it “one of the great unfinished biographies.”
Yet the hundreds of pages Zehme managed to complete are astounding both for the caliber of their writing and how they illuminate one of the most inscrutable figures in entertainment history: A man who brought so much joy and laughter to so many millions but was himself exceedingly shy and private. Zehme traces Carson’s rise from a magic-obsessed Nebraska boy to a Navy ensign in World War II to a burgeoning radio and TV personality to, eventually, host of The Tonight Show—which he transformed, along with the entirety of American popular culture, over the next three decades. Without Carson, there would be no late-night television as we know it. On a much more intimate level, Zehme also captures the turmoil and anguish that accompanied the success: four marriages, troubles with alcohol, and the devastating loss of a child.
In one passage, Zehme notes that when asked by an interviewer in the mid-80s for the secret to his success, Carson replied simply, “Be yourself and tell the truth.” Completed with help from journalist and Zehme’s former research assistant Mike Thomas, Carson the Magnificent offers just that: an honest assessment of who Johnny Carson really was.
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Published January 1, 2007
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September 22, 2024
As a lover of Johnny Carson, this is a very disappointing book. Written in “Chapters” as opposed being written in chronological order, the book flows very rough and does very little in delving into the good or bad relationships the Carson had during his long successful career. Realizing this book was a completed project after the original author and researcher passed away after working on this book for many years, I feel like this was a poor attempt at closing a project that likely should not have been completed.
July 12, 2025
I remember Johnny Carson well and even attended one of his shows in 1989. He retired in 1991 and this book was a long time in its making. Too long. Too many young readers never saw him. He was an enigma. On-screen, he was charismatic, quick witted, funny, charming, and graceful. Off-screen, he was private, unsociable, a sometimes mean drinker, a loner, and a troubled husband and father. The last part of the book was the best. It discussed his 4 marriages and his 3 sons. I was disappointed because it didn’t discuss his relationships with his many famous guests. He gave a “no topic is off limits” interview for the book. And it didn’t discuss Ed McMann in any meaningful way. But during the 70s and 80s, he was it for late night entertainment during the week. HEEEERE’S JOHNNY!!
January 1, 2025
As I write this, Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show has been off the air longer than it was on. In a few weeks, he will have been dead 20 years. Unlike, say, an actor or a musician, his type of work was far more ephemeral - aside from the clip shows and the vintage-TV reruns, most of what he did was largely destined to be seen once and never again. So why a biography now - and after all these years, who, to be blunt, is this book for?
In many ways, the book is a long-delayed gift to those of us who’ve been waiting for it for decades and thought it would never see the light of day. In that way, the legend and the backstory is more fascinating than the book itself. I’d heard stories over the years about how Zehme struggled with what he had taken on - never satisfied that he had done enough research, enough interviews, enough contemplation, to understand his subject well enough to be able to write the definitive book on him. And when Zehme himself died in 2023, leaving his work unfinished, that seemed to be the end of that, until his protege Thomas completed the work.
It turned out to be a pleasant enough read, and it’s good to spend some time in Johnny’s company again. But for a book that had achieved such mythical status, I was expecting something more monumental, with more heft and significance. Instead, the book turned out to be relatively short, at under 300 pages, and rather unremarkable.
Several “definitive” biographies of Carson have already been published, so Zehme doesn’t try to replicate them with a standard birth-to-death, soup-to-nuts chronicle. His approach is to try to crack the nut of what made Carson special. So the book is thematic. It jumps around in time. It’s written in the style of a magazine profile, which Zehme was known for, with first-person references, throwaway lines, odd parenthetical asides and attempts to wax eloquent about The Meaning Of It All. So it’s not really a traditional biography at all, but more of a book-length appreciation.
The stories about Carson’s personal life and his frequently less-than-genial behavior off-camera have been told before, so while they still disappoint, they no longer shock. The stories about his absenteeism as a father are summed up most poignantly by his youngest son Cory, who corresponded with Zehme for the book. He described seeing his father on TV, appearing enchanted by child actors who guested on his show in a way that he never was with his own children - but then Cory quickly explains it away by saying that in prioritizing his work over his family, Carson “was typical of most entertainers” of the era.
It’s stories like that, that are most compelling and unique to this book, and I wish there were more of them. In the acknowledgements, the people who “shared their Carson memories and insights” are listed in a protracted paragraph that goes on for a page and a half. Many of them are directly quoted only briefly in the book, many not at all. But while Zehme struggles to understand his subject, we might have gained more insight by hearing more from those who knew his subject best.
That said, Zehme’s research is impeccable. Not only does he include quotes and insights from those he interviewed, he also dug up seemingly every extant archival interview with and about Carson from other publications and broadcasts, and even finds fascinating nuggets within unedited, unused portions of those interviews that have never been published before.
Carson’s personal life makes up only part of the book, and largely in the context of how it affected his work. The rest of the book is about his early career and his ascension to host of the Tonight Show. It’s well-known that no video recording of his first show exists - I’ve heard portions of the existing audio recording, but Zehme quotes from this recording at length, much of which I’ve never heard or read anywhere else, including not only the premiere show’s full introduction and opening monologue, but parts of his interviews with his opening-night guests. He also recounts some interesting little anecdotes such as how Ed’s “Here’s Johnny!” introduction originated, how the theme song came to be, and how Johnny came to pantomime a golf swing at the end of every monologue. He even tells a little-known story of how Carson’s production company once produced a TV pilot starring William Conrad as a pilot who crash-lands on a deserted island inhabited by puppets, which, what?!
Once Carson settles in as Tonight Show host, the book seems to lose interest in trying to understand his greatness, as there’s little said about his enduring appeal, his staying power, and what kept him on top for nearly 30 years. In the meantime, there’s nothing at all said about his penchant for “borrowing” characters from other comics (Carnac had the exact same premise as a Steve Allen bit, Art Fern was evocative of a Jackie Gleason sketch, and Aunt Blabby a pretty blatant ripoff of a Jonathan Winters character). There’s nothing said about how once-popular guests on his show were suddenly and without explanation frozen out and never asked back again. And on famous rifts, as with Joan Rivers, there’s apparently nothing left to say, so it’s covered in a sentence and we don’t learn anything more than we already know.
By the time the book reaches Johnny’s final show and his retirement years, the narrative has become a more conventional biography, so the shift in tone suggests that Thomas had picked up the work sometime prior to this point. There’s a sadness, though, in the retirement years, as Carson seems to want to do something but can’t find anything worth coming back on TV to do. There was no Netflix, there were no podcasts, so while his successors like Leno, Letterman and O’Brien have gone on to have prolific second acts today, nothing of the sort was available to Carson, so he simply faded from the spotlight, feeling that there was nothing more for him to do.
So, as I said, this book is a pleasant enough read. But Zehme doesn’t really succeed in his goal of explaining what made Carson great - possibly because he never seems to consider that Carson was simply a pleasant enough entertainer and may not have been truly “great.” That may be heretical for a fan to say, and I don’t mean to denigrate his talent, because he was certainly entertaining and influential, fans do have fond memories of the show, it’s fun to watch the reruns and clips, and plenty of moments stand out. But I would argue we fondly remember him not so much for his genius, but for his genial familiarity - far less bland and more inventive than Leno, while far less subversive and more conventional than Letterman, he was just right at just the right time.
And so the legend of this great unfinished, unpublished book, and the uncertainty and anticipation about whether it would ever come together, is no more. It’s now a real thing, and I’ve now read it. In time, I’ll think back to it with fond, hazy memories, but it is perhaps fitting that the book’s impact and influence is likely to be just as ephemeral as Carson’s show itself.
In many ways, the book is a long-delayed gift to those of us who’ve been waiting for it for decades and thought it would never see the light of day. In that way, the legend and the backstory is more fascinating than the book itself. I’d heard stories over the years about how Zehme struggled with what he had taken on - never satisfied that he had done enough research, enough interviews, enough contemplation, to understand his subject well enough to be able to write the definitive book on him. And when Zehme himself died in 2023, leaving his work unfinished, that seemed to be the end of that, until his protege Thomas completed the work.
It turned out to be a pleasant enough read, and it’s good to spend some time in Johnny’s company again. But for a book that had achieved such mythical status, I was expecting something more monumental, with more heft and significance. Instead, the book turned out to be relatively short, at under 300 pages, and rather unremarkable.
