Ed McMahon, 86, The World’s Top Second Banana

Robert Lloyd: “Notwithstanding the dozen years of hosting Star Search, a role in the 1997 Tom Arnold sitcom The Tom Show, a high-profile Cash4Gold ad during the last Super Bowl and all that knocking on people’s doors in the name of American Family Publishers, McMahon was a professional sidekick, a less-than-equal partner in an enterprise of which he was nevertheless a vital part. … But in a world where everyone is innately a star, what does it mean to settle for life as a mere moon?”