Ed McMahon Dies at 86

[Zoneboy]

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Ed McMahon, the longtime pitchman and Johnny Carson sidekick who's "Heeeeeeerre's Johnny!" became a part of the vernacular, has died.

McMahon passed away peacefully shortly after midnight at the Ronald Reagan/UCLA Medical Center, his publicist, Howard Bragman, said Tuesday

McMahon, 86, was hospitalized in February with pneumonia and other medical problems.

He had suffered a number of health problems in recent years, including a neck injury caused by a 2007 fall. In 2002, he sued various insurance companies and contractors over mold in his house and later collected a $7 million settlement.

Though he later hosted a variety of shows - including "Star Search" and "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes" -- McMahon's biggest fame came alongside Carson on "The Tonight Show," which Carson hosted from 1962 to 1992. The two met not long after Carson began hosting the game show "Who Do You Trust?" in 1957.

"Johnny didn't look as if he was dying to see me," McMahon, who was hosting a show on a Philadelphia TV station, told People magazine in 1980 about the pair's first meeting. "He was standing with his back to the door, staring at a couple of workmen putting letters on a theater marquee. I walked over and stood beside him. Finally the two guys finished, and Johnny asked, 'What have you been doing?' I told him. He said, 'Good to meet you, Ed,' shook my hand, and I was out of the office. The whole meeting was about as exciting as watching a traffic light change."

Though McMahon was surprised to be offered the job as Carson's sidekick, the two soon proved to have a strong chemistry. Carson was, by nature, introverted and dry-witted; McMahon was the boisterous and outgoing second banana, content to give Carson straight lines or laugh uproariously at his jokes (a characteristic much-parodied by comedians). Watch Ed McMahon remembered. »

Carson made cracks about McMahon's weight, his drinking and the pair's trouble with divorce. McMahon was married three times; Carson, who died in 2005, had four wives.

McMahon was also the show's designated pitchman, a talent he honed to perfection during "Tonight's" 30-year run with Carson, even if sometimes the in-show commercial spots fell flat.

For one of the show's regular sponsors, Alpo dog food, McMahon usually extolled the virtues of the product while a dog eagerly gobbled down a bowl. But one day the show's regular dog wasn't available, and the substitute pooch wasn't very hungry.

McMahon recalled the incident in his 1998 memoir, "For Laughing Out Loud."

"Then I saw Johnny come into my little commercial area. He got down on his hands and knees and came over to me. ... I started to pet Johnny. Nice boss, I was thinking as I pet him on the head, nice boss. By this point the audience was hysterical. ... I just kept going. I was going to get my commercial done. 'The next time you're looking at the canned dog food ...' -- he rubbed his cheek against my leg -- " ... reach for the can that contains real beef.' Johnny got up on his knees and started begging for more. I started petting him again ... and then he licked my hand."

McMahon also promoted Budweiser, American Family Insurance and -- during the most recent Super Bowl -- Cash4Gold.com. Entertainment Weekly named him No. 1 on its list of TV's greatest sidekicks.

Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 6, 1923. His father was a promoter, and McMahon remembered moving a lot during his childhood.

"I changed towns more often than a pickpocket," McMahon told People.

He later joined the Marines and served in World War II and Korea.

Though McMahon was well-rewarded by NBC -- the 1980 People article listed his salary between $600,000 and $1 million -- his divorces and some poor investments took their toll. In June 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported that McMahon was $644,000 in arrears on a $4.8 million loan for a home in Beverly Hills, California, and his lender had filed a notice of default.

McMahon and his wife, Pamela, told CNN's Larry King that McMahon had gotten caught in a spate of financial problems.

"If you spend more money than you make, you know what happens. And it can happen. You know, a couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that," said McMahon, who added that he hadn't worked much since the neck injury.


McMahon later struck a deal that allowed him to stay in the house.

He is survived by his wife, Pamela, and five children. A sixth child, McMahon's son Michael, died in 1995.

[comedyfreak]

RIP Ed..He was born the same year as my Mom, she died 2 and a half years ago.

[catlover79]

Ed!

[LuLu Rogers]

I saw this when I got on Yahoo this morning, so sad. Ed

[MonarC]

R.I.P. Ed. You will be missed.

[Shine]

[Zoneboy]

The late TV personality did other things, yes, but his greatest accomplishment may have been his partnership with Johnny Carson. 'My role was to make him look good while not looking too good myself.'

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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.


It's easy to underestimate his accomplishment -- or even to wonder whether it should be called an accomplishment at all. We live in a nation of aspiring quarterbacks, pitchers, lead singers and presidents, where we are told to dream big and have it all. (The vice presidency of the United States is regarded as a rarefied form of failure.) But in a world where everyone is innately a star, what does it mean to settle for life as a mere moon?

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.


Not every talk show host has employed a sidekick in the McMahon mold. Merv Griffin had Arthur Treacher, a very tall British character actor who earlier specialized in butlers, appropriately, and, after McMahon, the best of the breed. Regis Philbin played second banana to Rat Packer Joey Bishop on his short-lived 1960s late-night show. But Dick Cavett was a solo act; Mike Douglas relied on changing celebrity co-hosts; and Jay Leno had no one on his couch. Still, it seems a sign of respect to McMahon (and to the institution he served) that when Conan O'Brien took the reins of "The Tonight Show," he had a partner in place, original "Late Night" sidekick Andy Richter.

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

[catlover79]

I never saw him on The Tonight Show (as it was past my bedtime in those days. ) - I knew Ed as the host of Star Search. I used to LOVE watching that show on Saturday afternoons. It was on right after Out of This World and The New Lassie.

[Pavan]

Horrific news. Ed was a legend. He will be deeply missed.

Here is our tribute: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/20...wgn-pulls.html

[Yooch]

Much as been said about Ed McMahon's laughter and chemistry with Johnny Carson. The funniest times of that for me were when Johnny did Karnak. Ed would hand the 'hermetically sealed envelope' to Johnny. Johnny would hold the envelope up to his turban and "guess" the answer to the question, then open the envelope which contained the actual question. Ed and the audience would crack up, and then laugh even more when Johnny would follow up with some sarcastic comment.

Ed seemed like a genuine good guy. RIP

[Pus$y Galore]

Another icon of television lost. I can see him now sitting back with Johnny and going over all the good old times.

Rest in peace Ed - you were a great guy and a top-notch "second banana".

[InspectorExstead]

Aww, noo. That's so sad! Ed. You'll be missed.

[howilu]

In addition to his role as Johnny Carson's sidekick on The Tonight Show, he also hosted several game shows, starting with Missing Links before he was replaced by the man he would team up with on TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes, Dick Clark. He also hosted Snap Judgment from 1967-69 and after its cancellation, spent six months hosting Concentration. His last game show was a short-lived prime time mystery game titled Whodunit. But he will also be remembered as the host of Star Search, one of the greatest TV talent shows of all-time. He will be missed.

1922-2009

[80sTrivia]

Goodbye, Mr. McMahon... we're certainly going to miss you...

[Marvo301]

I always wondered why other talk show hosts didn't have a sidekick like Johnny had Ed. But now I realize that being a second banana is an art and masters of that art are very few. Ed was not only one of those few he was the cream of the crop the very best. We will not soon see his like again. Ed McMahon