Several “definitive” biographies of Carson have already been published, so Zehme doesn’t try to replicate them with a standard birth-to-death, soup-to-nuts chronicle. His approach is to try to crack the nut of what made Carson special. So the book is thematic. It jumps around in time. It’s written in the style of a magazine profile, which Zehme was known for, with first-person references, throwaway lines, odd parenthetical asides and attempts to wax eloquent about The Meaning Of It All. So it’s not really a traditional biography at all, but more of a book-length appreciation.
The stories about Carson’s personal life and his frequently less-than-genial behavior off-camera have been told before, so while they still disappoint, they no longer shock. The stories about his absenteeism as a father are summed up most poignantly by his youngest son Cory, who corresponded with Zehme for the book. He described seeing his father on TV, appearing enchanted by child actors who guested on his show in a way that he never was with his own children - but then Cory quickly explains it away by saying that in prioritizing his work over his family, Carson “was typical of most entertainers” of the era.
It’s stories like that, that are most compelling and unique to this book, and I wish there were more of them. In the acknowledgements, the people who “shared their Carson memories and insights” are listed in a protracted paragraph that goes on for a page and a half. Many of them are directly quoted only briefly in the book, many not at all. But while Zehme struggles to understand his subject, we might have gained more insight by hearing more from those who knew his subject best.
That said, Zehme’s research is impeccable. Not only does he include quotes and insights from those he interviewed, he also dug up seemingly every extant archival interview with and about Carson from other publications and broadcasts, and even finds fascinating nuggets within unedited, unused portions of those interviews that have never been published before.
Carson’s personal life makes up only part of the book, and largely in the context of how it affected his work. The rest of the book is about his early career and his ascension to host of the Tonight Show. It’s well-known that no video recording of his first show exists - I’ve heard portions of the existing audio recording, but Zehme quotes from this recording at length, much of which I’ve never heard or read anywhere else, including not only the premiere show’s full introduction and opening monologue, but parts of his interviews with his opening-night guests. He also recounts some interesting little anecdotes such as how Ed’s “Here’s Johnny!” introduction originated, how the theme song came to be, and how Johnny came to pantomime a golf swing at the end of every monologue. He even tells a little-known story of how Carson’s production company once produced a TV pilot starring William Conrad as a pilot who crash-lands on a deserted island inhabited by puppets, which, what?!
Once Carson settles in as Tonight Show host, the book seems to lose interest in trying to understand his greatness, as there’s little said about his enduring appeal, his staying power, and what kept him on top for nearly 30 years. In the meantime, there’s nothing at all said about his penchant for “borrowing” characters from other comics (Carnac had the exact same premise as a Steve Allen bit, Art Fern was evocative of a Jackie Gleason sketch, and Aunt Blabby a pretty blatant ripoff of a Jonathan Winters character). There’s nothing said about how once-popular guests on his show were suddenly and without explanation frozen out and never asked back again. And on famous rifts, as with Joan Rivers, there’s apparently nothing left to say, so it’s covered in a sentence and we don’t learn anything more than we already know.
By the time the book reaches Johnny’s final show and his retirement years, the narrative has become a more conventional biography, so the shift in tone suggests that Thomas had picked up the work sometime prior to this point. There’s a sadness, though, in the retirement years, as Carson seems to want to do something but can’t find anything worth coming back on TV to do. There was no Netflix, there were no podcasts, so while his successors like Leno, Letterman and O’Brien have gone on to have prolific second acts today, nothing of the sort was available to Carson, so he simply faded from the spotlight, feeling that there was nothing more for him to do.
So, as I said, this book is a pleasant enough read. But Zehme doesn’t really succeed in his goal of explaining what made Carson great - possibly because he never seems to consider that Carson was simply a pleasant enough entertainer and may not have been truly “great.” That may be heretical for a fan to say, and I don’t mean to denigrate his talent, because he was certainly entertaining and influential, fans do have fond memories of the show, it’s fun to watch the reruns and clips, and plenty of moments stand out. But I would argue we fondly remember him not so much for his genius, but for his genial familiarity - far less bland and more inventive than Leno, while far less subversive and more conventional than Letterman, he was just right at just the right time.
And so the legend of this great unfinished, unpublished book, and the uncertainty and anticipation about whether it would ever come together, is no more. It’s now a real thing, and I’ve now read it. In time, I’ll think back to it with fond, hazy memories, but it is perhaps fitting that the book’s impact and influence is likely to be just as ephemeral as Carson’s show itself.
August 20, 2024
Even as a Carson fan, I'm having a hard time getting through this one. I've read plenty of Bill Zehme in my life, mostly in Rolling Stone, but his high-flown, mega vocabulary style is not helping here. I want to know more about Carson, not read pages and pages about how fantastically unknowable he was. Also, the lack of critique of a guy who was demonstrably misogynist throughout his career is bugging me. Potential readers, be mindful that Zehme passed before the completion of this work, and thus, YMMV.
November 2, 2024
Offstage, nobody called him Johnny – not even when he was a boy. It was always John. Johnny was only for TV.
In “Carson the Magnificent,” by the late Bill Zehme, you will get to know Johnny Carson well.
John Carson, however, remains elusive.
Many biographers have had this problem, struggling to get at the “real” person buried deep inside a very public persona. In his 1999 biography of Ronald Reagan, Edmund Morris infamously created a fictional version of himself who palled around with his subject, getting to know the 40th president better than the actual author ever could.
Zehme, a prolific magazine writer in the 1990s, didn’t go to such lengths with Carson. He was happy to concentrate on the legendary TV comedian’s professional life, and the book soars when he showcases what made Carson, as host of “The Tonight Show,” so beloved for so long.
But he understood the problem. Zehme describes Carson, a loner who guarded his emotions, as “the man who wasn’t there, except that he was always there, night after night, making nationally televised mirth…” The author quotes the film director and occasional “Tonight Show” guest Orson Welles saying Carson was “the only invisible talk host.”
For an invisible man, Carson had a powerful presence. Zehme states that, time and again while he was researching the book, people said to him: “Johnny Carson saved my life.” They meant, Zehme writes, that Carson was always there on their television late at night – the traditional time of stabbing loneliness, self-doubt and emotional pain – to make them laugh “when you thought you would never laugh again.”
That’s laying it on rather thick, but there’s no doubt that Carson, who died in 2005 at 79, became not just a habit for millions of Americans but a comfort too.
Carson fascinated journalists throughout his long tenure on TV. After all, from his perch as host of “The Tonight Show” from 1962 to 1992, he wasn’t just saving the lives of lonely, depressed Americans. He dominated the culture.
Before the internet, the Nebraska-raised comedian was America’s social-media feed. He joked about politicians. He launched the careers of myriad young comedians. He chatted with movie stars, tastemakers and assorted everyday oddballs.
Zehme details Carson’s life as a TV phenomenon in a swollen, New Journalism-like style. He had the talent to pull off this kind of prose, but it’s very much from a bygone era. To the phone-scrolling reader of 2024, it can be a bit much. Sentences become hard to track, and you’ll probably sometimes wonder why you’re getting so much detail about minor matters.
There Carson is, for example, stepping “out through a rustling split of the multicolored curtain, or ‘rainbow rag,’ briefly clutching its fabric until releasing it with a dismissive toss. Neck cranes – snaps, really – most birdlike, absolutely – toward all compass points of audience, which noisily exudes fierce approval; before uttering a single word, his manner variously approximates surprise, glee, reproach, humility, authority.”
This is a description, on the book’s very first page, of Carson simply coming out on stage to start a show.
The paragraph goes on to list each item of his wardrobe, the color and thickness of his hair, his exact age on this particular night.
Zehme, who died in 2023 at 64 after a long illness, wrote about three-quarters of “Carson the Magnificent,” according to journalist and former Zehme research assistant Mike Thomas, who finished the book. And that incompleteness comes across.
It feels like Thomas didn’t want to change anything his mentor had done and so focused only on filling in the gaps. It also feels like Zehme might have reshuffled the organization of the book and reeled in some of his more grandiloquent prose if he’d had more time to think about it.
