Longtime Johnny Carson announcer and sidekick Ed McMahon has passed away at age 86.

This probably isn't a surprise to most people, since McMahon has been in poor health for a number of years and also injured his neck severely in a fall in his home in 2007.

McMahon is best known, of course, for being the announcer and couch mate for Carson on The Tonight Show for 30 years. McMahon also hosted the original version of Star Search for many years, co-hosted Bloopers and Practical Jokes with Dick Clark, and was a staple of the annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon every September. Besides appearing in a number of TV shows and movies, he was also a spokesman for American Family Publishers (though, oddly, every single joke about these commercials with the giant checks and McMahon mentions Publisher's Clearing House for some reason).

McMahon died at Ronald Reagan/UCLA Medical Center in L.A.

A few years ago, Entertainment Weekly named the 50 best sidekicks of all-time, and Tonight Show announcer Ed McMahon came in at number one. But Slate's Troy Patterson has other ideas.

He chooses Andy Richter as the best late-night sidekick of all-time for his stint on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Patterson doesn't really count Paul Shaffer or Kevin Eubanks as "sidekicks" because they're more bandleaders than sidekicks, but I bet an argument could be made that either of them do fit the definition.