HERE’S ED

The man perceived as Johnny Carson’s best audience never watches “The Tonight Show.”

Ed McMahon never watches the program when it airs and, in fact, he has no involvement before the show tapes, either.

“We tape it live at 6:30 p.m.,” he said. “We treat it like we are on the air live. I feel you lose your momentum if you stop the host and start all over again. When you have that feeling it is live, it is an extra piece of electricity.”

A typical day on “The Tonight Show” set has McMahon seeing Carson about an hour before taping.

“We see each other for all of four minutes,” he said. “And we won’t talk about the show. We’ll talk about other things--current events, our lives, religion. It will be funny.

“I didn’t even know who was on the ‘Tonight Show’ tonight until I saw the names on the way in. All the stuff (between Johnny and myself) is ad-lib. I keep it fresh.”

This routine has gone on every day for 29 years. “From the very first show I decided not to go into meetings or read notes,” McMahon said. “The most I do is sit with the producer if there is something I need to do with a prop or a sketch where there are lines. We go over that in his office.”

It’s a routine that won’t last much longer as retirement nears for Carson, with McMahon on his heels.

“The clock is ticking,” McMahon said. “We are in the final glide path.”

As for life after “The Tonight Show,” McMahon will continue to host the syndicated series “Star Search” and be pitchman for “Publishers’ Clearinghouse.”

He admited, though, that life without Carson and “The Tonight Show” will “be tough. But I am looking forward to a future. I had a little movie career (“Fun With Dick and Jane”) going, but it meant I had to be off the show for four weeks, so I will be free to do that again. I have started reading scripts.”