This biography tells us that Carson was a driven, sentimental man, pleasant but prickly. He also was a mean drunk and a lousy husband, which Zehme largely attributes to emotional damage inflicted by Carson’s mother, Ruth, who was “preternaturally withholding, crisp, exacting.” (Carson once related that when he told Ruth he was being given an award from the National Television Academy, she responded: “I guess they know what they’re doing.”)
But these revelations, many of which were pulled from decades-old magazine profiles and ancient industry rumors, have a by-rote quality to them. You never sense you’re really getting to the inner Carson – to John.
In “Carson the Magnificent,” by the late Bill Zehme, you will get to know Johnny Carson well.
John Carson, however, remains elusive.
Many biographers have had this problem, struggling to get at the “real” person buried deep inside a very public persona. In his 1999 biography of Ronald Reagan, Edmund Morris infamously created a fictional version of himself who palled around with his subject, getting to know the 40th president better than the actual author ever could.
Zehme, a prolific magazine writer in the 1990s, didn’t go to such lengths with Carson. He was happy to concentrate on the legendary TV comedian’s professional life, and the book soars when he showcases what made Carson, as host of “The Tonight Show,” so beloved for so long.
But he understood the problem. Zehme describes Carson, a loner who guarded his emotions, as “the man who wasn’t there, except that he was always there, night after night, making nationally televised mirth…” The author quotes the film director and occasional “Tonight Show” guest Orson Welles saying Carson was “the only invisible talk host.”
For an invisible man, Carson had a powerful presence. Zehme states that, time and again while he was researching the book, people said to him: “Johnny Carson saved my life.” They meant, Zehme writes, that Carson was always there on their television late at night – the traditional time of stabbing loneliness, self-doubt and emotional pain – to make them laugh “when you thought you would never laugh again.”
That’s laying it on rather thick, but there’s no doubt that Carson, who died in 2005 at 79, became not just a habit for millions of Americans but a comfort too.
Carson fascinated journalists throughout his long tenure on TV. After all, from his perch as host of “The Tonight Show” from 1962 to 1992, he wasn’t just saving the lives of lonely, depressed Americans. He dominated the culture.
Before the internet, the Nebraska-raised comedian was America’s social-media feed. He joked about politicians. He launched the careers of myriad young comedians. He chatted with movie stars, tastemakers and assorted everyday oddballs.
Zehme details Carson’s life as a TV phenomenon in a swollen, New Journalism-like style. He had the talent to pull off this kind of prose, but it’s very much from a bygone era. To the phone-scrolling reader of 2024, it can be a bit much. Sentences become hard to track, and you’ll probably sometimes wonder why you’re getting so much detail about minor matters.
There Carson is, for example, stepping “out through a rustling split of the multicolored curtain, or ‘rainbow rag,’ briefly clutching its fabric until releasing it with a dismissive toss. Neck cranes – snaps, really – most birdlike, absolutely – toward all compass points of audience, which noisily exudes fierce approval; before uttering a single word, his manner variously approximates surprise, glee, reproach, humility, authority.”
This is a description, on the book’s very first page, of Carson simply coming out on stage to start a show.
The paragraph goes on to list each item of his wardrobe, the color and thickness of his hair, his exact age on this particular night.
Zehme, who died in 2023 at 64 after a long illness, wrote about three-quarters of “Carson the Magnificent,” according to journalist and former Zehme research assistant Mike Thomas, who finished the book. And that incompleteness comes across.
It feels like Thomas didn’t want to change anything his mentor had done and so focused only on filling in the gaps. It also feels like Zehme might have reshuffled the organization of the book and reeled in some of his more grandiloquent prose if he’d had more time to think about it.
This biography tells us that Carson was a driven, sentimental man, pleasant but prickly. He also was a mean drunk and a lousy husband, which Zehme largely attributes to emotional damage inflicted by Carson’s mother, Ruth, who was “preternaturally withholding, crisp, exacting.” (Carson once related that when he told Ruth he was being given an award from the National Television Academy, she responded: “I guess they know what they’re doing.”)
But these revelations, many of which were pulled from decades-old magazine profiles and ancient industry rumors, have a by-rote quality to them. You never sense you’re really getting to the inner Carson – to John.
April 22, 2025
For 30 years the Nebraska boy magician; his Tonight Show part of late night TV. From sidekick, Ed McMahon's opening "Heeers Johhny", his monologue golf swing, and wacky characters like Carnac the Magnificent, Carson chatted with Hollywood stars, comedians, authors. But what was he really like? Well written, originally worked on for a decade by author, Bill Zehme, finished by his assistant Mike Thomas, interviewing those worked with him, friends, family. A performer, but private reserved off screen, sometimes out of control drinker, amateur drummer, with 4 ex-wives. They present a rounded view of his personality, background and public personna.
Read
February 1, 2025This was so bad that I made it a DNF and would never have given it more than 2 stars. Possibly 1 star.
It should never have been published. It reads like a phone book of references and pretense to knowing or reciting Johnny Carson's life situations and stats. There was not an inkling of the person except for the stage characters during the 40 or 50 pages I read. Plus as I skimmed too (all of the rest which was not overlong) and nothing was worth the effort in this book but the photos.
For a person with immense timing, direction, stage skills and nuance- this had none. Yes, we all know he was mostly sour and introverted off stage and had 4 wives over time. With 3 of them having nearly identical first names. And that most of his "guests" were names people do not know at all anymore. Nor his enemies either. Like Dorothy Killgallen. The author name called at least 300-400 times without imparting much of the times' nuances for those celebs either. Terrible pacing. THE OPPOSITE OF J. CARSON.
He was funny in a way that is completely lost in style since the early 1990's. Not as "classy" as the middle aged and younger today think either. But NO ONE in that format has been within a distance to the moon of his entertainment value in that time slot since. Not even close. The man who wrote this book died when it was 3/4ths completed and this was NOT his honed skill whatsoever. Actually, he wrote in an erudite and long winded dense style. Irony.
It should never have been published. It reads like a phone book of references and pretense to knowing or reciting Johnny Carson's life situations and stats. There was not an inkling of the person except for the stage characters during the 40 or 50 pages I read. Plus as I skimmed too (all of the rest which was not overlong) and nothing was worth the effort in this book but the photos.
For a person with immense timing, direction, stage skills and nuance- this had none. Yes, we all know he was mostly sour and introverted off stage and had 4 wives over time. With 3 of them having nearly identical first names. And that most of his "guests" were names people do not know at all anymore. Nor his enemies either. Like Dorothy Killgallen. The author name called at least 300-400 times without imparting much of the times' nuances for those celebs either. Terrible pacing. THE OPPOSITE OF J. CARSON.
He was funny in a way that is completely lost in style since the early 1990's. Not as "classy" as the middle aged and younger today think either. But NO ONE in that format has been within a distance to the moon of his entertainment value in that time slot since. Not even close. The man who wrote this book died when it was 3/4ths completed and this was NOT his honed skill whatsoever. Actually, he wrote in an erudite and long winded dense style. Irony.
November 26, 2024
I think this is the lowest rating I’ve ever given a book. I found the style of writing very dense and tedious, with paragraphs that were over a page long and minutiae that really wasn’t that interesting, but got repeated over and over again in the book.
Carson was such a presence in my house for the 30 years he was on The Tonight Show. He brought to me such fond memories of all the laughter and smiles that my dad exhibited during those times.
I wish the book would’ve focused more on the banter between him and his guests. Also, there was no focus at all on the different sketches that he did, whether it’d be with the San Diego zoo animals or Carson the Magnificent reading the cards and guessing the answers, etc.
I finally found around page 170 when he got to the three ex-wives and the style of writing appeared to change (I believe to the second author), that the book started getting more interesting and the writing flowed better.
But in the end, I just didn’t feel satisfied by this book and I’d been so excited to share it with my brother, who is such a fan.
I think this was a total missed opportunity for this biography and a real disappointment.
Carson was such a presence in my house for the 30 years he was on The Tonight Show. He brought to me such fond memories of all the laughter and smiles that my dad exhibited during those times.
I wish the book would’ve focused more on the banter between him and his guests. Also, there was no focus at all on the different sketches that he did, whether it’d be with the San Diego zoo animals or Carson the Magnificent reading the cards and guessing the answers, etc.
