October 24, 2025 • 10 mins
Mark has a new book out called " Love Johnny Carson". The book highlights moments from Johnny's life on The Tonight Show and off-air action.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mark Simone on sevent tenor.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well, hey, if you're a big Johnny Carson fan, listen carefully.
First of all, this is a thing called the Carson Podcast.
It's excellent. It's everything you could ever know about Johnny Carson.
Mark Malkoff the host. He's done like six hundred episodes
interviewing everybody that was ever on The Tonight Show worked
at the Tonight Show. Listen, start listening to it. The
Carson Podcast. Now that all turned into a book. It
(00:27):
just came out this week. The book is called Love
Johnny Carson. It is the most detailed, fascinating, never before
told story of Johnny Carson the Tonight Show. It's called
Love Johnny Carson. You can order it right now. Here's
the author, Mark Malkoff, Mark Malcoff. How you doing, Mark.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
It is so good to talk to you. Thanks for
having me on. And I have to tell you your expertise
on this book.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I mean, you're very generous.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
You say that you knew everything about Johnny Carson, and
I was the one person that presented all these new
things to you and some other people. But your expertise
on Carsons this downs me. I'm grateful for your help.
In this book, and you're all over the book with
your quotes, and you added so much to it, so
thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I did I knew everything you could know about Johnny Carson.
I start listening to your podcast, I learned like twenty
seven thousand more things I didn't know now. But you're
a young guy, so you were not really around in
the original days of Carson. How did this love of
Johnny Carson start with you?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
You know, I was like five or six years old
and my dad would let me stay up on Friday
nights and watch Johnny and then they would do these
primetime anniversary shows every October, and I just the clip
shows were the best because I would watch Johnny with animals,
with kids, with senior citizens, the sketches, and he'd be
so funny and so witty, and it was like this
adult party. And the politics at that time was over
(01:52):
my head. But you know, I was sixteen when he
went out the air on May twenty second, ninety two,
and I just missed him, like the nation missed him.
And there were just so many questions I had about
the show. Who was holding the curtain open for Johnny
behind the scenes, What was it like for a guest
to be on the show. So I just started this
podcast and I interviewed something like sixty or seventy Carson
(02:15):
staff members. I was with Irving Davis, the guy who
held the curtain open for Johnny for twenty years, to
find out what was going on behind the scenes. And
it was just this whole different world for me. It
was amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So besides the funny and the guests in the entertainment,
there was something about Carson for a little kid, I
kind of the same thing. He would kind of like
teach you about how to be an adult, how to
have a personality, right, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I think. So Johnny was really on the show all
about manners. He would say, though the one time he
was knock good with his manners manners and he talked
about it on the shows, and he struggled with this
was his drinking. He would say on the show, when
I drank, I have one extra drink, I would turn
into a table of the hunt. But he was all
about manners and he was really really good with his guests.
He never made fun of people with some top show
(03:01):
hosts will try to get a laugh at the expense
his rule. Peter Less Aali Johnny's producer told me uniquely,
Johnny would always make the guests look good. It was
not to get a laugh for himself. And just the
way he handled himself, the way he dressed, the class
that he had, I think really separated himself. And when
you were a kid, you're impressionable, and there was just
something really about him that was special.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, it's different when you look back now because it's
so many years, but at the time he was a
very cool guy too. You learned how to be cool
watching him.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I mean, it's really interesting in the sixties, especially because
back then, you know, they go to Hollywood for these trips,
because the show is based in New York, and it's
the smoking and the drinking and the suits, and it's
like people like Dean Martin and Buddy Hackett and Rickles.
It was definitely this hip party and then, as you've
mentioned many times, in New York, it's this very high
(03:52):
brows show with you know, people like Jimmy Breslin and
Gordon Badal. At the same time, he could have the
funniest people like round the Dangerfield on and I mean,
I think he just had such a good variety of guests.
His one only criteria for a guest was excellence. If
you were good at what you did, it didn't didn't
have to be Johnny's paste in music or whatever you did.
(04:13):
He wanted you on the show was about excellence.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah. Now, the book, you should get the book. It's
called Love Johnny Carson. It's a massive book with great pictures.
