The Tonight Show - 60 Years

by Bill Russo

former radio host,

 and author on Amazon, Apple, Smashwords & others

The Tonight Show has lasted more than 60 years. I have lasted more than 75 years.  That good luck has given me the opportunity to watch every single one of the six hosts over the long span of the iconic NBC Television program.

At the cottage, on Cape Cod in the Summertime

As a 14 year old I managed to convince my Mom to let me stay up past midnight to watch the show. 

"Mom," I said, "I want to be on radio or TV when I grow up.  The funniest and hippest show is The Tonight Show.  I can't learn anything from 'I Love Lucy' (The number one show in 1954).  It's slapstick and it's not really funny.  The kids in my class don't love Lucy. We are way too 'cool' for that silliness."

Somehow I got her to give in, and I was allowed to watch the show on Friday nights as well as a few other evenings during the week. The bespectacled Steve Allen was the first leader of the program.  He commanded the stage from 1954 to 1957 and could have hosted for decades but he left to pursue other projects, which included writing award winning hit songs, more than 50 books, and star in movies including his stint as the title character in The Benny Goodman story.  He also had a well regarded run in radio in 1950 in a summer replacement series for 'Our Miss Brooks'. 

"Smock, Smock" - you'll have to try and find a video of

 Steve's show on YouTube to get this reference. 

Steve Allen was the co-creator of The Tonight Show and he initiated the monologue segment that has been followed dutifully by every host since.

When Allen departed the  broadcast, the program took a 180 turn when humorist Jack Paar was given the helm for a five year stay (1957 to 1962).

Paar tiptoed around the fringes of big time radio in the 1940s, finally getting his big break when Jack Benny himself tapped him on the shoulder and said, 'you can take my slot on the radio for the summer break'.  So for 13 weeks during the 1947 season, Parr was in Jack Benny's Number One Radio Slot. 

He did well enough for "Lucky Strike", Benny's sponsor, to offer him his own show.  But Paar proved difficult to work with and rejected the character that ABC radio wanted him to play.  He was labelled a 'spoiled brat' and fired.

Jack Paar

Paar entered television somewhere around 1953 and had a few game shows to his credit as well as a couple star turns on variety shows. 

When Steve Allen hosted the enormously successful Tonight Show, it was a 'party' every single night with the viewer as the guest of honor.

When chaired by Parr, viewers felt they were peeking inside his house and venturing into every room including his bathroom!  Paar was the complete opposite of Steve Allen.  He was moody, emotional (almost teary), unpredictable, and volatile.  

He had his own set of principles and stuck to them.  He made some sort of a mild joke about a water closet (another term for toilet).  The network cut the joke from the video tape that aired.  The following night Paar walked off the show and staged a 3 week strike that ended when the network caved and said, sorry Jack, you can tell the joke.'

Watching the program was like watching a train wreck. You wanted to turn away, but you were afraid you'd miss something.  Finally after five years, Paar was emotionally and physically little more  than a wet noodle.  He quit the show and bought a little television station serving Maine from a transmitter high atop Mount Washington in New Hampshire.

NBC refused to allow him to appear on his own station, but occasionally he flitted slowly across the screen during news and weather segments, a sly smirk on his face.  Since the broadcasts were live, he could always claim that he accidentally walked on to the set, not realizing they were 'on air'.  Eventually his contract with the network ran out and he appeared on numerous local shows.

After the 'party' that was the Steve Allen version of the show and the 'reality show feel' of the Parr era, The Tonight Show settled into a pattern squarely in the middle of Steve's frantic style and Paar's weepy mode - with new host, Johnny Carson from 1962 to 1992.

For many people, the 30 year reign of Carson was the golden era of the broadcast. One innovation Johnny made was 'the sidekick'.  He had been paired with Ed McMahon on a comedy quiz show called Who Do You Trust? 

When he took over 'Tonight' he gave Ed a status that no other announcer, before or since, has equalled.  He also focused on his band more far more than the hosts who would follow him.  First he made Skitch Henderson famous and later in the run, made Doc Severinson even more famous. 

Another innovation of Johnny's which did not make the East Coast very happy, was the move to California.  New York had always been the home of the program.  But in 1972 it was moved to NBC Studio One (Left Coast) in Burbank.  

Despite being broadcast from Burbank, Ed McMahon always introduced the show by saying 'From Hollywood, it's the Tonight Show, starring Johnny Carson...…Heeeere's Johnny!

