Joseph Gordon-Levitt Will Play Johnny Carson in New TV Series From DEADWOOD Creator David Milch
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is set to play beloved TV personality and Tonight Show host, Johnny Carson. This is fantastic casting and Gordon-Levitt is going to be awesome in the role of Carson. As a fan of the actor, I’m looking forward to seeing how he brings Carson to life.
The series is titled King Of Late Night, and it was created and written by Deadwood creator David Milch and Jay Roach (Meet the Parents, Auston Powers) will direct the series.
The series will “follow the life and career of late-night TV pioneer Johnny Carson from New York to Los Angeles to the Las Vegas strip. King Of Late Night will reveal how Johnny’s diehard connection to his audience overlapped with his lifelong desire for a basic quality of life, and how his beloved on-screen persona came into conflict with the more colorful aspects of his personal life.”
It’s explained that Carson, “who grew up in Nebraska and served in the Navy in World War II before going to college, started his career in local radio and television before transitioning to network game shows and landing NBC’s The Tonight Show, which Carson hosted for 30 years, from 1962-92. Famous for his nightly on-screen presence, Carson was very private off-screen, shunning the social circuit for a personal life that included four marriages.”
Over the years, there have been several attempts to get a Jonny Carson biopic made including a film and an NBC miniseries over a decade ago that would have been based on Bill Zehme’s book Carson the Magnificent: An Intimate Portrait. Neither of the projects ended up happening, though.
In 2017, there was a comedy-drama series titled There’s… Johnny!, which was created by Paul Reiser and David Steven Simon. That series was set in the 1970s and it depicts the fictional goings-on behind the scenes of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
This new project has been in the works for the past five years and it’s finally taking some big steps forward. Especially with the casting of Gordon-Levitt.
I loved watching Johnny Carson when I was growing up. I’ve gone back and rewatched his work over this years, and in my opinion, he was hands down the best of the Tonight Show hosts. He set such a high bar.
Source: Deadline