But everything you would want to know about Johnny Carson
is called Love Johnny Carson. But he was also I
was a little kid. You know. He was the guy
that introduced us to everybody. He's the one who introduced
you to Don Rickles and Buddy Hackett and all those guys.
But tell us about that part of it.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, I mean definitely. In terms of the comedians, the
one thing that I that I really stuck out to
me when I talked to famous comedians especially is there
was the introducing of comics. I would talk to people
like Drew Carrier, talk to people like Bob Saget, and
they would highlight their TV guide when a comic would
be on, and it would be their introduction. And you know,
(04:59):
every was making their debut. Everyone from Flip Wilson said,
Johnny did more for comedians than anybody I know. I mean,
Flip ended up with his own show and NBC and
is winning Emmy's David Letterman for appearances and his guest
hosting the show and before he knows it launches his career.
And it was just it was uniquely Johnny. I mean
even people like Jimmy Buffett who told me he was
(05:21):
so excited to.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Talk to me.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I said, mister Buffet, why would you be excited to
talk to me? And he said, going on Carson was
the biggest break of my career. And no one has
ever asked me about it, no journalist, no one has
ever had And it was one of those things where
he introduced music, He introduced people like Ross Perrot, the
first billionaire. He was in New York and they had
him on and that was he showed up without any security.
(05:43):
He showed up for his pre interview, and that was
his introduction to so many people that became iconic.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah. Well, obviously Ed McMahon a big part of the show,
no longer with us. But Doc Severnson is alive, isn't he?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Doc?
Speaker 1 (05:57):
As he's in Tennessee. We've talked on the phone a
bunch of times. And he's been on the Carson Podcast,
and yeah, Doc, you know, I don't know if he's
still you know, unfortunately, you know, Carson's no longer with us.
He would have been one hundred years old yesterday. But
I think I can still get the sense talking to
Doc that he just how much he misses Johnny. I
don't think that hurt ever went away. I mean they
(06:18):
were really close. Now. Ed McMahon would say that that
him and Johnny were close, and they definitely had a bond.
But you know, Johnny and Doc would go on vacation
with the wives where Ed and Johnny were tight back
in the New York days, especially when they were hosting
an ABC show called Who Do You Trust on forty
fourth Street which is now the Hell and Hayes Theater.
They go to Sarti's in between shows. But they kind
(06:39):
of grew apart a little bit, yeah, when they moved
to Burbank. But Doc, his memory, his recall is unbelievable.
I mean, Doc was with Steve Allen. I mean, he
and Peter Lesally are really build the lone people that
are still with us, thank goodness.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, if you listen to the Carson Podcast, which you
should how many you did like three four episodes with
Doc telling all his story.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, it was with Doc a bunch of episodes, and
we're actually going to be releasing some new conversations on
the Carson Podcast. We did almost four hundred episodes and
then I did a lot of additional episodes. Are in
reviews for the book, people like Jay Leno, people like
Mario Andretti who taught Johnny Carson had to drag race
in Indianapolis be It Highway in the sixties when Johnny
(07:21):
did a big stunt which was fun. So a lot
of new interviews, but yeah, I just I tried to
talk to as many people and then we're going to
be talking to a lot of new people as well.
That it's going to be on the Carson Podcast, so
stay tuned for that. But yeah, the stories are to
be told. I mean the people that just tell me
it was the greatest time of their life. Yeah, there's
just it's endless.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
People pick on today's late night shows, but not to
pick on the host. But it's not their fault. The
bigness is gone. It's no longer a massive audience, no
longer these huge, big name stars. What do you think
the future is of Late Night. It may not last
much longer.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I'm not I don't. I just the business mind, all
teams Network TV, of the Ravens just keep going down
every year. I just don't think it's probably sustainable. I mean,
let's let's look at this. Johnny at one point was
what twenty five percent of all of NBC's profits. I mean,
he was doing an hour in forty five minutes when
he started in New York. I mean, he became NBC's
cash cow. This was a guy. When he started that
(08:20):
the critics were like, is he gonna last? Or we're
going to Is NBC going to bring merv Griffin? And
there were rumors Jack Parr was going to come back.
