Bill Zehme (1958–2023)

This much acclaimed biography of the king of late night television is filled with interesting anecdotes, and in general is very kind to Carson and his memory. It’s really too bad that the writing just about ruins anything positive I could say about the book. This was originally Bill Zehme’s project, one that took him years to write, and even then, with the publisher’s advance long since spent, it lay unfinished until Mike Thomas stepped in to finish it when Zehme passed away in 2023. show more Zehme wrote 80% of the book, and therein lies the problem. The writing gets in the way of the information about Carson. Zehme tries his best to be cute probably to his own amusement, but in doing so, the book becomes a laborious task for the reader. It’s obvious at what point Thomas takes over because the writing becomes tamer and better suited to a serious biography. It’s just too bad Thomas didn’t take it over much sooner. It might have been saved. As it is, his jumping into the cockpit is just too late to save this plane that was already halfway to crashing. show less

Bill Zehme’s biography of Johnny Carson is intriguing, not for the insights it provides into Carson’s life or talent, but for the reasons it fails to find them. Zehme died before he could finish it, and one wonders whether he ever could have finished it. His research assistant, Mike Thomas, who finished the book after Zehme’s death, said he was daunted by the room full of notes and clippings Zehme left. However, I did not see much evidence of original interviews with Carson insiders. show more
Carson’s humor was always distant, even when discussing his failed marriages and drinking problems. His wives knew that he had a misogynistic mean streak, but all the audience ever saw was his boyish, likable self-deprecation and polished urbanity. Zehme never gets us much beyond what his studio audience saw.
I agree with New York Times reviewer Jason Zinoman that the book would have been better if it said more about the nature of Carson’s comedic craft. Carson, who went off the air in 1992 after a 30-year run, is one of the last icons of stand-up comedy before HBO, which changed everything. He was live, appointment television—another medium that no longer exists. It was always clear that Carson had more in common with radio-era comedians like Jack Benny and Bob Hope than with the brash, sophomoric humor of Saturday Night Live. He appreciated the edgier technique of Richard Pryor and George Carlin but never tried to imitate them. Like David Letterman, he let us know that it was all an act and that if you bought into it, you were the butt of the joke. But we were all too cool for that, weren’t we? show less

Bill Zehme and Mike Thomas’ Carson the Magnificent chronicles the life of Johnny Carson from his childhood through his retirement and eventual passing. Rather than structure the work strictly chronologically, Carson the Magnificent is structured thematically and focuses on Johnny’s relationships, work, and foibles. The book takes the same sense of familiarity that Carson’s personality encouraged. The authors frankly address Carson’s occasional personal failings while also setting show more them in the context of his life and that of the television industry. Despite that, Carson emerges as a fully-formed individual who worked tirelessly to craft something that could make a difference in peoples’ lives and who knew when to discretely bow out. Zehme and Thomas repeatedly return to that last point in light of the current culture of reboots, spin-offs, podcasts, and more that ensure no performer ever truly retires these days. Zehme worked on this tome for years, but didn’t complete it prior to his passing. His close friend, Thomas, stepped in to finish the book in honor of his friend. Just as this book serves as a tribute to Johnny, so too does it cement Zehme’s legacy. Reader Johnny Heller imbues the text with energy and empathy, capturing the tone of Carson and his contemporaries in a way that animates the book without devolving into caricature. show less

One thing I found fascinating was that even at the peak of his fame Carson was aware how fleeting it was, how most of the performers he grew up were forgotten. Now here we are and the once most influential man on TV seems destined to join Fred Allen, Red Skelton, Jack Paar and the rest on the scrap heap of history.
This isn’t a conventional biography, mostly told in a jumbled style jumping around in time, and some surprising omissions (Joan Rivers only merits one sentence) so it might be show more useful to read his wiki bio first show less