Saying goodbye to Ed McMahon, a TV icon

The thing we probably will remember most about Ed McMahon is the hardy laugh.

He was everybody's favorite uncle, the perfect pitchman, the best sidekick in show business, an all-around nice guy.

A former Marine and one-time carnival barker, he had a TV career that spanned six decades, three of them as straight-man and announcer on "The Tonight Show" starring Johnny Carson.

His famous introduction "H-e-e-e-e-e-re's Johnny" was named TV's No. 1 all-time catchphrase by TV Land and immortalized in "The Shinning."

McMahon also was a part of an annual Labor Day tradition, the Jerry Lewis telethon for muscular dystrophy.

In a 1994 interview, he told The Tampa Tribune that when he started working in television, he didn't even own a TV set. "There were only 2 million TV sets in America," he said.

McMahon was a frequent visitor to the Tampa area, especially after his 1992 marriage to Pam Hurn, a Los Angeles fashion designer who was born in Miami. She was 37 and he was 69 when they got married. She was with him when he died Tuesday.

Pam's sister, Dede Rappaport, who lives in Tampa, says "they were perfect together, so sweet. He was very creative. He wrote her a love poem for this past Valentine's Day and had it framed."

She and her husband, Tampa businessman Alexander "Sandy" Rappaport, plan to fly to Los Angeles later this week to join the family.

"It's so sad we just saw Ed and Pam a few weeks ago," Dede Rappaport said in a telephone interview. She says McMahon had said he wanted to keep working right to the end and "he did just that."

"He was involved in charity work because he wanted to give back," she adds.

Pam Hurn was his third wife. "But he remained friends with his first two wives," Dede Rappaport says. "He was a very generous, loving person."

McMahon had other ties to Florida, including a 4,000-square-foot vacation home that he once owned in Charlotte County in the 1970s and '80s. He also taped a TV special at Cypress Gardens in the early '70s.

In 1994, he was in Tampa as part of a national "Star Search" bus tour that stopped at Boston Chicken restaurants (which later became Boston Market).

He told the Tribune that he was "a silent partner" with Alexander Rappaport, who owned the Boston Chicken franchise in Tampa.

He also said he missed "The Tonight Show." His stint ended in 1992 when Carson retired.

Last summer, McMahon, Pam Hurn and Alexander Rappaport appeared on NBC's "Celebrity Family Feud," hosted by Al Roker.

"He was a television icon and we don't have many of those left," Rappaport says.

CHANNEL FLIPPING: NBC's summer thriller "The Philanthropist" debuts at 10 tonight. British actor James Purefoy plays an American "billionaire vigilante" who is out to right wrongs. And he does it without the mask and cape used by "Batman" Bruce Wayne. This hero uses his money, his charm and his wits to beat the bad guys.

•Remember when a new season of "The Real World" was a big deal? The 22nd season, "The Real World: Cancun," debuts at 10 tonight on MTV. What's changed most over the years? The young people on the first ground-breaking show had not grown up in a world saturated with reality TV.