“Carson the Magnificent” by Bill Zehme with Mike Thomas
c.2024, Simon & Schuster / $30 / 336 pages
You never sleep alone.
Every night, your post-local-news choice gives you a snicker before snoozing, a bit of drama before dreamland, provoking thoughts before pillow talk. No matter who your bedtime TV pal is, you’re in good hands and in the new book, “Carson the Magnificent” by Bill Zehme with Mike Thomas, you’ll read about the King of them all.
Johnny Carson swore he wasn’t nervous.
He’d paid his dues already, so taking over Jack Parr’s late-night show was just the next step, one he’d anticipated. Comparisons between Carson and Parr were highly expected. Controversy, to a point. According to his then-wife, though, Carson didn’t sleep well in the nights leading up to his Oct. 1, 1962 debut on “The Tonight Show.”
He was wearing mismatched cufflinks for luck that first night, but he didn’t need them. Within days, critics were raving and by the end of that week, the show’s ratings skyrocketed.
John William Carson was born in Iowa, raised in Nebraska, worked in radio in Oklahoma, cut his teeth on comedy in California, became a bit-writer for other comedians, and decided that if he didn’t get his own show by mid-1953, he’d go back to the Midwest.
He didn’t have to worry about that, either.
For nearly 30 years, Americans readied for bed to the sounds of “Hi-yooooooh!” and “I did not know that.” We respected what Carson had to say in his monologue. laughed at a funny guy who never put on airs but who had plenty of skeletons in his closet including four wives, anger issues, and a drinking problem. We listened to his wisdom. We loved his guests.
But by the mid-1980s, television’s landscape had changed, as had America and Carson, too. So on May 22, 1992, he gave his last “very heartfelt good night.”
Experts say that you should have a routine at night in order to fall asleep better. So brush your teeth, grab your favorite blanket, and find “Carson the Magnificent.”
Just know that it can be odd, at times.
In his introduction, author Mike Thomas explains how he ended up finishing this manuscript, one that had been in the making for nearly two decades, after the death of author Bill Zehme. Zehme was an author and a journalist for several major magazines, and the first two chapters of this book reflect that, reading more like magazine articles than a biography. It’s not off-putting, but it’s unexpected and requires a switch in reading mode.
Do that, then, and get into the actual biography and you’ll be glad you did: though Thomas and Zehme rehash the usual Carson biographical tales, there’s enough newness to what they offer here that readers are kept interested. Add some interviews and tidbits for fun, and it’s a good kind of nostalgia, and a welcome visit with an old friend from a gentler time.
Fans of late-night TV or late-last-century Hollywood will devour “Carson the Magnificent,” as will fans of anyone who graced Carson’s stage. For you, this book’s a great bedtime buddy.
