ed mcmahon

We reported Ed McMahon's "very serious" medical condition a few weeks ago, and it tugged at the strings of our very weak and sodium clogged hearts.

He's a TV legend, so much so that even people who didn't grow up watching The Tonight Show at least know of him and his work. It's been even harder to duplicate. Hank Kingsley was right. Sidekickology is a "dying art."

But a few little factoids popped up around the Internet surrounding McMahon's hospitalization, and it made the news even more tragic and depressing.

One of television's biggest success and tragedy stories has started to take a turn for the worse.

TV legend Ed McMahon, 85, has been in the hospital for the last month and his condition has only gotten worse.

TMZ reported a source close to the family said his condition has been upgraded to "extremely serious" since he has been moved into an intensive care unit. He has also contracted pneumonia, which at his age can make things very serious.

(NOTE: The following post talks about my favorite commercials of this past Super Bowl. There are absolutely no spoilers in this post. That is, unless you didn't watch the Super Bowl, recorded it for future viewing, and have decided to ignore every single other media outlet, as well as friends and family so no one tells you who won. If that's the case, don't blame us for your extremely poor time management skills.)

Well, it's all over except for the pack-up, the clean-up and the over-analyzing of the analyzing of the game that was actually played in Tampa. Super Bowl XLIII is now in the history books and so are its commercials. This year featured some returning companies, some new ones, plenty of NBC promos, and a koala puppet being punched in the face. In other words, a bit of everything. Out of all of them, here are some of my favorites.

(NOTE 2: The embedded videos come courtesy of Hulu. If you cannot view these videos I have linked the commercial titles to another site that you should be able to view.)

Most people watch the Super Bowl, airing Sun., 6PM on NBC, for the football game.


In its four-decade-plus history, the Super Bowl has had its fair share of these moments: the Budweiser frogs; Michael Jordan and Larry Bird shooting outrageous hoops to win a McDonald's Big Mac; Apple's '1984'-inspired Macintosh commercial, shot for $1 million and directed by Oscar-nominee Ridley Scott.

This year promises to continue the tradition with ads featuring celebrities, soda and -- you guessed it -- beer. According to E!, the celebrity lineup includes Conan O'Brien for Anheuser-Busch, will.i.am, who will sing Bob Dylan's 'Forever Young' in a commercial for Pepsi, action star Jason Statham for Audi and John Turturro's second commercial for Heineken.

Ed McMahon is having the Worst. Year. Ever. Now people are reaching out from beyond the grave to sue him.

The ex-Tonight Show announcer and Star Search host, who is being sued by many people and also almost lost his home a month or so ago, is now being sued by Merv Griffin's company for $100,000. McMahon was having money problems back in 2005 and borrowed the money from Merv. The loan was supposed to be paid back starting last month but McMahon didn't make his first payment, so The Griffin Group, Inc. has filed suit against him. Griffin died last year.

Sometimes your savior comes with pursed lips and really weird hair.

Billionaire Donald Trump has come to the rescue of Ed McMahon. The Apprentice star has bought the mansion that McMahon has had on the market and will let McMahon live there. The house has six bedrooms and five bathrooms. My bathroom has no window and you practically have to stand on the toilet to open and close the shower door.

The interesting thing is that McMahon and Trump don't even know each other, so it's not like Trump is an old friend and decided to bail him out. At the same time this might be a good investment for Trump. The mansion is worth $4.6 million.

Of course, McMahon isn't completely out of the woods financially. He is currently being sued by, well, every single person he has ever had a monetary transaction with. I wonder if he'll be co-hosting The Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon again this year?

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• Hmmm...maybe we are a little closer to a strike after all.
• Is a cast member of Ugly Betty leaving the show for CBS' new show Harper's Island?
• TV Newser has reactions to the death of Tony Snow.
• Yes fans, it looks like there will be a Sex and the City sequel.
• Stephen Collins says that Hallmark Channel would be a perfect place for a 7th Heaven movie.
• Ed McMahon is recovering from yet another neck surgery.
• Variety has some ideas on how to improve The CW.
• Broadcasting & Cable has a roundtable of TV critics: what if they ran the networks?

