Ed McMahon’s Wife Said Johnny Carson Had ‘Something Wrong With Him’

When Ed McMahon started working with Johnny Carson in the late ’50s, his first wife had reservations about the mischievous host. And after an on-set stunt left her concerned Carson might roast his second banana sidekick for a laugh, she told McMahon, “I think there’s something wrong with him.”

Johnny Carson gave Ed McMahon a ‘memorably warm welcome’

As McMahon recalled in his memoir, Here’s Johnny, he started working with Carson in 1958. That’s when he began as an announcer for the young host on the television game show Who Do You Trust? and was greeted with a “memorably warm welcome.”

He meant that Carson routinely set fire to the bottom of his script while he read announcements. “I had to read the opening as fast as I could before all the words burned up,” he wrote, calling it a “trial by fire.”

“Of course, Johnny’s little cookout got a huge laugh,” he noted. So, they continued doing it for four years. During that time, McMahon said he had to try and quickly memorize the lines, hoping he at least got names right.

In those early years, Carson liked to pull similar pranks often. And as his loyal cohort, McMahon was a frequent target. He gave an example of when Carson crawled under a camera and gave him a “hot foot” while reading an advertisement.

That seemingly means he set his shoelaces on fire, though McMahon didn’t specify. He said he was distracted, and he accidentally said a product made it “easy to pee” instead of “easy to pin a diaper.”

But, while their dynamic was proving to be a hilarious hit with television audiences, not everyone was happy with what they saw.

Ed McMahon’s first wife thought there was ‘something wrong’ with Johnny Carson

In 1945, McMahon married his first wife, Alyce Ferrell. And he shared in his memoir she was concerned following Carson’s “hot foot” prank. “I think there’s something wrong with him,” he recalled her saying.

“No,” he replied, “there’s something very right.”

Though she wondered if Carson thought McMahon was a “barbecue” and explained she didn’t want their four children to see their father catch on fire, he laughed it off. According to him, Carson was “smoking in every way,” and he knew if he stuck with him, he’d be on his way, too.

And McMahon’s prediction came true. When Carson was offered his position as host of The Tonight Show in 1962, he brought McMahon along as his co-host.

Ed McMahon and Johnny Carson’s friendship outlasted most of their marriages

After more than 30 years of marriage, McMahon and Ferrell divorced in 1976. He married his second wife, Victoria Valentine, the same year. They adopted a daughter, and their marriage ended in divorce in 1989.

Following his second divorce, he married his third wife, Pam Hurn, in 1992. He also adopted her son, giving him six children. According to the New York Times, McMahon and Hurn remained married until he died in 2009.

Meanwhile, Carson was married four times and had three sons, but Rick Carson died in an accident in 1991. When Carson died in 2005, the late-night icon left behind his two surviving sons and his last wife.

Between Carson and McMahon’s seven marriages, McMahon’s first union of 30 years was the longest. But the friendship between them endured longer than that, lasting for 46 years.

In his memoir, McMahon wrote he could still hear Carson talking to him following his death as he replayed “sweet bits” of “Very Cherished Remembrances” on his mental VCR. He confessed to his readers, “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to accept Johnny is gone.”