Tag Archives: Johnny Carson
Conan O'Brien Tribute To Ed McMahon on 'The Tonight Show'
Posted on 24. Jun, 2009 by CSS.
Late night host Conan O’Brien shared some heartfelt words about the legacy of late TV icon Ed McMahon during his opening monologue on The Tonight Show Tuesday.
McMahon, who was The Tonight Show’s announcer for 30 years (1962-1992) during the Johnny Carson era of the late night program. Ed passed away at Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles on Monday.
He was 86.
“Ladies and gentlemen, before we go any further tonight we’re going to change gears here because there’s something very important I do need to talk about. As you’ve probably all heard, Ed McMahon passed away last night and this is obviously a very sad day,” Conan said. “It is impossible I think, for anyone to imagine the ‘Tonight Show With Johnny Carson’ without Ed McMahon. Ed’s laugh was really the soundtrack to that show.”
“For 30 years Ed played his part perfectly, he played it with effortless joy and sitting alongside Johnny, Ed was an indelible part of what I think is the most iconic two-shot in broadcasting history,” Conan said. “There will never be anything like that again. Now everybody here at the ‘Tonight Show’ mourns the loss of this warm and really truly funny man. Our thoughts go out to his family and to his fans everywhere… Ed, you will be missed.”
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Henry Bushkin To Pen A "Johnny Carson Tell-All"
Posted on 03. Nov, 2008 by CSS.
Johnny Carson’s longtime lawyer is blowing the lid off the secret life of the beloved “Tonight Show” host- painting him as a sad, depressed man who cheated on his wives, was tormented by his mom and refused to visit his son in a mental hospital.
Henry Bushkin, who was jokingly referred to as “Bombastic Bushkin” by Carson on his late night NBC talk show- Told Page Six about a “warts and all” memoir he’s pushing about the late night king.
Some of the revelations include:
- Carson was so miserable at the top of his game that he constantly “questioned his own ability to have happiness in his life/”
- Carson enjoyed the use of a 10,000 square-foot penthouse with a private pool at Caesars Palace when he played in Vegas and routinely entertained the “18 beautiful girls in the chorus line that opened his act… and he was certainly involved with some of them.”
- Carson allegedly refused to visit his son, Rick, when he was committed to Bellevue with severe emotional problems. “The kid was there for four and a half months. I had to take care of everything and was there almost every day. Rick [who died in a car crash in 1991] was a lovely human being.”
- Carson also allegedly abandoned many of his closest friends, including Bushkin, who says, “At one time we did everything together. At the end, he treated me like everybody else- like I didn’t exist. At the end, it was like I was an irritant. In many respects, he was the saddest guy I ever Knew.”
And now Henry Bushkin is going to make a few more pennies off his dear old friend…. You know he could be telling the God’s honest truth about every fact he will detail in his book- but I just hate to see people slandered when they aren’t able to defend themselves, especially when it happens to the deceased.
