Offstage, nobody called him Johnny – not even when he was a boy. It was always John. Johnny was only for TV. In “Carson the Magnificent,” by the late Bill Zehme, you will get to know Johnny Carson ...

David Letterman compared Johnny Carson to a “public utility.” Walter Cronkite anointed him the “most durable performer in the whole history of television.” An “OK” hand signal from behind Carson’s ...