Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

And I loved Johnny Carson. Perhaps like any aging baby boomer, or anyone from most any generation , we think what we had was the best. When it comes to late night TV hacks, er hosts, I think they all fall far below Johnny Carson. The documentary that came out a bit back Johnny Carson: King of Late Night [HD] was terrific and only increased my appetite for more. Sadly there aren't any really good books about the King of Late night that I could find. One author , Bill Zehme , that they interview on the documentary has allegedly written a book that has been delayed for years and I hear could be the basis for a movie, but it is odd that the "biographer" on the excellent documentary has yet to publish same? I do find it interesting that for a guy as huge as Johnny was the dearth of literary material about his life and years at the top of the entertainment industry is remarkable and only ads to the enigma that continues to be Johnny Carson. Well.. when I was offered the early read of this book I jumped at the opportunity, not because it was a book about Carson but I recognized the author's name , Henry Bushkin. You can't have watched the Tonight Show and not remembered Johnny talking about his lawyer "Bombastic Bushkin".... so I was thinking just maybe a real book by a real insider. I should also add at this point that I'm not looking for "dirt" on Johnny, just something, anything , beyond the stage of the Tonight Show. This was easily the quickest 300 pages I've ever turned, one sitting, and I'm sad it wasn't longer. Bushkin does dish some serious dirt at times but he doesn't do it in a mean spirited way. I like the fact that it is obvious Buskin is a writer to the extent he has a serious inside story to tell but he's not in love with his own prose. By that I mean he covers a substantial amount of ground and quite a bit of salacious material in a sort of matter of fact way instead of ratcheting up the drama as one would expect by a "writer first" author. There isn't much speculation in this book either, Bushkin keeps on point and delivers the material he has first hand knowledge of and for the most part was a participant in! I hope potential purchasers of the book will not mind I didn't give away any of the inside scoop or scandalous revelations (even though they are never presented in such a way I'm sure many will be fodder for tabloid news). I don't want to spoil the read for anyone curious enough to purchase this excellent book. Bushkin was around for 18 years , and was his wingman and one of his closest confidants during the height of his power and popularity. You will be taken behind the curtain for scenes from divorce, the pitting of NBC against ABC , dealing with Caesers Palace in Las Vegas, as well as his own failed production company and many scenes from many Hollywood dinners. This is a terrific book without a page of filler, it reads like a greatest hits recording from highlight to highlight. I literally defy a reader to open the book to any page and not find something fascinating. Provocative it is, but it is just one persons version of the truthful history so I kept that in mind while reading and particularly when reading about the acrimonious ending to this longtime relationship. To that extent I believe it is the best available book on this subject and even were Johnny to have written his own story I can't see him going below the surface ...in many ways I think Carson would be the happiest to know that no books about him were written and that his "on air" life be the only one any of us know. Has reading this book allowed me to form a new portrait of Johnny Carson? It certainly didn't surprise me with what I'd previously read and after viewing that excellent documentary. When he perceived a failure of loyalty Johnny seems to exhibit what Desi Arnaz called "the Cuban way" ...I don't hate you , you just cease to exist. Being on the fringes of the entertainment industry here in Southern California I also suspect I'm a bit more jaded to much of this. The star machinations ,the ego stroking that is needed/required , the paranoia of those at the top. I would not have expected to read anything on Johnny Carson that pretended that he was a Jed Clampett type of displaced country boy being isolated in the big city. As Joan Rivers said "Johnny was a killer" , he was also from a young age skilled at sleight of hand , and like any true magician he wasn't one to give away his secrets. Bushkin has at least let us into the tent for part of the show.