Somebody give Ed McMahon a job, please! There are more stories emerging about the famous TV sidekick's financial woes, and it's just sad that he's in such dire straits.

Granted, he's not alone in these tough times -- and, yes, he has had millions in his time -- but the revelations that the former Tonight Show star and Star Search host is in money trouble strikes me as really unfortunate. And apparently that help from Jay Leno is slow in materializing. Why isn't Publisher's Clearinghouse giving him a gig?

The latest news is that Citibank is suing McMahon for $200,000, a loan they extended to Ed. In a lawsuit filed in L.A. Superior court on June 9, the bank is seeking $179,687 in damages, plus legal fees. This is on top of the potential foreclosure on his Beverly Hills home.

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• Aaron Barnhart has some interesting thoughts on MSNBC.
• What is TidalTV?
• Star Trek: The Exhibition opens in San Diego today.
• More money problems for Ed McMahon: now Citibank is suing him.
• It was great to see Teri Garr on Letterman the other night.
• There's a 20th Anniversary DVD set coming for Mystery Science Theater 3000.
• Martha Stewart has been banned in the U.K.
• Seth MacFarlane spills the beans about what Family Guy has in store for viewers this fall, and reveals which celebrities are mad at the show.

Last week, the news about Ed McMahon possibly losing his Hollywood home spread across the airwaves. Surprisingly, there were many comments here that were downright unsympathetic to the former Tonight Show sidekick. Apparently, people in show business are sympathetic. Current Tonight Show host Jay Leno has vocally offered to help Ed with his financial problems.

Jay, who is in the last year of manning the desk that Johnny Carson manned for years with Ed right by his side, promises to come through for Ed. According to Leno's PR man, "Everybody loves Ed. Jay and others on the show are discussing how they can help him."

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• Ed McMahon tells Larry King about his financial problems.
• CBS' Early Show gets a new look next week. Here's a sneak peek.
• Nikki Finke has new info on the SAG vs. AFTRA mess.
• Michael Ian Black isn't happy about Doritos.
• Mary McCormack's In Plain Sight character will make an appearance on Law and Order: CI.
• This Late Night with Conan O'Brien researcher isn't happy with NBC's A-List Award ads.
• Sharon Osbourne quits The X Factor.

It's no secret that the country is in severe financial straits, especially people who are caught in the real estate merry-go-round where they find themselves unable to pay their monthly mortgage. Amazingly, someone as seemingly well-heeled and secure as Ed McMahon is one of those people struggling. Johnny Carson's sidekick on The Tonight Show is on the verge of losing his Beverly Hills home through foreclosure.

Published reports claim that Ed McMahon's home on Mulholland Drive, part of the gated hilltop development called The Summit, has been on the market for sale since 2006. Unfortunately, moving real estate in a depressed market is very tough. Complicating matters for McMahon is the neighborhood, in particular, one neighbor: Britney Spears.

It must have been hard to put a set together for a show like The Tonight Show. It's not the type of show you can do by season (way too many episodes), and Johnny Carson was host for 30 years (1962-92). A set like this is bound to disappoint some fans. But you know what? The set is just individual DVDs that have already been released in another form, and now they're packaging them under the Definitive DVD Collection title. That might tick off some fans who already bought the discs, but the set is well-done and has a variety of material to recommend it.

Talk about bizarre timing.

This morning I was just about to order two different Johnny Carson DVDs. I've been holding off on getting them for one reason or another but decided last night to just order them. Good thing I waited. Respond2 Entertainment has announced that they are going to release a 12 disc set this fall called Heeere's Johnny: The Definitive Collection. Yes, with three "e's."

Tommy Newsom, best known for being the bandleader on The Tonight Show when Doc Severinsen had the night off, died this weekend of cancer at his home in Virginia.

Newsom was also a saxophone player and joined the show in 1962, when Johnny Carson took over from Jack Parr. When Carson retired in 1992, so did Newsom. Newsom was a very dry, laid back guy, and Carson jokingly called him "Mr. Excitement."

Besides his work on The Tonight Show, Newsom also composed music for Kenny Rogers, John Denver, and Skitch Henderson, the first Tonight Show bandleader, who died in 2005.