The Tonight Show is
an American
late-night talk and variety show
airing on NBC since 1954.
Tonight is the third longest-running entertainment program
in
U.S. television
history, after
Guiding
Light and
Hallmark
Hall of Fame.
The Tonight Show has been hosted by
Steve Allen (1954–1957),
Jack Paar (1957–1962),
Johnny Carson (1962–1992),
Jay Leno (1992–2009), and
Conan O'Brien (2009–present). The
longest-serving host to date was Carson, who hosted
The Tonight Show
Starring Johnny Carson for 30 seasons, from the fall of
1962 through the spring of 1992.
History
NBC's
Broadway Open
House, which began in 1950, first demonstrated the
potential for late-night network programming.
The format for The
Tonight Show can be traced to a nightly 40 minute local New
York show hosted by Allen, which premiered in 1953 on what is now
WNBC-TV
. Beginning in September 1954, it was renamed
Tonight! and shown on the full NBC network.
Steve Allen (1954–1957)
The first
Tonight announcer was
Gene Rayburn. Allen's version of the show
originated such talk show staples as an opening monologue,
celebrity interviews, audience participation, and comedy bits in
which cameras were taken outside the studio, as well as music,
including guest performers and a house band under Lyle "Skitch"
Henderson.
When the show became a success, Allen got a prime-time Sunday
comedy-variety show in June 1956, leading him to share
Tonight hosting duties with
Ernie
Kovacs during the
1956–1957
season. To give Allen time to work on his Sunday evening show,
Kovacs hosted
Tonight on Monday and Tuesday nights, with
his own announcer and bandleader.
During the later Steve Allen years, regular audience member
Lillian Miller became such an
integral part that she was forced to join
AFTRA,
the television/radio performers union.
Allen and Kovacs departed
Tonight in January 1957 after
NBC ordered Allen to concentrate all his efforts on his Sunday
night variety program, hoping to combat CBS's
Ed Sullivan Show's dominance of the
Sunday night ratings.
Tonight! America After Dark (1957)
Rather than continuing with the same format after Allen and Kovacs'
departure from
Tonight, NBC changed the show's format to a
news and features show, similar to that of the network's popular
morning program
Today.
The new show, renamed
Tonight! America After
Dark, was hosted first by
Jack
Lescoulie and then by
Al "Jazzbo" Collins,
with interviews conducted by
Hy Gardner,
and music provided by the
Lou Stein Trio.
This new version of the show was not popular, resulting in a
significant number of NBC affiliates dropping the show.
Jack Paar (1957–1962)
In July 1957, NBC returned the program to a talk/variety show
format once again, with
Jack Paar becoming
the new solo host of the show. Under Paar, most of the NBC
affiliates which had dropped the show during the ill-fated run of
America After Dark began airing the show once again.
Paar's era began the practice of branding the series after the
host, and as such the program, though officially still called
The Tonight Show, was marketed as
The Jack Paar
Show. A combo band conducted by Paar's Army buddy pianist Jose
Melis filled commercial breaks and backed musical entertainers.
[See music and announcers below.] Paar also introduced the idea of
having guest hosts; one of these early hosts was
Johnny Carson. In the late 1950s, it was one
of the first regularly scheduled shows to be videotaped in
color.
On February 11, 1960, Jack Paar walked off his show for a month
after NBC censors edited out a segment, taped the night before,
about a joke involving a "W.C." (water closet, a polite term for a
flush toilet) being confused for a "wayside chapel." As he left his
desk, he said, "I am leaving
The Tonight Show. There must
be a better way of making a living than this." Paar's abrupt
departure left his startled announcer,
Hugh
Downs, to finish the broadcast himself.
Paar returned to the show on March 7, 1960, strolled on stage,
struck a pose, and said, "As I was saying before I was
interrupted..." After the audience erupted in applause, Paar
continued, "When I walked off, I said there must be a better way of
making a living. Well, I've looked... and there isn't."
Transition to Carson (1962)
Jack Paar left the show in March 1962, citing the fact that he
could no longer handle the load of putting on the show five nights
a week.
The Jack Paar Show moved to prime time (as
The
Jack Paar Program) and aired weekly, on Friday nights, through
1965.
