by Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up!
“If life were fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead.”
-Johnny Carson
Comedy-variety has always been my favorite television show format. And from 1962 to 1992 Johnny Carson was the undisputed master. I fondly remember the mid-eighties when NBC had the greatest late night line-up ever: The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson at 11:30, followed by Late Night with David Letterman at 12:30, and then Later with Bob Costas. It was a knockout 1-2-3 combination that to this day remains unmatched.
Johnny Carson was never like a regular TV star or celebrity. He was an elusive and “enormously private person” who rarely granted interviews, did not often appear on shows like Entertainment Tonight, and other than the occasional TV special or Oscars telecast, for thirty years he was almost exclusively seen on The Tonight Show. For many he was an enigma: He worked in show business, yet he hated attention; he’d interview others on broadcast TV in front of millions, yet he viciously guarded his own privacy; he’d be upset when his wife was unfaithful, yet he was a serial philanderer; he’d often complain about divorce, yet he never hesitated to re-marry; he’d at times be mean-spirited and vindictive, yet at other times generous and helpful. In short, Johnny Carson was a man of many contradictions. Attorney Henry Bushkin was one of the rare people the volatile talk show host would admit into his inner circle, and their almost two-decade long relationship is the subject of Bushkin’s new book Johnny Carson. But make no mistake: This is not a full and complete biography of Carson, but rather a memoire of Buskin’s years as his lawyer, advisor, confidant and friend.
The writing style in Johnny Carson, while imperfect, is at least flowing. I found it an enjoyable read, with the best pages being those the author decided to keep simple. The book moves at a good pace and is never dull, boring or uninteresting; in fact at times I was unable to put in down. Lawyers often make decent writers, (I think that is because their profession requires them to read and write almost daily), and Bushkin is no exception. He wisely keeps passages about his own personal life to a minimum and the sections about complex industry business deals mercifully short, uncomplicated and understandable.
The fault in Johnny Carson, like Shakespeare once said, “…is not in our stars but in ourselves…” Bushkin tries too hard and over-reaches more than a few times, like with his forced and needlessly wordy metaphors. (For example: “…she approached it with a seriousness of purpose that would have made General Patton look like ‘The Dude’ from The Big Lebowski.”) There are also terrible, groan-inducing puns, (e.g. Chapter Thirteen: 1982-1985 Days of Weinberger and Neuroses), and obvious, obtuse jokes that fall with a thud, sounding like rejected lines from The Daily Show, (“Flying in those days was easier and more pleasurable-so loose was security that a passenger could not only take a gun on an airplane but bottles of shampoo as well…”). Bushkin should have left the jokes to Johnny.
Bushkin does not pull any punches as he paints a portrayal of a complex and difficult relationship with an unpredictable and at times impossible man while delivering solid insight into what made the “King of late night television” tick, in a book that is a curious mixture of nostalgia and bitterness. However the smartest thing the author did was to simply title the book Johnny Carson with no subtitle, because truly the name says it all.