I finally found around page 170 when he got to the three ex-wives and the style of writing appeared to change (I believe to the second author), that the book started getting more interesting and the writing flowed better.
But in the end, I just didn’t feel satisfied by this book and I’d been so excited to share it with my brother, who is such a fan.
I think this was a total missed opportunity for this biography and a real disappointment.
March 27, 2025
Just finished:
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2024.
What a terrific disappointment of a book.
I really had high hopes for this book. I wanted to be entertained by stories of Johnny Carson and his celebrity guests on the tonight show. To know more about his personal life, and his feuds.
But this has many issues.
1. It's not organized in chronical order.
2. The author (Bill Zahme wrote 3/4 before he died and Mike Thomas finished it) doesn't seem to connect the story together.
3. I felt the author spent much of his time writing in over the top and hollow prose. It was a turn off.
The definitive biography of the great Johnny Carson is yet to be written. I honestly feel like I could have done a better job given the time.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2024.
What a terrific disappointment of a book.
I really had high hopes for this book. I wanted to be entertained by stories of Johnny Carson and his celebrity guests on the tonight show. To know more about his personal life, and his feuds.
But this has many issues.
1. It's not organized in chronical order.
2. The author (Bill Zahme wrote 3/4 before he died and Mike Thomas finished it) doesn't seem to connect the story together.
3. I felt the author spent much of his time writing in over the top and hollow prose. It was a turn off.
The definitive biography of the great Johnny Carson is yet to be written. I honestly feel like I could have done a better job given the time.
June 19, 2025
This book has gotten a lot of mediocre ratings here and I think I can understand that it isn't exactly an A-Z bio and even I think that things that stood out to me are left out. It might be hard to explain the importance of this particular television personality to a younger person who didn't grow up with him on their telly.
Carson debuted as the host of the Tonight Show the month I was born and left when I was thirty, so to say he was always there in the background isn't an exaggeration. Some may also want to check out the book Johnny Carson: A Taut Portrait of a Complex Man Revealing the True Johnny Carson by Henry "Bombastic" Bushman for an additional perspective.
Also, go to YouTube and check out "Ed Ames Tomahawk Throw Tonight Show." I still laugh every time I watch it.
Carson debuted as the host of the Tonight Show the month I was born and left when I was thirty, so to say he was always there in the background isn't an exaggeration. Some may also want to check out the book Johnny Carson: A Taut Portrait of a Complex Man Revealing the True Johnny Carson by Henry "Bombastic" Bushman for an additional perspective.
Also, go to YouTube and check out "Ed Ames Tomahawk Throw Tonight Show." I still laugh every time I watch it.
December 5, 2024
The author, who died while writing this book, had a storage locker full of anything Carson-related, such as canceled checks, handwritten notes, neckties...the list goes on and on. The book is just as disorganized and unreadable. An example of the writing:
"This regime of regular vaporization-- how could it not give a man so possessed even grander and more dramatic notions? He flirted several times, in fact, with vanishing himself entirely from view, or at least from the view of him to which all were happily accustomed. But, as history confirms, he only truly meant and kept to it once. Just once, ultimately, in earnest, with final punctuation attendant."
"This regime of regular vaporization-- how could it not give a man so possessed even grander and more dramatic notions? He flirted several times, in fact, with vanishing himself entirely from view, or at least from the view of him to which all were happily accustomed. But, as history confirms, he only truly meant and kept to it once. Just once, ultimately, in earnest, with final punctuation attendant."
November 7, 2024
This isn't the biography wanted by most people who remember Johnny Carson and The Tonight Show so fondly.
There isn't much about the kinds of things that get remembered by those of us who still talk about the show religiously: Dean Martin dumping cigarette ash in George Gobel's drink, Carson and Burt Reynolds squirting whipped cream on each other, Carnac The Magnificent on sis boom bah, Carson and Jack Webb on copper clappers. (Ed Ames and the tomahawk and Carson and Don Rickles do get some attention.)
What you do get here is a rumination on the impact Carson and his show had on the lives of people just starting to grow up with TV.
There's a lot here on Carson's personal life, and much of it is told in the kind of windy style that will be familiar to anyone who has read anything by author Bill Zehme.
The book does tend to wander a bit much, but the recounting of Carson's retirement and his final years deliver a jolt. In the end, you're not sure you'll ever know the real Johnny Carson, but it was nice to have him around.
There isn't much about the kinds of things that get remembered by those of us who still talk about the show religiously: Dean Martin dumping cigarette ash in George Gobel's drink, Carson and Burt Reynolds squirting whipped cream on each other, Carnac The Magnificent on sis boom bah, Carson and Jack Webb on copper clappers. (Ed Ames and the tomahawk and Carson and Don Rickles do get some attention.)
What you do get here is a rumination on the impact Carson and his show had on the lives of people just starting to grow up with TV.
There's a lot here on Carson's personal life, and much of it is told in the kind of windy style that will be familiar to anyone who has read anything by author Bill Zehme.
The book does tend to wander a bit much, but the recounting of Carson's retirement and his final years deliver a jolt. In the end, you're not sure you'll ever know the real Johnny Carson, but it was nice to have him around.
January 7, 2025
Johnny Carson last hosted The Tonight Show in May of 1992, 32 years ago. Yet the late-night talk show format that he innovated, and many would say perfected, lives on in the shows currently hosted by Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Meyers.
From the time that Carson first hosted The Tonight Show on October 1, 1962, there have been no shortage of attempts made to understand the personality of Johnny Carson. Bill Zehme toiled on his Carson biography, titled Carson the Magnificent, on and off, for twenty years, until his death in 2023. Mike Thomas, an author and one-time assistant to Zehme, finished the book, which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2024.
For all of the ballyhooed research that Zehme did, and the decades he spent toiling in the fields of Carsonia, there is an inevitable letdown when one reads Carson the Magnificent. The book clocks in at a relatively trim 295 pages of text, and many events are either glossed over or not mentioned at all. Do you know want to know about the time Johnny quit The Tonight Show in 1967 for three weeks? You won’t find anything in Carson the Magnificent about it. You’ll have to track down Nora Ephron’s excellent 1968 book And Now...Here’s Johnny for the full story.
Zehme doesn’t make much of an attempt to summarize what it was that made Johnny Carson such a great entertainer. When analyzing art of any kind, one might argue that words are superfluous, that to understand the brilliance of Salvador Dali, Bob Dylan, Edith Wharton, or Johnny Carson, you need to experience the art itself. I agree with that somewhat, but I’d argue that part of the job of the biographer or cultural critic is to try to convey to the reader why this person was so noteworthy.
In my own modest attempt to summarize the gifts of Johnny Carson, I would say that he was an amazing combination of the skills required to be a great talk-show host: he was an excellent stand-up comic who could deliver a great opening monologue—Carson could get laughs even when the joke itself bombed—he was a talented enough actor that he could convincingly portray characters in comic sketches, and he was a terrific interviewer, possessed of a curious mind, a quicksilver intelligence, and the ability to make it seem as though the person he was talking to was the only person in the world that mattered at that moment.
I didn’t grow up watching Johnny Carson—I was 11 years old when he stepped down in 1992, and I remember all of the media coverage of his final shows. At that time, I wasn’t staying up late enough to watch any late-night shows. My knowledge of The Tonight Show has come later in life. I remember having a conversation when I was 20 years old with a co-worker who was a little older than me. We were talking about late-night hosts, and I said that I was a big fan of Conan O’Brien. She was a fan of Carson, and she said “Conan always turns the spotlight back on himself when he’s interviewing guests. Johnny never did that.” I don’t remember exactly what I said in response, but in my head a light bulb went off, and I knew that she was right. It’s a generalization and an oversimplification, but the fundamental point rang true. Carson made a similar statement in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1979, saying “You should try to help the guests be as good as they can be, because the better the guest is, the better I'll be.”
Zehme’s writing style is a throwback, as it is full scale, breathless, old-school, New Journalism 1970’s magazine stream of consciousness. Zehme is not as fond of exclamation points as, say, Tom Wolfe was, but man, Zehme loves the parenthetical aside, and you’ll find yourself sometimes barely hanging on to sentences as they careen along. As an example, here’s just one sentence, after Zehme has informed us of the title of the game show that Carson hosted for five years, Who Do You Trust? “And, here, further irony requires noting that—far more than a quiz show moniker—this was already, and would remain, the single most salient, gnawing, often debilitating existential question to reside within the winsome host’s shielded soul.” (p.136) Are you still with me?
