It’s been more than two decades since the undisputed king of late-night gave up his throne, but the late, great Johnny Carson may be returning to TV through a miniseries based on an upcoming biography of the Tonight Show host.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the miniseries will be based on Bill Zehme’s still-to-be-published biography Carson the Magnificent: An Intimate Portrait. The project will tell the life story of the television icon, chronicling his journey from small-town Nebraska to the heights of Hollywood and his unprecedented 30-year stint as host of Tonight.
In addition, the story will also reveal Carson’s “often secluded off-camera life and friendships he made throughout his career as one of the most beloved TV personalities of all time,” notes an NBC statement about the miniseries.
NBC has yet to cast an actor to play Carson, who retired from The Tonight Show in 1992 and passed away in 2005.
Carson was played by impressionist Rich Little in HBO’s 1996 movie The Late Shift, based on New York Times reporter Bill Carter’s book about the late-night train wreck that ensued after Carson’s retirement when NBC passed over heir-apparent David Letterman and hired Jay Leno as Carson’s replacement.
