Copious Notes

If you are inclined to stay up until 1:30 in the morning, you may have seen this little preview of Hank Williams Jr.’s Fourth of July appearance here next week, plus a surprisingly credible rendition of Bocephus’ Family Tradition by Late Night host Jimmy Fallon. You get the feeling if Jimmy lived out the song a bit more before Hank called him over, he may have really killed that number. Anyway, it is a fun way to spend three minutes and change.

Ed McMahon and Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show in 1992. Photo by Douglas C. Pizac | AP.

With the latest changing of the guard at The Tonight Show we were once again chatting about late night talk hosts, asking the question, could anyone truly replace Johnny Carson?

But the obituaries Tuesday morning brought a reminder of late night’s truly irreplaceable man: Ed McMahon.

Yes, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, and Jimmy Kimmel have all comanded the desk of a late night chat show and millions have watched. But none of them has had an Ed McMahon.

Leno and Letterman each used their bandleaders as foils. Jimmy Fallon is currently out there on his own in his new Late Night gig, and could desperately use an Ed or Tina Fey — his old Weekend Update partner on Saturday Night Live. O’Brien has come closest to an Ed with Andy Richter, who actually performed an Ed-like role at the beginning of O’Brien’s Late Night gig, and has returned as the announcer for O’Brien on Tonight.

But even Conan acknowledged that there’s been nothing like Ed’s straight man to Johnny — and sometimes vice versa.

“Sitting alongside Johnny, Ed was an indelible part of what I think is the most iconic two-shot in television history,” O’Brien said on Tuesday’s Tonight Show. “It’s impossible for anyone to imagine the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson without Ed McMahon.”

And it is. Think about Carnac the Magnificent, and Ed is there. Think about any Johnny Carson skit, and Ed was there. He was a star who never really threatened to eclipse his star. He created a role and perfected it.

Johnny has had numerous successors. Ed has yet to be succeeded.

Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon on the second episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Photo by Dana Edelson | NBC.

I can honestly tell you that I watched the very first Late Night with Conan O’Brien episodes. I cannot honestly tell you I remember much about them. In fact, watching Conan’s grand finale was a reminder the show started with a very different look and feel from how it ended.

If I remember anything, it was that Conan was a little awkward and you didn’t quite know what to make of the show after the first few nights.

Considering how things turned out for Conan — he’s now off to take the reigns of the The Tonight Show from Jay Leno, completing the succession David Letterman had wished for 16 years ago — that must mean Jimmy Fallon is off to a decent start.

The biggest thing to like about Late Night with Jimmy Fallon out of the gate is the tone. Yes, Jimmy made some bad-to-middlin’ movies, but we met him and know him for Saturday Night Live, where his chief accomplishment was creating, with Tina Fey, the best Weekend Update team since Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd (and until Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers who had a brief but glorious run). From the title sequence to the set, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon echoes SNL cool without overtly referencing it. And The Roots may have in a couple of nights become the best house band on late night TV, not only able to provide cool bumper music, but also able to be part of the jokes, starting right away with “slow jam the news.”

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