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133-464: Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen (December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000) was an American television and radio personality, comedian, musician, composer, writer, and actor. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-creator and first host of The Tonight Show , which was the first late-night television talk show . Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his extensive network television career. He gained national attention as

266-439: A " pin ". Pinning holds maintained for 20 seconds are also a winning condition in judo . Pinning holds are also used in submission wrestling and mixed martial arts , even though the pinning hold itself is not a winning condition. The holds can be used to rest while the opponent tries to escape, to control the opponent while striking , a tactic known as ground and pound , or to control an opponent from striking by pinning them to

399-465: A $ 33 million payout – effectively a buyout of his three-year contract, which was reputed to be approximately $ 12 million a year. O'Brien's staff of almost 200 would receive $ 12 million divided in their departure, making the total of the settlement $ 45 million. O'Brien's final episode aired on Friday, January 22, ending his relationship with NBC after 22 years. Leno resumed hosting The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, after NBC's coverage of

532-589: A 12:05 a.m. time slot, or the option to leave the network. On January 12, O'Brien issued a press release that stated he would not continue with Tonight if it was moved to a 12:05 a.m. time slot, saying, "I believe that delaying The Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn't The Tonight Show. " When Oprah Winfrey later quoted this statement to Leno during an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show in

665-494: A 1976 episode of Witness to Yesterday as composer-pianist George Gershwin . Allen remained friendly with television executive Fred Silverman , who was a longtime fan. After Silverman became head of programming at NBC , he hired Allen for two primetime projects: The Steve Allen Comedy Hour (1980), similar to Allen's 1950s variety hour, with comic characters and sketches; and The Big Show (1980), an attempt to stage spectacular events for television. A third Silverman project got

798-590: A Bela Lugosi/Dracula lookalike. Other recurring routines included "Crazy Shots" (also known as "Wild Pictures"), a series of sight gags accompanied by Allen on piano; Allen inviting audience members to select three musical notes at random, and then composing a song based on the notes; a satire on radio's long-running The Answer Man and a precursor to Johnny Carson 's Carnac the Magnificent (sample answer: "Et tu, Brute." Allen's reply: "How many pizzas did you eat, Caesar?"); and dramatic comedy readings of real letters to

931-593: A Personal Peabody Award in 1977 for creating and hosting "a truly original show." The award also recognized Meadows for her various portrayals. In 1981, the show won an Emmy for Outstanding Informational Series, and Allen's writing was Emmy nominated. It was the show Allen wanted to be remembered for, because he believed the issues and characters were timeless and would survive long after his death. A similar Canadian television series called Witness to Yesterday , created by Arthur Voronka, aired in 1974, three years after Allen's local Emmy Award-winning program. Allen appeared on

1064-529: A brief stint by Milton DeLugg , beginning in 1967 the "NBC Orchestra" was then headed by trumpeter Doc Severinsen who had played in the band during the Henderson era. [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 1972, the show moved to Burbank, California into Studio One of NBC Studios West Coast (although it

1197-414: A contract that gave him numerous weeks off every year, as well as Mondays. Frequent guest hosts (over 50 episodes each) included Joey Bishop (177 times, mostly in the 1960s), Joan Rivers (93, during the 1970s and 1980s), John Davidson (87), Bob Newhart (87), David Brenner (70), McLean Stevenson (58), Jerry Lewis (52, mostly in the 1960s), David Letterman (51, mostly between 1980 and 1981), and Jay Leno . By

1330-481: A format similar to his Tonight Show except that he was contractually prohibited from using a desk on the show. In a departure from network programming conventions of the time, the new show aired every weeknight at 10 p.m. Eastern/Pacific, competing with expensively produced narrative series on other networks and leading into affiliates' local news broadcasts and O'Brien's Tonight Show . Conan O'Brien replaced Leno as host on The Tonight Show on Monday, June 1 from

1463-424: A guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts . After he hosted The Tonight Show , he went on to host numerous game and variety shows, including his own The Steve Allen Show , I've Got a Secret , and The New Steve Allen Show . He was a regular panel member on CBS's What's My Line? and, from 1977 until 1981, he wrote, produced, and hosted the award-winning public broadcasting show Meeting of Minds ,