And Carson didn't even have his own bathroom in his
office at NBC when he started. In his dressing room,
he had to go to the men's room with the key,
and it was with all the employees. They did not
treat him like a star. So he's about nineteen sixty four,
(08:40):
he breaks Judy Garland's record at the Sahara Hotel in Vegas.
He starts to get more power, and once he starts
to get more power and creative power from the network
and just was became NBC's cash cow, the High Change,
and by nineteen eighty he gets the ownership of his show,
which was completely unheard of, and NBC is essentially working
for Johnny. It's the polar opposite and just that domination
(09:03):
of a network. I don't think we'll see that again.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Hey, we don't have much time with David. You mentioned
it's the hundredth birthday of Johnny Carson. What is going
on to celebrate that.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, yesterday they did a big thing of Johnny's alma
mater at Lincoln I'm in the University of Nebraska. They
had some former Carson guests. They had Marilyn May who
went on the show a lot, who was a singer.
They had a comedian named Pat Hazel who was on
Carol Leefer Lance Berta. They had an amazing Carson debut
as a magician, so they had that going on. And
I did a nice book signing last night. We have
(09:35):
We were packed signing books uptown in Manhattan. So yeah,
I've been just seeing so many people posting about Carson,
about the centennial, just about how much he's missed, and
the official Johnny Carson YouTube channel has over a million subscribers,
and it just tells you how much people miss this man.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, it's great stuff on YouTube. We're out of time,
but we'll do this again soon. But everybody, I love that.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Mark.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Thank you for your generosa. You've been such a palent.
Great follow everybody. Get the book. Order the book. It's
called Love Johnny Carson. It's a long detail. It's everything
you'd want to know about Johnny Carson. It's fascinating. It's
called Love Johnny Carson. And listen to the Carson Podcast.
There's hundreds of episodes. You'll love this podcast. And Mark Malcoff,
thanks for the book, Thanks for the podcast.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Thanks Mark for everything, Thanks for your support.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
We'll talk to him.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Thank you all right, take care.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, get the book. You'll love it. Hey, coming up
at noon today, don't forget. It's Buck and Clay, excellent
show every day at twelve noon, Sean Hannity at three,
the most listened to radio show in America, Jesse Kelly
at six, Jimmy Fayala at nine o'clock at excellent show
every night nine o'clock on seven to ten. WR
Mark Simone on sevent tenor.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well, hey, if you're a big Johnny Carson fan, listen carefully.
First of all, this is a thing called the Carson Podcast.
It's excellent. It's everything you could ever know about Johnny Carson.
Mark Malkoff the host. He's done like six hundred episodes
interviewing everybody that was ever on The Tonight Show worked
at the Tonight Show. Listen, start listening to it. The
Carson Podcast. Now that all turned into a book. It
(00:27):
just came out this week. The book is called Love
Johnny Carson. It is the most detailed, fascinating, never before
told story of Johnny Carson the Tonight Show. It's called
Love Johnny Carson. You can order it right now. Here's
the author, Mark Malkoff, Mark Malcoff. How you doing, Mark.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
It is so good to talk to you. Thanks for
having me on. And I have to tell you your expertise
on this book.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I mean, you're very generous.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
You say that you knew everything about Johnny Carson, and
I was the one person that presented all these new
things to you and some other people. But your expertise
on Carsons this downs me. I'm grateful for your help.
In this book, and you're all over the book with
your quotes, and you added so much to it, so
thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I did I knew everything you could know about Johnny Carson.
I start listening to your podcast, I learned like twenty
seven thousand more things I didn't know now. But you're
a young guy, so you were not really around in
the original days of Carson. How did this love of
Johnny Carson start with you?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
You know, I was like five or six years old
and my dad would let me stay up on Friday
nights and watch Johnny and then they would do these
primetime anniversary shows every October, and I just the clip
shows were the best because I would watch Johnny with animals,
with kids, with senior citizens, the sketches, and he'd be
so funny and so witty, and it was like this
adult party. And the politics at that time was over
(01:52):
my head. But you know, I was sixteen when he
went out the air on May twenty second, ninety two,
and I just missed him, like the nation missed him.