As for
Tonight, Johnny Carson was chosen as Paar's
successor. At the time, Carson was host of the weekday afternoon
quiz show
Who Do You
Trust? on
ABC. Because Carson was under
contract to ABC through September (they held him to his contract
until the day it expired, prompting him to make occasional
wisecracks on "Who Do You Trust?" about the situation- "I'd like to
welcome you to ABC...the network with a heart"), he could not take
over as host until October 1, 1962. The months between Paar and
Carson were taken by a series of guest hosts, including
Groucho Marx and
Mort
Sahl. The show was broadcast under the title
The Tonight
Show during this
interregnum.
Johnny Carson (1962–1992)
Marx introduced Carson as the new host on October 1, 1962;
Ed McMahon was Carson's announcer. The Tonight
Show orchestra was for several years still led by Skitch Henderson.
After a brief stint by Milton DeLugg, beginning in 1967 the "NBC
Orchestra" was then headed by trumpeter
Doc Severinsen who played in the Tonight Show
Band in the years that 'Skitch' Henderson conducted.
[See music and
announcers below.] For all but a few months of its first decade on
the air, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City
. In May 1972 the show moved to Burbank,
California
into Studio One of NBC Studios
West Coast (although it was announced as coming
from nearby Hollywood
), for the remainder of his tenure.
Jay Leno (1992–2009)
Johnny Carson retired on May 22, 1992, and was replaced by
Jay Leno amid controversy.
David Letterman not only wanted to move into
that earlier time slot from his late night spot after
The
Tonight Show, but was considered by Carson and others as the
natural successor (despite Leno having been Carson's permanent
guest host for several years). Letterman, having had his heart set
on the earlier time slot, left NBC and joined CBS.
Late Show with David
Letterman, airing in the same slot, has been competing
head to head against
The Tonight Show ever since. After
Leno's run as host of
The Tonight Show,
Conan O'Brien took over as host of
Late
Night.
Conan O'Brien (2009–present)
On September 27, 2004, the 50th anniversary of the show's premiere,
NBC announced that Jay Leno would be succeeded by
Conan O'Brien in 2009. Leno explained that in
having Conan he wanted to avoid the hardship of when he took over
as host between him and David Letterman and that Conan was
"certainly the most deserving person for the job." The final
episode of
The Tonight Show with Leno as host aired on
Friday, May 29, 2009.
O'Brien replaced Leno as host on The
Tonight Show on Monday, June 1 from a new studio in Stage 1 of
the Universal
Studios Hollywood
backlot, ending an era (since 1972) of taping the
show in Burbank.
Music and announcers
Music during the show's introduction and commercial
segues is supplied by the
Tonight Show Band.
Skitch Henderson was the
band leader during the Steve Allen and early
Carson years, followed briefly by
Milton
DeLugg (who later went on to become the musical director of
The Gong Show).
Gene Rayburn served as Allen's announcer and
sidekick and also guest-hosted some episodes. The
Lou Stein Trio provided musical accompaniment
during the short run of
Tonight! America After
Dark, which ran for six months between the Steve Allen and
Jack Paar eras of
The Tonight Show.
José Melis led the band for Jack Paar, and
Hugh Downs was his announcer. For most of
Johnny Carson's run on the show, the
Tonight Show's band,
then called "
The NBC Orchestra" was
led by
Doc Severinsen, former trumpet
soloist in Henderson's band for Steve Allen.
When McMahon was away from the show, Severinsen was the substitute
announcer and
Tommy Newsom would lead
the band. On the rare occasions that both McMahon
and
Severinsen were away, Newsom would take the announcer's chair and
the band would be led by assistant musical director Shelly
Cohen.
Severinsen's band featured several accomplished sidemen in addition
to saxophonist Newsom, including trumpeter
Snooky Young, pianist
Ross Tompkins, drummer
Ed Shaughnessy, trumpeter
Bobby Shew, trumpeter
Conte Candoli, saxophonist
Pete Christlieb, and jazz trumpet legend
Clark Terry. The band frequently
appeared on camera in the "Stump the Band" segments, where an
audience member would dare the band to play some obscure song
title, and the band would comically improvise something
appropriate. The routine was played for full comedy value and the
band was not really expected to know the songs, but on two
occasions the band did answer correctly, much to the maestro's
surprise. Severinsen was heard to ask incredulously, "You mean we
actually...!"