Carson was considered one of the greatest comics in history, not so much for his joke telling ability, which was just average, but for his double takes and quick retorts to other people's conversations.  He also was one of the most skilled interviewers of guests.  He was so good at drawing 'vocal gold' from his guests that he could get a monk to break his vow of silence on national TV.

When Johnny retired after three decades, pretty much half the existence of the show, a lantern jawed Boston comic name Jay Leno took over and held down the fort for 17 years, from 1992 to 2009. 

Retiring Johnny and plugging in Leno was not an easy job for the network.  Most people thought that David Letterman would be the new 'Chair'.  He had been very successful with his show that ran for years, following the Tonight Show. 

Not only did David Letterman want to move into the Tonight Show slot - he was Johnny's top choice for the job (Carson admitted this a few years later).

Dave in his Gabby Hayes Costume

Though Leno was not nearly as well known as David, he had served well as Carson's permanent guest host following Johnny's fallout with Joan Rivers, the prior guest host.

Letterman ended up quitting NBC and joining arch-rival CBS to head up that network's first entry into the late night TV fray.

The Late Show with David Letterman, airing in the same slot, competed head to head against The Tonight Show with Leno in the host's chair for the better part of two decades.

For the first two years Letterman won his varsity 'letter' by consistently beating Leno.  Things began to change about 18 months in.  By January of year three, Leno was the ratings leader and held the top spot for many years.

Leno thought he was in the Catbird seat but on September 27, 2004, the 50th anniversary of the show's premiere, NBC startled him and knocked him out of that seat.

The 'web' announced Leno was on a five year leash.  He would be fired in 2009 and succeeded by Conan O'Brien. Leno's big jaw fell about a foot when he was told the news.  He had been consistently number one in the time period. 

Leno told the nation about this quirky network decision at the beginning of his next show, mentioning that he'd accepted it, noting that he wanted to avoid repeating the hard feelings that had somehow developed with Letterman, and called O'Brien "certainly the most deserving person for the job".  

Fast forward now to 2009.  The network has canned Leno, the Boston comic, but they are afraid he will go to another network.  

What to do?  The 'suits' decide to scrap all their prime-time programs from ten to eleven Monday through Friday and give the time slot to Leno, so that he can run a "Tonight Show" without the desk and without the name.

So, Conan O'Brien, took the reins of Tonight. The lanky redheaded Irishman from South Boston lasted for parts of 2009 and 2010.  

For the debut, the program was moved out of Burbank to a new studio on a backlot in Universal Studios in Hollywood and got great ratings for one week.  A steep skid followed.  David Letterman's competing show was soon drubbing the O'Brien broadcast.

Meanwhile Leno's prime time show was doing so poorly that the network affiliates were close to armed rebellion.  Leno's shabby ratings meant smaller audiences for the local news programs and lower revenues.  

The suits acted quickly.  They decided to move Leno's failed one hour show to 11:30 - but it would not be called The Tonight Show.  O'Brien could keep the T. S. intact, but it would be moved to 12:30.

Conan refused the deal and quit the network.

Leno went back to his former spot and had a second round as host from 2010 to 2014.

Something went wrong, Leno lost his magic during his brief run on prime time.  The resurrected program never got back to full steam.  His ratings fell ever lower than O'Brien's, and by 2014 NBC forced him to retire.  

Part of his problem was that he had taken to publicly mocking NBC on its poor ratings in prime time.  (Didn't he realize that a good part of it was his own fault?)
 

Meanwhile Jimmy Fallon was waiting in the wings doing 'Late Night' and was promoted to first chair on The Tonight Show on February 17, 2014. He's been sitting in that seat ever since. 

Among Jim's initial guests were Joan Rivers, who had not appeared on the program since being dumped by Johnny Carson in 1986. 

Making some 120 million East Coasters happy, the program was moved back to where it all started - Rockefeller Center, studio 6B in the Big Apple.  About five million was spent to spruce up the old New York City venue - where Jack Parr held sway for his entire run. Johnny Carson broadcast from 6B for a full ten years before the show was uprooted and sent 3000 miles away from the Atlantic Ocean.  

Jimmy has proved to be a durable host but he is being beaten by talk-show veteran Stephen Colbert.  In 2015 the Late Show with Stephen Colbert made its debut and is has steadily eaten away big chunks of Jimmy's audience - leading one to wonder if soon, there will be a seventh name added to the list of 'TONIGHT SHOW HOSTS'. 

-0-