And there were just so many questions I had about
the show. Who was holding the curtain open for Johnny
behind the scenes, What was it like for a guest
to be on the show. So I just started this
podcast and I interviewed something like sixty or seventy Carson
(02:15):
staff members. I was with Irving Davis, the guy who
held the curtain open for Johnny for twenty years, to
find out what was going on behind the scenes. And
it was just this whole different world for me. It
was amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So besides the funny and the guests in the entertainment,
there was something about Carson for a little kid, I
kind of the same thing. He would kind of like
teach you about how to be an adult, how to
have a personality, right, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I think. So Johnny was really on the show all
about manners. He would say, though the one time he
was knock good with his manners manners and he talked
about it on the shows, and he struggled with this
was his drinking. He would say on the show, when
I drank, I have one extra drink, I would turn
into a table of the hunt. But he was all
about manners and he was really really good with his guests.
He never made fun of people with some top show
(03:01):
hosts will try to get a laugh at the expense
his rule. Peter Less Aali Johnny's producer told me uniquely,
Johnny would always make the guests look good. It was
not to get a laugh for himself. And just the
way he handled himself, the way he dressed, the class
that he had, I think really separated himself. And when
you were a kid, you're impressionable, and there was just
something really about him that was special.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, it's different when you look back now because it's
so many years, but at the time he was a
very cool guy too. You learned how to be cool
watching him.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I mean, it's really interesting in the sixties, especially because
back then, you know, they go to Hollywood for these trips,
because the show is based in New York, and it's
the smoking and the drinking and the suits, and it's
like people like Dean Martin and Buddy Hackett and Rickles.
It was definitely this hip party and then, as you've
mentioned many times, in New York, it's this very high
(03:52):
brows show with you know, people like Jimmy Breslin and
Gordon Badal. At the same time, he could have the
funniest people like round the Dangerfield on and I mean,
I think he just had such a good variety of guests.
His one only criteria for a guest was excellence. If
you were good at what you did, it didn't didn't
have to be Johnny's paste in music or whatever you did.
(04:13):
He wanted you on the show was about excellence.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah. Now, the book, you should get the book. It's
called Love Johnny Carson. It's a massive book with great pictures.
But everything you would want to know about Johnny Carson
is called Love Johnny Carson. But he was also I
was a little kid. You know. He was the guy
that introduced us to everybody. He's the one who introduced
you to Don Rickles and Buddy Hackett and all those guys.
But tell us about that part of it.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, I mean definitely. In terms of the comedians, the
one thing that I that I really stuck out to
me when I talked to famous comedians especially is there
was the introducing of comics. I would talk to people
like Drew Carrier, talk to people like Bob Saget, and
they would highlight their TV guide when a comic would
be on, and it would be their introduction. And you know,
(04:59):
every was making their debut. Everyone from Flip Wilson said,
Johnny did more for comedians than anybody I know. I mean,
Flip ended up with his own show and NBC and
is winning Emmy's David Letterman for appearances and his guest
hosting the show and before he knows it launches his career.
And it was just it was uniquely Johnny. I mean
even people like Jimmy Buffett who told me he was
(05:21):
so excited to.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Talk to me.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I said, mister Buffet, why would you be excited to
talk to me? And he said, going on Carson was
the biggest break of my career. And no one has
ever asked me about it, no journalist, no one has
ever had And it was one of those things where
he introduced music, He introduced people like Ross Perrot, the
first billionaire. He was in New York and they had
him on and that was he showed up without any security.
(05:43):
He showed up for his pre interview, and that was
his introduction to so many people that became iconic.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah. Well, obviously Ed McMahon a big part of the show,
no longer with us. But Doc Severnson is alive, isn't he?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Doc?
Speaker 1 (05:57):
As he's in Tennessee. We've talked on the phone a
bunch of times. And he's been on the Carson Podcast,
and yeah, Doc, you know, I don't know if he's
still you know, unfortunately, you know, Carson's no longer with us.
He would have been one hundred years old yesterday. But
I think I can still get the sense talking to
Doc that he just how much he misses Johnny. I
don't think that hurt ever went away. I mean they
(06:18):
were really close. Now. Ed McMahon would say that that
him and Johnny were close, and they definitely had a bond.
But you know, Johnny and Doc would go on vacation
with the wives where Ed and Johnny were tight back
in the New York days, especially when they were hosting
an ABC show called Who Do You Trust on forty
fourth Street which is now the Hell and Hayes Theater.