The first bandleader during Leno's tenure was
Branford Marsalis; he was replaced by
Kevin Eubanks in 1995, though the
Marsalis-written theme was used throughout the show's run. On March
29, 2004, Leno's long-time announcer
Edd
Hall was replaced by
John Melendez
from
The Howard Stern
Show.
Conan O'Brien announced on the February 18, 2009 episode of
Late Night that
The Max
Weinberg 7 (rechristened the Tonight Show Band, and adding a
second percussionist), the house band on that program, would be
accompanying him to
The Tonight Show as his version's
house band. It was announced February 23, 2009 that former
Late
Night sidekick
Andy Richter would
be O'Brien's announcer. Richter replaced O'Brien's former long-time
announcer
Joel Godard when his rendition
of the Tonight Show began.
Broadcasting milestones
The Tonight Show began its broadcast at 11:15 pm
ET, following an affiliate's 15-minute
news broadcast. As more affiliates lengthened their local news
programs to 30 minutes, the show began doing two openings, one for
the affiliates that began at 11:15 and another for those who joined
at 11:30. By early 1965, only 43 of the 190 affiliated stations
carried the entire show. Johnny Carson, who was not happy that Ed
McMahon was "hosting" the 11:15 segment when he refused to appear
until 11:30 after February 1965, finally insisted that the show's
start time be changed to 11:30, eliminating the two-opening
practice in December 1966.
When the show began it was
broadcast live. On January 12, 1959, the show began to
be
videotaped for broadcast later on the
same day, although initially the Thursday night programs were kept
live.
Color broadcasts began on
September 19, 1960.
The Tonight Show became the first American television show
to broadcast with
MTS
stereo sound in 1984, although sporadically. Regular use of MTS
began in 1985. In September 1991, the show postponed its starting
time by five minutes to 11:35, to give network affiliates the
opportunity to sell more advertising on their local news. On April
26, 1999, the show started broadcasting in
1080i HDTV,
becoming the first American nightly talk show to be shot in that
format.
On March 19, 2009,
The Tonight Show became the first late
night talk show in history to have the sitting
President of the United
States as a guest, when President
Barack Obama visited.
Hosts
| Host |
From |
To |
Notes |
| Date |
Age |
Date |
Age |
| Steve Allen |
September 27, 1954 |
32 |
January 25, 1957 |
35 |
Variety show |
| Ernie Kovacs |
October 1, 1956 |
37 |
January 22, 1957 |
37 |
Monday–Tuesday host |
| Jack Lescoulie |
January 28, 1957 |
44 |
June 21, 1957 |
44 |
Format switch to news program Tonight! America
After Dark |
| Al "Jazzbo" Collins |
June 24, 1957 |
38 |
July 26, 1957 |
38 |
Replaced Lescoulie, who was moved to Today show |
| Jack Paar |
July 29, 1957 |
39 |
March 30, 1962 |
43 |
Format switch to talk show; also called Tonight Starring
Jack Paar and Jack Paar Tonight |
| Various hosts |
April 2, 1962 |
|
September 28, 1962 |
|
Interlude between Paar and Carson eras. Temporary hosts
included Groucho Marx and Jerry Lewis. |
| Johnny Carson |
October 1, 1962 |
36 |
May 22, 1992 |
66 |
The
Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson |
| Jay Leno |
May 25, 1992 |
42 |
May 29, 2009 |
59 |
The Tonight Show
with Jay Leno |
| Conan O'Brien |
June 1, 2009 |
46 |
Present |
|
The Tonight
Show with Conan O'Brien |
Schedule
| Begin Date |
End Date |
Nights |
Start |
End |
Notes |
| September 27, 1954 |
October 5, 1956 |
Mon-Fri |
11:30 |
1:00 |
|
| October 8, 1956 |
January 4, 1957 |
Mon-Fri |
11:30 |
12:30 |
|
| January 7, 1957 |
December 30, 1966 |
Mon-Fri |
11:15 |
1:00 |
|
| January 2, 1965 |
January 1, 1967 |
Sat or Sun |
11:15 |
1:00 |
Repeats, known as The Saturday/Sunday Tonight
Show |
| January 2, 1967 |
September 5, 1980 |
Mon-Fri |
11:30 |
1:00 |
|
| January 7, 1967 |
September 28, 1975 |
Sat or Sun |
11:30 |
1:00 |
Repeats; eventually known as The Weekend Tonight
Show |
| September 8, 1980 |
August 30, 1991 |
Mon-Fri |
11:30 |
12:30 |
|
| September 2, 1991 |
— |
Mon-Fri |
11:35 |
12:37 |
|
Gag, skit, and segment highlights
- "Man on the Street interviews" (Allen). Frequently featured
actors as recurring characters, most notably Don Knotts, Louis Nye
and Tom Poston, though Allen also
performed impromptu bits with non-professional civilians.
