Las Vegas Weekly

June 23, 2009 · 8:36 AM

Star Search friend Ed McMahon will be missed by one and all

By Robin Leach

Ed McMahon and Johnny Carson on NBC's The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.

Photo: NBC

I would be remiss if I didn’t mark the sad passing this morning of TV icon Ed McMahon with a personal note. I first met Ed when I appeared on The Tonight Show back in the early 1980s, but we became friends and business colleagues when he hosted our Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous sister show Star Search for a dozen years.

Ed and I worked closely together during its run, and he was always the jovial life of the party, totally professional, always on time and on mark. He loved working with new, undiscovered talent on Star Search, which was created by my business partner Al Masini. Ed was very proud of the future stars in the making that he helped propel up the ladder of fame, including Sam Harris, Sawyer Brown and Sinbad.

In 1991, Britney Spears appeared on the show when she was just 10 years old, and Justin Timberlake made his first appearance on it when he was only 11! I celebrated the launch of his slot machine and line of vodkas here in Las Vegas with him. Up until the start of recent health problems, he was the best of the bon vivants.

Widely known as Johnny Carson’s spirited sidekick for many years on NBC’s The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, Ed will be missed in our industry by one and all. Our sincere condolences to his family, but no doubt, by now, he’s already hosting a new show up in that great TV studio in the sky, and the angels are saying, “Heeeeeeeeeere’s Ed!”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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