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1596-454: A human hood ornament , jumping into vats of oatmeal and cottage cheese , and being slathered with dog food before allowing dogs backstage to feast on the food. During the run of this series, Allen also introduced Albert Brooks and Steve Martin to national audiences for the first time; Allen's talent coordinator for the Filmways show was Bill Saluga , who himself became a TV personality in

1729-679: A husband-and-wife vaudeville comedy team. His father died when he was an infant. Allen was raised on the South Side of Chicago largely by his mother's Irish Catholic family. Milton Berle called Allen's mother "the funniest woman in vaudeville ." Allen ran away from home at 16 and described in interviews the ease with which he descended into begging. Allen's first radio job was on station KOY , in Phoenix, Arizona , after he left Arizona State Teachers College (now Arizona State University ), in Tempe , while

1862-589: A later hour." Music during the show's introduction and commercial segues is supplied by The Tonight Show Band . This ensemble was a jazz big band until the end of Johnny Carson's tenure. Skitch Henderson was the bandleader during the Steve Allen and early Carson years, followed briefly by Milton DeLugg (who had previously led the band on Broadway Open House and later became the musical director of The Gong Show ). Gene Rayburn served as Allen's announcer and sidekick and also guest-hosted some episodes all

1995-578: A lavish 2-hour prime time talk show for ABC entitled The Jerry Lewis Show , which was famously unsuccessful, and continued his more successful movie career. ABC also picked up Dean as a variety show host, airing The Jimmy Dean Show for three years from 1963 to 1966. The show was broadcast under the title The Tonight Show during this interregnum, with Skitch Henderson returning as bandleader. Hugh Downs remained as announcer/sidekick until taking over hosting duties on Today in September, at which point he

2128-536: A lavish newly constructed studio inside Stage 1 of the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot, temporarily ending an era (since 1972) of recording the show in Burbank. After a strong debut week, O'Brien's total audience fell precipitously over the summer months, and the program began losing to Late Show with David Letterman in overall ratings. In contrast, O'Brien's performance in the crucial 18–49 demographic

2261-544: A local New York show. Allen told his nationwide audience that first evening: "This is Tonight , and I can't think of too much to tell you about it except I want to give you the bad news first: This program is going to go on forever ... You think you're tired now. Wait until you see one o'clock roll around!" It was as host of The Tonight Show that Allen pioneered the " man on the street " comedic interviews and audience-participation comedy breaks that went on to become staples of late-night TV. In June 1956, NBC offered Allen

2394-498: A new prime-time, Sunday night variety hour, The Steve Allen Show . NBC's goal was to dethrone CBS's top-rated The Ed Sullivan Show . The show included a typical run of star performers, including early television appearances by rock and roll pioneers Elvis Presley , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Fats Domino . Many popular television and film personalities were guest stars, including Bob Hope , Kim Novak , Errol Flynn , Abbott and Costello , Esther Williams , Jerry Lewis , Martha Raye ,

2527-455: A nightly variety show hosted primarily by comic Jerry Lester . It was unsuccessful because hosting five nights a week burned through all of Lester's material faster than he could create it, so he was given rotating hosting duties for a weekly prime time variety show in 1951. The network scaled back late-night programming to shorter weekly shows. A spin-off, Dagmar's Canteen , aired the following season on Saturday nights; at some other point in

2660-497: A panelist sometimes jokingly called him the son of panelist Fred Allen , but the two men were unrelated. He also revived and popularized the question "Is it bigger than a breadbox?" while trying to guess the products associated with What's My Line? contestants. He then created a late-night New York talk/variety television program that debuted in July 1953 on local station WNBT-TV (now WNBC-TV ). The following year, on September 27, 1954,

2793-417: A rating company interviewer, asking Carson if the television was on, and what program he was watching. Carson did not immediately realize the caller was Allen. A rarity is an exchange between Allen and Carson about Carson's guests, permitting him to plug his own show on a competing network. One notable program, which Westinghouse refused to distribute, featured Lenny Bruce during the time the comic repeatedly