The contradiction of Johnny Carson was that while he appeared in millions of homes across America nightly for 30 years, there was some part of him that he seemed to hold in reserve. Virtually every magazine article and book written about Carson has operated on this assumption. Carson bluntly summed up the contradiction between his public and private persona by saying in a 1979 Rolling Stone interview “I'm an extrovert when I work. I'm an introvert when I don't.” That might be the best distillation of any of the attempts made by writers to analyze Carson’s personality.
Zehme makes the odd choice of not mentioning any of the characters Carson portrayed on The Tonight Show until the part where he mentions the last time Carson played those characters before his retirement. It’s strange to have Zehme write about the last time Carson played Carnac the Magnificent, and then he has to explain the character because he’s never mentioned Carnac before.
The fundamental problem with Carson the Magnificent is that it does not differentiate itself from the other biographies of Johnny Carson. Carson the Magnificent doesn’t have much new to say about Johnny Carson, and thus it simply isn’t as good as the definitive Carson biography King of the Night, written by Laurence Leamer and published in 1989.
Part of the problem with writing a biography of Johnny Carson in 2024, or the decade leading up to 2024, is that most people who knew Johnny Carson well are probably getting up there in age. Because Zehme worked on Carson the Magnificent for such an extended period of time, reading the interviews is like going back in time, as we hear from many people who have since passed on, like Dick Carson (Johnny’s brother and the longtime director of The Tonight Show), Johnny’s second wife Joanne Carson, Hugh Downs, Skitch Henderson, Ed McMahon, Bob Newhart, Suzanne Pleshette, Carl Reiner, Don Rickles, and Betty White.
Carson the Magnificent is actually strongest on Carson’s retirement years—which are covered at the beginning of the book. Carson had no desire to simply keep being on TV just for the sake of being on TV, and I admire how Carson’s sense of self was not dependent on fame and adulation. Johnny Carson was a fascinating person and a fantastic entertainer and reading Carson the Magnificent will inevitably send you back to Carson’s time hosting The Tonight Show.
From the time that Carson first hosted The Tonight Show on October 1, 1962, there have been no shortage of attempts made to understand the personality of Johnny Carson. Bill Zehme toiled on his Carson biography, titled Carson the Magnificent, on and off, for twenty years, until his death in 2023. Mike Thomas, an author and one-time assistant to Zehme, finished the book, which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2024.
For all of the ballyhooed research that Zehme did, and the decades he spent toiling in the fields of Carsonia, there is an inevitable letdown when one reads Carson the Magnificent. The book clocks in at a relatively trim 295 pages of text, and many events are either glossed over or not mentioned at all. Do you know want to know about the time Johnny quit The Tonight Show in 1967 for three weeks? You won’t find anything in Carson the Magnificent about it. You’ll have to track down Nora Ephron’s excellent 1968 book And Now...Here’s Johnny for the full story.
Zehme doesn’t make much of an attempt to summarize what it was that made Johnny Carson such a great entertainer. When analyzing art of any kind, one might argue that words are superfluous, that to understand the brilliance of Salvador Dali, Bob Dylan, Edith Wharton, or Johnny Carson, you need to experience the art itself. I agree with that somewhat, but I’d argue that part of the job of the biographer or cultural critic is to try to convey to the reader why this person was so noteworthy.
In my own modest attempt to summarize the gifts of Johnny Carson, I would say that he was an amazing combination of the skills required to be a great talk-show host: he was an excellent stand-up comic who could deliver a great opening monologue—Carson could get laughs even when the joke itself bombed—he was a talented enough actor that he could convincingly portray characters in comic sketches, and he was a terrific interviewer, possessed of a curious mind, a quicksilver intelligence, and the ability to make it seem as though the person he was talking to was the only person in the world that mattered at that moment.
I didn’t grow up watching Johnny Carson—I was 11 years old when he stepped down in 1992, and I remember all of the media coverage of his final shows. At that time, I wasn’t staying up late enough to watch any late-night shows. My knowledge of The Tonight Show has come later in life. I remember having a conversation when I was 20 years old with a co-worker who was a little older than me. We were talking about late-night hosts, and I said that I was a big fan of Conan O’Brien. She was a fan of Carson, and she said “Conan always turns the spotlight back on himself when he’s interviewing guests. Johnny never did that.” I don’t remember exactly what I said in response, but in my head a light bulb went off, and I knew that she was right. It’s a generalization and an oversimplification, but the fundamental point rang true. Carson made a similar statement in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1979, saying “You should try to help the guests be as good as they can be, because the better the guest is, the better I'll be.”
Zehme’s writing style is a throwback, as it is full scale, breathless, old-school, New Journalism 1970’s magazine stream of consciousness. Zehme is not as fond of exclamation points as, say, Tom Wolfe was, but man, Zehme loves the parenthetical aside, and you’ll find yourself sometimes barely hanging on to sentences as they careen along. As an example, here’s just one sentence, after Zehme has informed us of the title of the game show that Carson hosted for five years, Who Do You Trust? “And, here, further irony requires noting that—far more than a quiz show moniker—this was already, and would remain, the single most salient, gnawing, often debilitating existential question to reside within the winsome host’s shielded soul.” (p.136) Are you still with me?
The contradiction of Johnny Carson was that while he appeared in millions of homes across America nightly for 30 years, there was some part of him that he seemed to hold in reserve. Virtually every magazine article and book written about Carson has operated on this assumption. Carson bluntly summed up the contradiction between his public and private persona by saying in a 1979 Rolling Stone interview “I'm an extrovert when I work. I'm an introvert when I don't.” That might be the best distillation of any of the attempts made by writers to analyze Carson’s personality.
Zehme makes the odd choice of not mentioning any of the characters Carson portrayed on The Tonight Show until the part where he mentions the last time Carson played those characters before his retirement. It’s strange to have Zehme write about the last time Carson played Carnac the Magnificent, and then he has to explain the character because he’s never mentioned Carnac before.
The fundamental problem with Carson the Magnificent is that it does not differentiate itself from the other biographies of Johnny Carson. Carson the Magnificent doesn’t have much new to say about Johnny Carson, and thus it simply isn’t as good as the definitive Carson biography King of the Night, written by Laurence Leamer and published in 1989.
Part of the problem with writing a biography of Johnny Carson in 2024, or the decade leading up to 2024, is that most people who knew Johnny Carson well are probably getting up there in age. Because Zehme worked on Carson the Magnificent for such an extended period of time, reading the interviews is like going back in time, as we hear from many people who have since passed on, like Dick Carson (Johnny’s brother and the longtime director of The Tonight Show), Johnny’s second wife Joanne Carson, Hugh Downs, Skitch Henderson, Ed McMahon, Bob Newhart, Suzanne Pleshette, Carl Reiner, Don Rickles, and Betty White.
Carson the Magnificent is actually strongest on Carson’s retirement years—which are covered at the beginning of the book. Carson had no desire to simply keep being on TV just for the sake of being on TV, and I admire how Carson’s sense of self was not dependent on fame and adulation. Johnny Carson was a fascinating person and a fantastic entertainer and reading Carson the Magnificent will inevitably send you back to Carson’s time hosting The Tonight Show.
December 19, 2024
I just finished reading a very detailed book about the life of Johnny Carson. It goes into detail about his life growing up in Nebraska and how he got along with his parents. It also explains how he was as a father and as a husband to his four wives.
December 17, 2024
Considering the life led by Johnny Carson, Bill Zehme’s new bio, clocking in at under 300 pages, could easily stand twice as long. Good thing it doesn’t.
Zehme’s over-the-top, florid writing style is insufferable. Imagine an faux erudite carny who insists on using the word prestidigitator instead of magician. There’s also his maddening addiction to parentheticals; one paragraph beginning on page 106 contains thirteen of them. It’s parentheses and dashes galore.
If you’re looking for a fawning hagiography, this one’s for you. That Carson “was television deity without comparable peer” [sic] is the tip of the iceberg.
