Ed McMahon: A salute to the king of sidekicks
Ed McMahon: A salute to the king of sidekicks
Although he did other things in his 86 years, Ed McMahon, who died Tuesday in Los Angeles, will be remembered mostly as the man who sat next to Johnny Carson, except when more important celebrities came between them.
Notwithstanding the dozen years of hosting “Star Search,” a role in the 1997 Tom Arnold sitcom “The Tom Show,” a high-profile Cash4Gold ad during the last Super Bowl and all that knocking on people’s doors in the name of the Publishers Clearing House, McMahon was a professional sidekick, a less-than-equal partner in an enterprise of which he was nevertheless a vital part: Thinking of Johnny, one proceeds quickly and naturally to Ed, who by dint of association was almost as famous as his boss — I say “almost” to include that fraction of the world that may have seen or heard of Carson but never watched his show.
And yet, just as the moon plays upon the Earth, animating its tides and its werewolves, the sidekick is not without power of his (or her) own. His very presence is the proof that his presence is required. He may come as a straight man, a stooge, a teacher, an apprentice, a servant or pal, but he completes the star-hero in some way to their mutual advantage — as a counterweight, an anchor, a witness, a frame for the picture, a setting for the stone. Like Jiminy Cricket, a conscience. Who is Prince Hal without Falstaff, Don Quixote sans Sancho Panza? Little John and Robin Hood, Horatio and Hamlet, Friday and Crusoe, Watson and Holmes, Tinkerbell and Peter Pan, Ethel and Lucy, Barney and Fred, Barney and Andy, Ed and Ralph, Rhoda and Mary, Willow and Buffy, and all those traveling companions to Doctor Who — unequal, perhaps, yet inextricable.
We may reflexively regard him as slower, dumber, less handsome than the hero he shadows, but in practice the sidekick may be the smarter, funnier, faster, better-looking or more practical one. Less bound by convention or expectation, flexible rather than stiff-necked, he is free in ways forbidden the hero. His life is simpler, his soul less troubled. Ed Norton may be a dimwit, but he isn’t tormented, like Ralph Kramden, by desperation and desire. Spock is cooler than Kirk. It seems like the better job.
Ed and Johnny were “as close as two non-married people can be,” as McMahon wrote in his book, “Here’s Johnny: Memories of Johnny Carson, ‘The Tonight Show’ and 46 Years of Friendship.” McMahon, who was only two years older than Carson, began working as his announcer in in 1957, on the game show “Who Do You Trust?” and accompanied him to “The Tonight Show” in 1962, where they kept on for 30 years..
An uncharitable or undiscerning critic might say McMahon had an easy job: Laugh at the boss’ jokes, read a few cue cards, sell a little dog food, cheerfully absorb whatever cracks are made at his expense, slide further down the couch as the evening’s guests arrive. (Phil Hartman’s “Saturday Night Live” impression of him — the over-hearty laugh, the booming “You are correct, sir” — has replaced the actual McMahon in the minds of a couple of generations of viewers.) But the way McMahon told it, that was the point: “My role was to make him look good while not looking too good myself,” he wrote, and “to get Johnny to the punch line while seeming to do nothing at all.” Carson, for his part, left the air saying, “This show would have been impossible to do without Ed.”
There is a kind of genius in knowing how to live with a genius. Did anyone want to grow up to be Ed McMahon? Maybe not. (Though I would rather be Illya Kuryakin than Napoleon Solo.) But they also serve who only sit and laugh — and cry “Hey-yo!” once in a while. Of all the things Ed provided Johnny, continuity was perhaps the most meaningful: Guests came and went; wives came and went; the world turned. But where there was Johnny, there was always Ed, the witness, the audience, one of us.
- Born: 6 March 1923
- Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan
- Best Known As: Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show sidekick
For nearly 30 years McMahon played sidekick to Johnny Carson on the late-night hit The Tonight Show. Their edition of the show ran from 1962 to 1992, making both men household names; along the way McMahon became the accepted king of TV’s jovial second bananas. (In the 1990s McMahon was introduced to a new generation via Phil Hartman’s impersonations on Saturday Night Live.) McMahon also hosted the TV talent shows Star Search and Next Big Star, and in later years joined Dick Clark as a pitchman for the American Family Publishers sweepstakes.
Before The Tonight Show McMahon was also Carson’s announcer on the TV game show Who Do You Trust?… McMahon is a longtime co-host of the annual Jerry Lewis telethon for muscular dystrophy… McMahon made the news in 2008 when he defaulted on his home mortgage.http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-et-ed-mcmahon24-2009jun24,0,2998712.story