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2926-455: A round table discussion and sometimes arguments. The dialogue covered issues such as racism, women's rights, crime and punishment, slavery, and religious tolerance. Jayne Meadows-Allen played most of the female characters, wisely eschewing Emily Dickinson, played by Katherine Helmond , and the Empress Tz'u-hsi, played by Beulah Quo . Associated Press television columnist Peter Boyer called it

3059-469: A series of historical dramas presented in a talk format. Allen was a pianist and a prolific composer. By his own estimate, he wrote more than 8,500 songs, some of which were recorded by numerous leading singers. Allen won the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition for "Gravy Waltz," for which he wrote the lyrics. He also wrote more than 50 books, including novels, children's books, and books of opinions, including his final book, Vulgarians at

3192-463: A series of guest hosts including Art Linkletter (4 weeks), Joey Bishop (2 weeks), Bob Cummings , Merv Griffin (4 weeks), Jack Carter , Jan Murray , Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy , Soupy Sales , Mort Sahl , Steve Lawrence , Jerry Lewis (2 weeks), Jimmy Dean , Arlene Francis , Jack E. Leonard , Hugh Downs , Groucho Marx , Hal March and Donald O'Connor , many of whom later noted they were being led to believe they were auditioning for

3325-446: A series of jokes) Allen refers to the fact the program is scheduled to run late into the night, his statement has come to refer to the longevity of the franchise. Rather than continuing with the same format after Allen and Kovacs 's 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 ,

3458-477: A show's segment, Allen went into the audience with a microphone to ad lib on the air for the first time. This became a commonplace part of his studio performances for many years. His program attracted a huge local following; as the host of a 1950 summer replacement show for the popular comedy Our Miss Brooks , he found himself in front of a national audience for the first time. Allen's first television experience came in 1949, when he answered an advertisement for

3591-604: A similar show for Disney, Steve Allen's Comedy Room , this time with professional comedians talking about comedy styles. From 1986 through 1988, for NBC Radio , Allen hosted a daily, national three-hour comedy show that featured sketches and America's better-known comedians as regular guests. His co-host was radio personality Mark Simone, and they were joined frequently by comedy writers Larry Gelbart , of M*A*S*H writing fame; Herb Sargent , perhaps, later on, best known for his writing work on "Saturday Night Live," and Bob Einstein, brother of Albert Brooks and creator and portrayer of

3724-493: A single 1971 episode, and then became a semi-occasional guest host (15 episodes) from 1973 to 1977. After another long layoff, he guest-hosted two episodes in 1982, the last time he would host The Tonight Show . A syndicated version of I've Got A Secret hosted by Allen and featuring panelists Pat Carroll and Richard Dawson was taped in Hollywood and aired during 1972–1973 season. In 1977, he produced Steve Allen's Laugh-Back ,

3857-526: A small fraction of them were ever recorded. In one famous stunt, he made a bet with singer-songwriter Frankie Laine that he could write 50 songs a day for a week. Composing on public display in the window of Wallach's Music City, a Hollywood music store, Allen met the quota and won $ 1,000 from Laine. One of the songs, "Let's Go to Church (Next Sunday Morning)" became a chart hit for the duo of Jimmy Wakely and Margaret Whiting , hitting #13 pop and #2 country in 1950. Allen began his recording career in 1951 with

3990-898: A sophomore. He enlisted in the United States Army during World War II and was trained as an infantryman . He served his enlistment period at Camp Roberts, California . Afterward, he returned to Phoenix, before moving back to California. Allen became an announcer for radio KFAC in Los Angeles, then moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1946, talking the station into airing his five-nights-a-week comedy show Smile Time , co-starring Wendell Noble. After Allen moved to CBS Radio's KNX in Los Angeles, his music-and-talk half-hour format gradually changed to include more talk in an hour-long late-night format, boosting his popularity and creating standing-room-only studio audiences. During