The story behind Carson the Magnificent is that, after years and years of research and writing, Zehme became ill in 2013 having completed 75 percent of the book. After Zehme’s 2023 death, Mike Thomas picked up the baton and finished the book. The shift in authors could not be more clear (or more welcome). I enjoyed the book’s last quarter, which is straightforward and serious, if a little rushed. I wish Thomas had written the entire book.
Zehme’s over-the-top, florid writing style is insufferable. Imagine an faux erudite carny who insists on using the word prestidigitator instead of magician. There’s also his maddening addiction to parentheticals; one paragraph beginning on page 106 contains thirteen of them. It’s parentheses and dashes galore.
If you’re looking for a fawning hagiography, this one’s for you. That Carson “was television deity without comparable peer” [sic] is the tip of the iceberg.
The story behind Carson the Magnificent is that, after years and years of research and writing, Zehme became ill in 2013 having completed 75 percent of the book. After Zehme’s 2023 death, Mike Thomas picked up the baton and finished the book. The shift in authors could not be more clear (or more welcome). I enjoyed the book’s last quarter, which is straightforward and serious, if a little rushed. I wish Thomas had written the entire book.
April 22, 2025
I could read a million books on Johnny Carson and it would never be enough. This is my second biography on him and felt the most comprehensive. Johnny comes across as a man who didn't really know himself and that's what makes him so fascinating. He was a completely different guy behind the camera and yet we all felt as if we knew him.
I grew up in Nebraska and he was my hero. In Kindergarden, we had to fill out a poster with info about us. In the section about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I just put a picture of Johnny. He's still who I want to be when I grow up.
I grew up in Nebraska and he was my hero. In Kindergarden, we had to fill out a poster with info about us. In the section about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I just put a picture of Johnny. He's still who I want to be when I grow up.
Want to read
November 21, 2024NY Times review (may be paywalled): https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/ar...
Excerpts:
"Johnny Carson was a genius in the art of being liked, which is remarkable, considering he wasn’t, on paper, especially likable: A largely absent father, philandering husband, a sometimes mean drunk, a fiercely private figure even to many close to him. He was a talk-show host who didn’t always seem to enjoy talking to people." . . .
"In one of his better zingers, Zehme writes that Carson “understood withholding better than a tax accountant.” He keeps returning to the words of a Carson producer, Art Stark, who said he was “great by omission.” . . .
"As Nora Ephron put it, he “never, ever made them think.” ...
"... at the University of Nebraska, he wrote his senior thesis on the art of comedy writing. It’s a fascinatingly technical analysis of the work of many of the most successful performers from the radio comedies of his youth like Jack Benny and Fred Allen."
Excerpts:
"Johnny Carson was a genius in the art of being liked, which is remarkable, considering he wasn’t, on paper, especially likable: A largely absent father, philandering husband, a sometimes mean drunk, a fiercely private figure even to many close to him. He was a talk-show host who didn’t always seem to enjoy talking to people." . . .
"In one of his better zingers, Zehme writes that Carson “understood withholding better than a tax accountant.” He keeps returning to the words of a Carson producer, Art Stark, who said he was “great by omission.” . . .
"As Nora Ephron put it, he “never, ever made them think.” ...
"... at the University of Nebraska, he wrote his senior thesis on the art of comedy writing. It’s a fascinatingly technical analysis of the work of many of the most successful performers from the radio comedies of his youth like Jack Benny and Fred Allen."
May 5, 2025
It is unquestionable that Bill Zehme wrote about entertainment figures with a distinct stylistic flair. But we now know the reason why he couldn't finish this book after twelve years of obsessing over Johnny Carson, surely one of the most overrated public television notables of the 20th century. It's because he has nothing. Oh sure, we get a few little details about Carson's marriages and how his alcoholism turned him into a Jekyll-Hyde figure. We get the sense of a man who really only had one relationship: his long run on THE TONIGHT SHOW. Zehme's gusto is certainly far more accomplished and certainly not pathetic like such awful volumes as Ander Monson's PREDATOR and Lili Anolik's DIDION & BABITZ. But it is not enough to sustain a book that reads, at times, like fan fiction for Carson fans. (And how many Carson fans are even still alive? Carson, as Zehme argues, hadn't been hip in any way since the 1960s.) This would have worked better, perhaps, as a small 100 page volume of quirky passion -- perhaps a television version of the 33 1/3 book series.
November 12, 2024
A laborious read due to small things, like the writing and organization. I looked forward to this book for years and was excited to get it in hand the day after release. It’s terribly disappointing. Perhaps the author, who died prior to the book’s completion after a courageous effort to battle cancer and write the book, intended to engage in significant editing. The author’s former research assistant who completed the book for publication should have done his late friend a favor and taken a red pencil to the manuscript.
December 20, 2024
"Carson The Magnificent" is an interesting biography of Johnny Carson, the legendary host of The Tonight Show, whose wit and charm redefined late-night television. The book highlights Carson’s ability to connect with audiences, crafting a groundbreaking style that made him a household name. Behind his polished on-air persona, Carson was a perfectionist who shaped the evolution of TV entertainment, balancing his quick humor with a command of timing that no one could rival.
The book delves into Carson's work ethic and his pursuit of excellence, revealing the layers behind his smooth performances. In one section, his preparation for nightly monologues emerges as a mix of disciplined routine and natural flair. This behind-the-scenes insight shows the pressure he faced to innovate, entertain, and stay relevant in a rapidly changing world of entertainment. Despite the heavy demands, Carson’s monologues remained sharp, reflecting both his awareness of cultural moments and his skill in transforming everyday observations into shared humor for millions.
However, Carson The Magnificent also explores the complexities of his personal life, which often stood in stark contrast to his public image. Known for his reserved and enigmatic nature off-screen, Carson maintained an emotional distance even from those closest to him. The book touches on his struggles with relationships, the price of fame, and the solitude that accompanied his success.
The book offers readers a fascinating look at how Carson’s legacy endures as a symbol of television’s golden age. His ability to bring laughter into American homes, while preserving a mystique that few could penetrate, cements him as one of the greatest entertainers of all time.
5 Key Takeaways
Johnny Carson’s Complexity as a Person and Performer
The book reveals Johnny Carson as a man of contrasts—warm and generous to those close to him, but deeply private and guarded. His complex personality shaped both his personal relationships and his legendary career. Despite his public success, his personal life, including multiple marriages and struggles with intimacy, was far from perfect.
Carson’s Influence on Late-Night Television
Carson’s dominance in late-night television is indisputable. The Tonight Show became the gold standard for late-night comedy, influencing generations of comedians and talk show hosts. His control over the format and tone of the show helped define the modern late-night landscape, even as his show evolved and faced competition from emerging hosts like Arsenio Hall.
The Impact of Personal Tragedy
The death of Johnny Carson’s son, Rick, in 1991, was a pivotal moment in his life. It not only affected Carson deeply but also showcased his ability to cope with immense personal loss while still carrying out his professional duties. This tragedy humanized Carson, showing his vulnerability despite his public persona.
The Evolution of Carson's Career and Personal Life
Carson's journey from a beloved TV personality to a more reclusive figure after his retirement in 1992 demonstrates his need for reinvention. While he initially struggled with the boredom of retirement, he found solace in hobbies like traveling, poker, and spending time on the ocean, which allowed him to retain a sense of purpose outside of his public life.
The Legacy of Johnny Carson
Even after his retirement and death in 2005, Johnny Carson's influence continued to loom large. He revolutionized late-night television, yet his departure from the limelight also signified the end of an era. Carson’s impact on the television industry and his role in shaping comedy remains undeniable, influencing both his contemporaries and future generations of entertainers.
Highlights From The Book
Carson made adulthood seem less laden with responsibility, more full of play and promise, than childhood.”
Meanwhile and all along, for the most part: He was a husband—if not more famously a serial ex-husband. (“He never really understood women,” proclaims Joanne Carson, second missus in his pageant of four. “As sophisticated as he was in comedy, he was that unsophisticated when it came to women.”) And he was also a father—if not more unknowably a well-flawed father. (“Johnny would be the first to tell you he wasn’t the best father,” says Michael Zannella. “It’s hard enough for men who are there with their kids on a daily basis—and, not only wasn’t he there, he was also very strict.”)
