While most famous for being Johnny Carson's go-to man (an able backboard for jokes, an incredulous-yet-always-rolling-with-it co-witness to bizarre moments and personalities), McMahon also acquitted himself nicely on the long-running Star Search. While recognizing the show's inherent cheesiness with a wry twinkle in his bespectacled eye, McMahon was never condescending or dismissive of the dreamers who danced and sang and acted and told jokes so earnestly on center stage. Maybe that was just the style of the time, but when compared to the detached smugness of a Ryan Seacrest or the acrid British lady on So You Think You Can Dance, McMahon carried himself with an air of, well, genuine class. We know "class" is word that's become something of a joke, but McMahon knew that the word was sincere and important. Ed wanted you to enjoy what you were watching, and for the people performing to enjoy what they were doing. He made everyone comfortable and kept things moving. A lot easier said than done. He was even good at giving people enormous checks!

While McMahon ran into some slighty embarrassing financial problems late in his life, he briefly reentered the public eye in a great way with a hilarious, gently self-mocking bit in a Cash-4-Gold commercial that ran during the Super Bowl. Amid all the glitzy expensive beer ads, his was the funniest and, yes in a strange way classiest, of the evening.

Some highlights:

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Johnny poking fun at Ed

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Singing on a telethon with Jerry Lewis

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Playing MC on Star Search

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The Cash-4-Gold ad

We're sort of curious when that delightful Super Bowl ad was actually filmed, because he seems pretty hale and hearty in it. I guess these things can come on pretty quickly. McMahon's spokesman remains confident about the Star Search host's condition, saying "Ed's a big, strong, hearty guy and his family and I are hopeful and optimistic about his prognosis." That he is! A bear of television! Plus he just had to sell his solid gold toilet and really deserves break.

But mostly McMahon has fielded one bone after another thrown his way by the advertising industry — which is turning into a bit of a problem if the new, pimptastic pitchman now being rolled out for the highest bidder is any indication.

Obviously this is not new terrain for McMahon; by his own admission the man has "spent my whole life doing commercials," all the way back to having paid his way through college selling vegetable slicers. When he required hospitalization last year for treatment of a broken neck, he all but summoned the Publishers Clearing House prize van before cooler heads dialed 9-1-1. The guy is a born huckster. We get that.

We also know that under the circumstances, McMahon probably isn't using the soundest, most selective judgment. Exhibit A: This recently released still from the set of his latest commercial, featuring McMahon — a prodigiously generous man who sat at Johnny Carson's right hand for three decades — as a pimp selling... Hey, you know what? Fuck them. If you wanna look the vultures up, go for it. We know the contradiction that comes with covering this in the first place, but we understand debasement even better, and the long-term potential here outweighs the immediate scourge. Again: Ed McMahon is dressed like a gangsta. Where is Don Draper when we need him? Is this really the best you can do, Madison Avenue?

Moreover, where is Hollywood when McMahon needs it? Just when things were looking up, the guy requires someone, anyone to fend off the vampires sucking away what remains of his dignity. Remember, people: Ed McMahon. Any volunteers?

[Photo: ETOnline]

Good question, and one that's partially answered in a fascinating advertisement published this week in the Los Angeles MLS Open House Guide. There, broker Alex Davis made a last-minute, full-page appeal on McMahon's behalf, laying out the dire scenario along with some of the speed bumps he and McMahon had struck along the way: "Lowball offers" of $4.6 million, flaky speculators, and the last of the bank's deadline extensions. But finally the pitch comes down to selling McMahon himself: "[Y]ou will be the hero of a man who's been the hero of so many others if you could help bring this deal to fruition." Ah — so that's what Trump was after. Read the full ad after the jump.

• Donald Trump to buy Ed McMahon's house [LAT]

• MLS Open House Guide [MLS via LAT]

Some potential buyers have been scared off by the area, which boasts such celebrity neighbors as George Clooney and Britney Spears, who ironically gained fame on McMahon's Star Search. Alex Davis, McMahon's real estate agent, told the Associated Press, "When we were trying to sell the house one time, there were about 100 paparazzi there."

Nevertheless, despite his current cash calamities, McMahon's rep said his client has "always been optimistic, and he remains optimistic that something good will happen."

McMahon's generosity hasn't helped, either, with the gregarious 85-year-old WWII vet's hotel-gratuity and wife-investment pastimes having finally caught up with him. Nevertheless, expect a volunteer crew of Hollywood philanthropists led by Eli Broad and David Geffen to parking their own Prize Van at McMahon's doorstep, borrowing one of the neighboring paparazzi and presenting a balloon bouquet and an oversized check to the TV legend. Let the healing begin, America!

• Inside Ed McMahon's Money Mess [HuffPo]