Once upon a time, Magic Johnson hosted a late-night talk show called The Magic Hour.
It was pretty forgettable, which is fortunate for everyone who worked on it.
Some hosts from the late-night talk show graveyard get hung with their failure: Chevy Chase, Joan Rivers, Pat Sajak, to name a few.
Yet Magic's reputation never got tarnished.
They say that likeability is the main job requirement for hosting, and nobody can question Magic's popularity and appeal.
Yet him interviewing other celebrities in a syndicated late-night format was dead on arrival.
Looking at that clip makes me wish they extended the intros, dancing and Sheila E. interactions to 60 minutes and the show could have had a chance.
The Talk Show Landscape
For 30 years, Johnny Carson had a stranglehold on late-night television.
God forbid, somebody tried to nip even a little bit off of Johnny's audience - but bones of The Joan Rivers Show, The Pat Sajak Show, and Thicke of the Night litter the beach of disposable television.
After Carson's 1993 retirement, it seemed like things could open up in late night for more shows.
Just put somebody funny on, get good guests, and you'd get ratings.
Not so much, and The Magic Hour was a great example.
Magic Johnson was and is incredibly charismatic.
Talk shows require charisma.
Doing some very simple math, this should have worked out.
It absolutely did not.
The Real Problem
Yes, Magic wasn't well suited to steer this ship.
But I remember the main culprit being how poorly this was produced.
* Their initial sidekick of comedian Craig Shoemaker was an immediate disaster.
He lasted just three awkward episodes.
* Awkward energy.
It could never decide what it wanted to be - other than being a warmed over Arsenio Hall Show clone without a comedian doing the monologue or professional writers creating bits.
* Their Stephen Colbert pitch - as Colbert told the story on the Strike Force Five podcast, the producers wanted to hire a then-barely-known Colbert to be Magic's "crazy uncle."
Colbert needed the money; he was just starting a family, and even with that he didn't want to go near taking this job on a doomed ship.
* Booking - Sure, the first week’s launch got them Michael Douglas, Will Smith, and some high-wattage stars.
But within a couple weeks the guests were a Who’s Who of Who’s That? like Erika Arshaye, Gary Garver, and Maria Nazzaro.
Even that list is nitpicking. The show was just a chaotic mess.
Magic As Host
I loved and love the man.
But let's face it, he wasn't a great host.
He couldn't guide an interview or discuss French cinema when necessary.
His signature move was to butter up the guest in a way to make the hyped-up studio audience start cheering for some reason.
YouTube is letting me down by not having two dreadful Magic Hour interview moments.
Here are two direct quotes from Magic that will never leave my memory:
* w/ Harrison Ford: "Now when you say 'Steven', do you mean 'Steven Spielberg?'
Heh-heh-heh.
You guys should make another Raiders of the Lost Ark.
[long audience whoop]"
* w/ Martin Landau: "Martin Landau, you take all actors to another level.
Heh-heh-heh.
[mid-sized audience whoop]"
It Was Always Better Than the Chevy Chase Show
The Magic Hour was put out of its misery and canceled after 8 weeks.
That's two weeks longer than the miserable Chevy Chase Show.
At least The Magic Hour was trying, and the audience was rooting for him.
Chevy Chase took phoning it in to new heights and just defined 'perfunctory' in late night.
Longtime producer Nikki Nash (who wrote a great career memoir, recommended reading for Hollywood fans) said this about Chevy:
"Maybe a week in, the stage manager told me this, he goes, 'I think we're in trouble,'" Because (Chase) had a talk segment which was awkward, he gets off stage and he says to Josh, 'I hate that part where I have to talk to people.'"
Surviving the Non-Hit
Magic Johnson is bulletproof; I'm not saying that in reference to living with HIV well before that became commonplace, which is amazing.
He had a rotten season coaching unresponsive Laker players in 1993, but nobody really remembers that.
And nobody held this misfire of a show against him.
I don't.
Magic has succeeded at just about everything in life: He's arguably one of the 5 best basketball players of all time.
A massively successful businessman.
And part of the ownership groups that rescued the Dodgers from Frank McCourt and the Washington Commanders from Daniel Snyder.
When Magic takes on a challenge, he succeeds.
Except for this talk show
I loved and love the man.
But let's face it, he wasn't a great host.
He couldn't guide an interview or discuss French cinema when necessary.
His signature move was to butter up the guest in a way to make the hyped-up studio audience start cheering for some reason. 