“He got death threats in the mail weekly,” said former Tonight Show co–head writer Andrew Nicholls. “And he still went through the curtain.” In 1989, a Milwaukee man who had repeatedly threatened Carson and other celebrities by letter and tape recording was arrested “when he showed up at the NBC Studios in Burbank with a homemade bludgeon—a sock filled with gravel—in his jacket.”
Salary-wise, Carson had been making what Silverman called “an enormous amount of money before those negotiations.” And while media reports pegged Carson’s newly augmented annual pay at around $5 million, “a high NBC executive” (Silverman?) told the New York Times it was in fact “substantially more” than that. (By the time he retired, a dozen years later, that figure had reportedly risen to $25 million.)
Seven weeks after leaving The Tonight Show, he had in fact signed a new long-term contract with NBC—an exclusive so-called “housekeeping” deal to develop or star in various specials and such. Upon signing, however, he told the network entertainment chief, Warren Littlefield, “I’m not ready to go to work on Monday.” (“Fine, I’ll call Tuesday,” replied Littlefield.) “That’s why we set up this office,” says Helen Sanders, his devoted executive assistant who had followed him from Burbank to help tend to these new ventures, undecided but inevitable. “He fully intended to do new projects, but once he got here, nothing appealed to him. After a while, he said, ‘You know what? I’m not going to do anything.’ ” He had reached that conclusion in very short order, rationalizing: “What would I do that I couldn’t do on The Tonight Show, and do it better?” The idea of hosting specials, in general, had long made him queasy.
I think that might have been the first time he had a wake-up call that he had emphysema. His subsequent quadruple bypass for coronary artery disease in March 1999 was the first major health scare of his life. As Carson’s health worsened, he further withdrew from the world and spent many hours at sea, with oxygen tanks on board in case he needed help breathing.
Carson died at Cedars-Sinai on Sunday, January 23, 2005. Alex and other family members were by his side.
The book delves into Carson's work ethic and his pursuit of excellence, revealing the layers behind his smooth performances. In one section, his preparation for nightly monologues emerges as a mix of disciplined routine and natural flair. This behind-the-scenes insight shows the pressure he faced to innovate, entertain, and stay relevant in a rapidly changing world of entertainment. Despite the heavy demands, Carson’s monologues remained sharp, reflecting both his awareness of cultural moments and his skill in transforming everyday observations into shared humor for millions.
However, Carson The Magnificent also explores the complexities of his personal life, which often stood in stark contrast to his public image. Known for his reserved and enigmatic nature off-screen, Carson maintained an emotional distance even from those closest to him. The book touches on his struggles with relationships, the price of fame, and the solitude that accompanied his success.
The book offers readers a fascinating look at how Carson’s legacy endures as a symbol of television’s golden age. His ability to bring laughter into American homes, while preserving a mystique that few could penetrate, cements him as one of the greatest entertainers of all time.
5 Key Takeaways
Johnny Carson’s Complexity as a Person and Performer
The book reveals Johnny Carson as a man of contrasts—warm and generous to those close to him, but deeply private and guarded. His complex personality shaped both his personal relationships and his legendary career. Despite his public success, his personal life, including multiple marriages and struggles with intimacy, was far from perfect.
Carson’s Influence on Late-Night Television
Carson’s dominance in late-night television is indisputable. The Tonight Show became the gold standard for late-night comedy, influencing generations of comedians and talk show hosts. His control over the format and tone of the show helped define the modern late-night landscape, even as his show evolved and faced competition from emerging hosts like Arsenio Hall.
The Impact of Personal Tragedy
The death of Johnny Carson’s son, Rick, in 1991, was a pivotal moment in his life. It not only affected Carson deeply but also showcased his ability to cope with immense personal loss while still carrying out his professional duties. This tragedy humanized Carson, showing his vulnerability despite his public persona.
The Evolution of Carson's Career and Personal Life
Carson's journey from a beloved TV personality to a more reclusive figure after his retirement in 1992 demonstrates his need for reinvention. While he initially struggled with the boredom of retirement, he found solace in hobbies like traveling, poker, and spending time on the ocean, which allowed him to retain a sense of purpose outside of his public life.
The Legacy of Johnny Carson
Even after his retirement and death in 2005, Johnny Carson's influence continued to loom large. He revolutionized late-night television, yet his departure from the limelight also signified the end of an era. Carson’s impact on the television industry and his role in shaping comedy remains undeniable, influencing both his contemporaries and future generations of entertainers.
Highlights From The Book
Carson made adulthood seem less laden with responsibility, more full of play and promise, than childhood.”
Meanwhile and all along, for the most part: He was a husband—if not more famously a serial ex-husband. (“He never really understood women,” proclaims Joanne Carson, second missus in his pageant of four. “As sophisticated as he was in comedy, he was that unsophisticated when it came to women.”) And he was also a father—if not more unknowably a well-flawed father. (“Johnny would be the first to tell you he wasn’t the best father,” says Michael Zannella. “It’s hard enough for men who are there with their kids on a daily basis—and, not only wasn’t he there, he was also very strict.”)
“He got death threats in the mail weekly,” said former Tonight Show co–head writer Andrew Nicholls. “And he still went through the curtain.” In 1989, a Milwaukee man who had repeatedly threatened Carson and other celebrities by letter and tape recording was arrested “when he showed up at the NBC Studios in Burbank with a homemade bludgeon—a sock filled with gravel—in his jacket.”
Salary-wise, Carson had been making what Silverman called “an enormous amount of money before those negotiations.” And while media reports pegged Carson’s newly augmented annual pay at around $5 million, “a high NBC executive” (Silverman?) told the New York Times it was in fact “substantially more” than that. (By the time he retired, a dozen years later, that figure had reportedly risen to $25 million.)
Seven weeks after leaving The Tonight Show, he had in fact signed a new long-term contract with NBC—an exclusive so-called “housekeeping” deal to develop or star in various specials and such. Upon signing, however, he told the network entertainment chief, Warren Littlefield, “I’m not ready to go to work on Monday.” (“Fine, I’ll call Tuesday,” replied Littlefield.) “That’s why we set up this office,” says Helen Sanders, his devoted executive assistant who had followed him from Burbank to help tend to these new ventures, undecided but inevitable. “He fully intended to do new projects, but once he got here, nothing appealed to him. After a while, he said, ‘You know what? I’m not going to do anything.’ ” He had reached that conclusion in very short order, rationalizing: “What would I do that I couldn’t do on The Tonight Show, and do it better?” The idea of hosting specials, in general, had long made him queasy.
I think that might have been the first time he had a wake-up call that he had emphysema. His subsequent quadruple bypass for coronary artery disease in March 1999 was the first major health scare of his life. As Carson’s health worsened, he further withdrew from the world and spent many hours at sea, with oxygen tanks on board in case he needed help breathing.
Carson died at Cedars-Sinai on Sunday, January 23, 2005. Alex and other family members were by his side.
January 29, 2025
They say you should never meet your heroes. I never got to meet Johnny Carson. I'm not sure that's enough to qualify him as one of my heroes. I never aspired to show business in general, or comedy in particular. The thought of doing stand-up comedy terrified me most of my life. Sure, if the comedian had good material and was "on", it was funny and I liked to laugh as much as the next person. In fact, Carson was truly one of my favorites and I spent many nights staying up later than I needed, often just to catch the monologue. However, stand-up was also a bit like driving past a car wreck for me--the kind where the car is completely mangled but the driver doesn't have scratch on him. Later I would learn that more than a few comedians were alcoholics or had other addiction problems, but that just made the metaphor more complete for me. Learning even later on in life that Carson struggled with being an alcoholic actually made sense. Now, as I am rapidly bearing down on my own sixtieth birthday, the terror of being in front a crowd has dissipated but I still find stand-up more interesting the further I am personally away from it while still within ear-shot of it. So, perhaps Carson was only a bit of a role model for me, in a very limited sort of way that he showed how stand-up could (and more often than not, should) be done. This book reveals not just the details, but the understanding of the life of the man who, for nearly the first half of my life, showed me that talking to people could actually be fun.
