Book Review: Carson the Magnificent by Bill Zehme and Mike Thomas

 

This Johnny Carson biography has been long awaited. It was released on election day, November 5, 2024. Bill Zehme wrote a good portion of the book, then contracted cancer. He passed away in 2023 at age 64 and his assistant, Mike Thomas, finished the book. Zehme had written books about show biz giants such as Frank Sinatra, Andy Kaufman, Hugh Hefner and Jay Leno.  I expected this book to be longer, especially since Zehme worked on it for many years. The book did a good job of covering the major events in Johnny’s life, from his time growing up in Nebraska, to his various TV shows that he hosted and touched on his retirement years. Many people have questions about Johnny’s 13 retirement years (1992-2005) after The Tonight Show ended. Apparently, he spent a lot of time on his 130 foot yacht, Serengeti. The book mentioned how Johnny and his fourth wife Alex had some challenges, but he did not want to be a guy who got divorced four times.  I would have liked Zehme to go into more detail about Johnny’s different shows, such as Carson’s Cellar, The Johnny Carson Show, Earn Your Vacation, Who Do You Trust and of course The Tonight Show. The Carson biography by his talent coordinator Craig Tennis went into more detail about the behind-the-scenes aspects that went into producing The Tonight Show. The book talked about Johnny’s challenging relationship with his mother and how that led to shape his view of women. This can be linked to the fact that he had four marriages and had problems with infidelity. His drinking got in the way of building strong relationships with women, so did the fact that he was married to his job. But that was common with many men of his generation. In his 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace, Johnny discussed how he did not handle alcohol well.  The book talked about his four wives, how he met them, the differences between them, and factors that led to the marriages ending. The end of Johnny’s first marriage was devastating to him, probably since they had three kids together, and she was with him through the early days of his career. Some may think that Johnny was always rich and famous, but he was not. He had to pay his dues like anyone else. He had shows that were not successful. I wish the book would have talked more about people like Ed McMahon, Doc Severinsen, Fred de Cordova, Peter Lassally, etc. This book did not delve into the psychological analysis of Johnny to the degree that other books did, especially the book by his lawyer Henry Bushkin. The book had some email quotes from Johnny’s son which I don’t think we have seen before. It's not a revelation that Johnny was not a great father or husband, but his son realizes that he did the best he could under the circumstances.  It would be nice to get a definitive biography of Johnny that went into extensive detail about every aspect of his life, but it remains to be seen whether that will happen.

There have been many biographies of Johnny Carson over the years. Some others that I’d recommend include:

Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin

King of the Night by Laurence Leamer

And Now…Here’s Johnny! By Nora Ephron

Johnny Tonight by Craig Tennis

Carson: The Unauthorized Biography by Paul Corkery

So, there are many ways to learn about the fascinating life of a supremely talented but complicated man who many view as the undisputed king of late-night TV.

People who crave a deep dive into the life of Johnny Carson and his Tonight Show should check out Mark Malkoff’s Carson Podcast. This podcast was produced from 2014-2022 and totaled almost 400 episodes. Many prominent celebrities were interviewed who appeared on Johnny’s show. In addition, several people who were crew members on Johnny’s show discuss what it was like behind-the-scenes on such an iconic program.