Carson the Magnificent

 

I've read other biographies about Johnny Carson, but I really liked the writing style of this one. Zehme started the bio and then passed away before he could finish it, so Thomas tied it up. I don't know if it was Thomas' writing style or Zehme's. Either way, it was slightly snarky and witty. 

Ironically enough, as I was reading this book I discovered one of those channels that shows old TV shows, Antenna TV, shows episodes of "The Tonight Show", so I watched a few and they hold up. Still hilarious. I watched one where he interviewed Michael Landon and Landon was a lot funnier than I ever imagined. 

It's wild to imagine that he had 17 million people watching his show every night at one point. And that was before VHS and DVR, so they were watching it live. He really did own late night television and everything that has come after him has been a pale imitation. Honestly, I think NBC would be better off just showing Carson reruns than whatever they have on the air now at night (I have no idea, I haven't stayed up past 10 in about a decade). While it wasn't an all-encompassing biography (mostly focused on the show), it was still fun and I enjoyed it.