Carson was not perfect--he would have been a poor showman had he been! But with three failed marriages, a failed TV show, and a drinking habit that did not do him any good (but also only limited harm, it would seem), his lack of perfection is not a surprise. It's the relationship to all of that with his success that is the interesting part of this story: some of his success in spite of his imperfections, some of it because of them, and in an also not surprising plot twist, some of his imperfections precisely because he was successful.
The book is more thematic than strictly chronological, even as it meanders from Carson's Midwestern boyhood to his retirement. There's enough jumping about in time with references to this that call back to that such that an attentive reading is in order. There's also a bit of a game of "where's the antecedent" with a random last name thrown out after a series of he's or she's that you may find yourself looking back a page or two or three to sort out the current who's who. And there are a lot of players in Carson's life that some of the minor ones blend into the general audience of friends and co-workers. The saving grace is that it is still a good story about an interesting guy who lived an eventful life, part of it every 11:30pm EST in front of much of the nation for thirty years. I still remember watching the last show he hosted, thinking life will not be the same afterwords. I had no idea how true that was to become, and cannot help but wonder what Carson would have thought of the Internet, streaming, binge-watching, and the fact that a late night TV show today is considered a success if it can garner even a tenth of his viewing audience.
Carson was not perfect--he would have been a poor showman had he been! But with three failed marriages, a failed TV show, and a drinking habit that did not do him any good (but also only limited harm, it would seem), his lack of perfection is not a surprise. It's the relationship to all of that with his success that is the interesting part of this story: some of his success in spite of his imperfections, some of it because of them, and in an also not surprising plot twist, some of his imperfections precisely because he was successful.
The book is more thematic than strictly chronological, even as it meanders from Carson's Midwestern boyhood to his retirement. There's enough jumping about in time with references to this that call back to that such that an attentive reading is in order. There's also a bit of a game of "where's the antecedent" with a random last name thrown out after a series of he's or she's that you may find yourself looking back a page or two or three to sort out the current who's who. And there are a lot of players in Carson's life that some of the minor ones blend into the general audience of friends and co-workers. The saving grace is that it is still a good story about an interesting guy who lived an eventful life, part of it every 11:30pm EST in front of much of the nation for thirty years. I still remember watching the last show he hosted, thinking life will not be the same afterwords. I had no idea how true that was to become, and cannot help but wonder what Carson would have thought of the Internet, streaming, binge-watching, and the fact that a late night TV show today is considered a success if it can garner even a tenth of his viewing audience.
December 31, 2024
Required-read for anyone duped into reading Henry Bushkin's abridged Johnny Carson memoir; Rather, for anyone in need of scrubbing Bushkin's fantastic, egocentric, fictional text out of their brains with Zehme's work-safe, barebones, no nonsense Carson monograph.
Primary concerned with Johnny Carson's pre-explosively successful era [e.g. prior incorporating Johnny Carson Productions]; Also, principally focused on Carson's professional intimates -- plenty of personal/behind-the-scenes anecdotals, insomuch work-related or legacy-building; Albeit, with the lone exception of the Carson Wives Club.
Laurence Leamer's King of the Night still reigns supreme (i.e. both Bushkin and Zehme sourced from): the definitive Carson biography (especially with its 2005 Update/Afterword) -- any newb should always start there, imo.
Primary concerned with Johnny Carson's pre-explosively successful era [e.g. prior incorporating Johnny Carson Productions]; Also, principally focused on Carson's professional intimates -- plenty of personal/behind-the-scenes anecdotals, insomuch work-related or legacy-building; Albeit, with the lone exception of the Carson Wives Club.
Laurence Leamer's King of the Night still reigns supreme (i.e. both Bushkin and Zehme sourced from): the definitive Carson biography (especially with its 2005 Update/Afterword) -- any newb should always start there, imo.
March 27, 2025
The late Bill Zehme did a fabulous job in researching this book, but it turned into a book that should have been titled, "If Only..."
"If Only..." John W. "Johnny" Carson would have been more forthright in granting interviews and discussing his background.
"If Only..." Bill Zehme would have skipped most of his flowery, yet esoteric, writing, and written in plain English (while avoiding putting extra thoughts into needless parentheses in nearly every paragraph in the whole damn book!).
"If Only..." Bill Zehme had lived to work with an editor to get this complete instead of having to turn over everything to a ghost writer, then perhaps we would have had a continuity of voice.
"If Only..."
This reads like one of Zehme's articles in the Rolling Stone. That type of writing makes for excellent magazine articles, but it does not sustain itself for very long, much less nearly 400 pages.
Considering that Zehme passed away but left a lot of valuable references and a partially completed manuscript, what should have happened was a new biography written from the old in the writing style of the ghost writer. This would have kept everything in one voice. Whatever it would have become probably would have been better than this. This was a tough read, even though it should have been pretty straightforward. Great sources. Poor delivery. "If Only..."
"If Only..." John W. "Johnny" Carson would have been more forthright in granting interviews and discussing his background.
"If Only..." Bill Zehme would have skipped most of his flowery, yet esoteric, writing, and written in plain English (while avoiding putting extra thoughts into needless parentheses in nearly every paragraph in the whole damn book!).
"If Only..." Bill Zehme had lived to work with an editor to get this complete instead of having to turn over everything to a ghost writer, then perhaps we would have had a continuity of voice.
"If Only..."
This reads like one of Zehme's articles in the Rolling Stone. That type of writing makes for excellent magazine articles, but it does not sustain itself for very long, much less nearly 400 pages.
Considering that Zehme passed away but left a lot of valuable references and a partially completed manuscript, what should have happened was a new biography written from the old in the writing style of the ghost writer. This would have kept everything in one voice. Whatever it would have become probably would have been better than this. This was a tough read, even though it should have been pretty straightforward. Great sources. Poor delivery. "If Only..."
January 6, 2025
If you are ever stranded in an ice storm at your 91 and 1/2 year old mother‘s home, and you decide to pick up a book from the pile that she got for Christmas, save yourself and don’t pick up this book. I’m a huge fan of Johnny Carson, but this book was fragmented, and did not read smoothly at all. Most of the problem was probably that the author died before the book was finished and it was just pieced together. If you’re a big Johnny Carson fan, I’m sure there’s other books out there that would be wonderful, but not this one.
February 26, 2025
This Carson biography got bogged down in places, imo. He was definitely an enigmatic man. He was King of Late Night TV for 30 years but a failure as a father and husband. Carson was a serial womanizer. He had some devoted friends, but he cut others off without a second thought. He was a mean alcoholic and chain smoker, but he put forth a picture of wholesomeness and and health. Much had to do with :mommy issues" of not feeling valued, if this book is to be believed. More often than not, after reading a biography, I like the person less and wish I hadn't read it. That's true here as well.
December 9, 2024
This is a deeply personal book for me. Watching Johnny religiously for 30 years, he was a third parent to me. I learned a few new things about Johnny such as his time in the military but I already knew most of the book’s content. So what made it personal was Zehme’s parsing of Johnny’s personality. I could relate to many of his traits.
December 7, 2024
Sweet Carson Biography
This biography probably won’t bring a reader to feel they know anymore about Carson than one did before, at least not in depth, but the author is clearly fond of his subject and it shows. It makes the reader fonder too.
This biography probably won’t bring a reader to feel they know anymore about Carson than one did before, at least not in depth, but the author is clearly fond of his subject and it shows. It makes the reader fonder too.
December 31, 2024
Author Bill Zehme spent many years working on this biography but never finished it. Mike Thomas stepped in and finished it. Twenty years to write this biography with multiple authors left it both disjointed in parts and truly unique in other parts. Many, many sections contain quotes taken from Carson himself, monologues, the author, and those who knew him. Enjoyable but not remarkable.
August 13, 2025
DNF
This book is boring!
There’s so much about Johnny Carson that I thought this book would cover and yet it was so bland and superficial. I just could not finish it. And the authors were so verbose and seem to be writing words just to write words. I would not recommend.
This book is boring!
There’s so much about Johnny Carson that I thought this book would cover and yet it was so bland and superficial. I just could not finish it. And the authors were so verbose and seem to be writing words just to write words. I would not recommend.
January 5, 2025
Disappointing! The book jumped all over the place for a long time until the end when it finally felt like it had some meaning. I was a big fan of the man-but not this book!
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