They go to Sarti's in between shows. But they kind
(06:39):
of grew apart a little bit, yeah, when they moved
to Burbank. But Doc, his memory, his recall is unbelievable.
I mean, Doc was with Steve Allen. I mean, he
and Peter Lesally are really build the lone people that
are still with us, thank goodness.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, if you listen to the Carson Podcast, which you
should how many you did like three four episodes with
Doc telling all his story.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, it was with Doc a bunch of episodes, and
we're actually going to be releasing some new conversations on
the Carson Podcast. We did almost four hundred episodes and
then I did a lot of additional episodes. Are in
reviews for the book, people like Jay Leno, people like
Mario Andretti who taught Johnny Carson had to drag race
in Indianapolis be It Highway in the sixties when Johnny
(07:21):
did a big stunt which was fun. So a lot
of new interviews, but yeah, I just I tried to
talk to as many people and then we're going to
be talking to a lot of new people as well.
That it's going to be on the Carson Podcast, so
stay tuned for that. But yeah, the stories are to
be told. I mean the people that just tell me
it was the greatest time of their life. Yeah, there's
just it's endless.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
People pick on today's late night shows, but not to
pick on the host. But it's not their fault. The
bigness is gone. It's no longer a massive audience, no
longer these huge, big name stars. What do you think
the future is of Late Night. It may not last
much longer.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I'm not I don't. I just the business mind, all
teams Network TV, of the Ravens just keep going down
every year. I just don't think it's probably sustainable. I mean,
let's let's look at this. Johnny at one point was
what twenty five percent of all of NBC's profits. I mean,
he was doing an hour in forty five minutes when
he started in New York. I mean, he became NBC's
cash cow. This was a guy. When he started that
(08:20):
the critics were like, is he gonna last? Or we're
going to Is NBC going to bring merv Griffin? And
there were rumors Jack Parr was going to come back.
And Carson didn't even have his own bathroom in his
office at NBC when he started. In his dressing room,
he had to go to the men's room with the key,
and it was with all the employees. They did not
treat him like a star. So he's about nineteen sixty four,
(08:40):
he breaks Judy Garland's record at the Sahara Hotel in Vegas.
He starts to get more power, and once he starts
to get more power and creative power from the network
and just was became NBC's cash cow, the High Change,
and by nineteen eighty he gets the ownership of his show,
which was completely unheard of, and NBC is essentially working
for Johnny. It's the polar opposite and just that domination
(09:03):
of a network. I don't think we'll see that again.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Hey, we don't have much time with David. You mentioned
it's the hundredth birthday of Johnny Carson. What is going
on to celebrate that.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, yesterday they did a big thing of Johnny's alma
mater at Lincoln I'm in the University of Nebraska. They
had some former Carson guests. They had Marilyn May who
went on the show a lot, who was a singer.
They had a comedian named Pat Hazel who was on
Carol Leefer Lance Berta. They had an amazing Carson debut
as a magician, so they had that going on. And
I did a nice book signing last night. We have
(09:35):
We were packed signing books uptown in Manhattan. So yeah,
I've been just seeing so many people posting about Carson,
about the centennial, just about how much he's missed, and
the official Johnny Carson YouTube channel has over a million subscribers,
and it just tells you how much people miss this man.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, it's great stuff on YouTube. We're out of time,
but we'll do this again soon. But everybody, I love that.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Mark.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Thank you for your generosa. You've been such a palent.
Great follow everybody. Get the book. Order the book. It's
called Love Johnny Carson. It's a long detail. It's everything
you'd want to know about Johnny Carson. It's fascinating. It's
called Love Johnny Carson. And listen to the Carson Podcast.
There's hundreds of episodes. You'll love this podcast. And Mark Malcoff,
thanks for the book, Thanks for the podcast.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Thanks Mark for everything, Thanks for your support.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
We'll talk to him.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Thank you all right, take care.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, get the book. You'll love it. Hey, coming up
at noon today, don't forget. It's Buck and Clay, excellent
show every day at twelve noon, Sean Hannity at three,
the most listened to radio show in America, Jesse Kelly
at six, Jimmy Fayala at nine o'clock at excellent show
every night nine o'clock on seven to ten. WR
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