- "Crazy Shots" (Allen). Later known as *"Wild Pictures." Allen's
supporting cast and guest stars would participate in quick visual
gags while Allen played piano accompaniment.
- "Candid Camera" (Paar). The
off-again, on-again show, hosted by Allen
Funt since radio's heyday, was a
segment on The Tonight Show in 1958.
- "Stump the Band" (Paar, later Carson). Audience members are
asked to name an obscure song and the band tries to play it. If the
band doesn't know the song, it usually breaks into a comical piece
of music.
- "Carnac the Magnificent"
(Carson). Carson plays a psychic who is given sealed envelopes
(that McMahon invariably states, with a flourish, have been kept
"hermetically sealed inside a mayonnaise jar underneath Funk &
Wagnalls' porch since noon today"). Carnac holds an envelope to his
head and recites the punchline to a joke contained within the
envelope, then rips open the envelope and reads the matching
question inside. Sample: "Saucepan... Who was Peter Pan's wino
brother?" If a joke falls flat with the audience, Carnac invariably
passes a comedic curse upon them (e.g., "May a bloated yak change
the temperature of your jacuzzi!").
- "The Tea Time Movie", with "Art Fern" (Carson) and the Matinée
Lady (originally Paula Prentiss, then
a parade of one shots including Edy
Williams, Juliet Prowse and
Lee Meredith, then for many years
Carol Wayne, then Danuta Wesley, and finally Teresa Ganzel). Carson once said that Art Fern
was his favorite character: "He's so sleazy!" Huckster Art usually
wore a loud suit, lavish toupee, and pencil mustache, and spoke in
the high, nasal approximation of Jackie
Gleason's "Reginald van Gleason III" character. A parody of
1950s-style, fast-talking advertising pitchmen, the Tea Time Movie
consists of a rapid-fire series of fake advertisements for products
and companies supposedly sponsoring a mid-afternoon movie.
Invariably the jokes refer to his buxom Matinée Lady assistant, and
at least once in every skit a variation of the "Slauson Cutoff" joke is made (e.g., "You can
find our store by heading down Hwy. 101 until you get to the
Slauson Cutoff. Get out of the car, cut off your slauson, get back
in the car."), as is a reference to "Drive until you get to... (a
map is unfolded to reveal a table fork) the fork in the
road!" Art would then return us to today's movie (like
"Tarzan and Cheetah Have to Get Married" or "Rin Tin Tin Gets Fixed
Fixed Fixed," etc.), followed by an antique, four-second film clip.
Back to Art, caught necking with the Matinée Lady before announcing
another movie and another commercial.
- "Headlines" (Allen,
later Leno)
- "In the
Year 3000" (O'Brien)
International broadcasts
The Tonight Show is also seen around the world. It is
broadcast on
CNBC Europe, usually three
nights after it has been shown in the U.S. The show is screened at
10.30 pm AEDST weeknights on
The
Comedy Channel in
Australia, where new
episodes are shown hours after its American broadcast.
In Sweden
, Kanal 5 has shown The Tonight Show (as
Jay Leno Show) since the late '90s with one week's
delay. Since October, 2006, it is also being aired in India
on
Zee Cafe 12 hours after the show is
shown in the USA.
An early
attempt at airing the show in the United Kingdom
during the 1980s was unsuccessful, sparking jokes
by Carson. On the October 23, 1984 broadcast, guest
Paul McCartney had this to say of the show's
British run:
Carson: (throwing to commercial) ...we have to pay some bills
here. It's not like British television which just goes and
goes till they end it.
McCartney: Oh you're just mad
because they didn't like your show.
Shows such as
Des O'Connor
Tonight and
Wogan were
considered by many to be the UK equivalent of the show.
See also
References
External links
(as The
Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien)
website
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