NBC developing miniseries about late night icon Johnny Carson NBC is developing a miniseries about Johnny Carson, who hosted the network's "Tonight Show" for three decades. The miniseries will be based on Bill Zehme's upcoming biography "Carson the Magnificent: An Intimate Portrait." NBC has not cast anyone to play Carson yet. Zehme, who wrote a well-regarded profile of Carson for Esquire in 2002 and consulted on the American Masters documentary "Johnny Carson: King of Late Night," will be the executive producer for the NBC program. On television, Carson was smooth as silk. Behind the scenes, it was a different story as Carson was married four times and had a complex relationship with the network he called home for 30 years. Carson died in 2005. This is the second big miniseries of a well-known figure NBC has in the works. This summer, it unveiled plans for a Hillary Clinton miniseries starring Diane Lane as the former first lady. However, it remains to be seen whether that project will see the light of day.