4123-697: A springboard for Fallon's tenure. The date was later moved up a week to February 17, midway through the Olympics. Leno's last Tonight Show aired on February 6, 2014, featuring guests Billy Crystal (Leno's first guest in 1992) and Garth Brooks . Leno gave a tearful goodbye at the end of the program, calling himself "the luckiest guy in the world", and reflecting on his time as host as "the greatest 22 years of my life." Jimmy Fallon (who had hosted The Tonight Show ' s follow-up show, Late Night , since 2009) assumed The Tonight Show hosting role on February 17, 2014, with his initial guests being Will Smith and

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4256-489: A studio audience of at least 200, as long as they carry a production budget of at least $ 30 million and have been shot outside New York for at least five seasons." Studio 6B is also where Jack Paar and Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show before the show moved to Burbank in 1972. Lorne Michaels (producer of Saturday Night Live , in which Fallon appeared prior to hosting Late Night ) became executive producer of The Tonight Show . Fallon's Tonight Show has gone on

4389-486: A studio band with the top Los Angeles musicians to include Conte Candoli , Pete Candoli , Carl Fontana , Med Flory , Plas Johnson , Alan Broadbent , and drummer Frankie Capp . 27-year-old Bill Maher was the announcer and "sidekick." The show featured musicians and entertainers including Melba Moore , Joe Williams , Paul Williams , Burt Bacharach , Anthony Newley , Rosemary Clooney , Lou Rawls , Dizzy Gillespie , Sarah Vaughan , and Henry Mancini . Allen spun off

4522-487: A syndicated series combining vintage Allen film clips with new talk-show material reuniting his 1950s television gang. It elicited a kind of mail none of us connected with its production had ever seen. What appealed to the thousands who wrote, I believe, was that they were actually given the opportunity to hear ideas on television, a medium which otherwise presents only people, things, and actions. -- Steve Allen From 1977 until 1981, Allen wrote, produced and hosted

4655-415: A television announcer for professional wrestling . Knowing nothing about wrestling, he watched some shows to gain insight and discovered that the announcers did not have well-defined names for the wrestling holds : when he got the job, he created names for many of the holds, some of which still are in use. After the first match got underway, Allen began ad-libbing in a comedic style that had audiences outside

4788-849: A week (Monday and Tuesday nights were taken up by guest hosts for most of the summer of 1956; then by Ernie Kovacs through January) until early 1957 when he left the show to devote his attention to the Sunday night program. It was his (and NBC's) hope that The Steve Allen Show could defeat Ed Sullivan in the ratings. Nevertheless, Maverick often bested both in audience size. In September 1959, Allen relocated to Los Angeles and left Sunday night television (the 1959–'60 season originated from NBC Color City in Burbank as The Steve Allen Plymouth Show , on Monday nights). Back in Los Angeles, he continued to write songs, hosted other variety shows, and wrote books and articles about comedy. After being canceled by NBC in 1960,

4921-450: A week starting in the 1980s), Leno never used guest hosts on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (except Katie Couric , once) and produced new shows five days a week; Leno himself was also Carson's primary guest host for the last five years of Carson's tenure, adding even more episodes to his credit. Leaving out Leno's five years as permanent guest host, Leno hosted 119 more episodes as full-time host than Carson. During Carson's first four years,

5054-400: Is a general grappling hold used in ground fighting that is aimed to subdue by exerting superior control over an opponent and pinning the opponent to the ground. Pinning holds where both of the opponent's shoulders touch the ground are considered winning conditions in several combat sports . An effective pinning hold is a winning condition in many styles of wrestling , and is known as simply

5187-1022: The 2010 Winter Olympics concluded. O'Brien returned to late-night television on November 8, 2010 (after his non-compete agreement expired), hosting the self-owned Conan on cable channel TBS . Conan remained partnered with TBS until 2021, although his show was truncated from an hour to thirty minutes in length in 2019 due to ratings issues. Conan's final episode on TBS aired on June 24, 2021. On March 1, 2010, Jay Leno returned to The Tonight Show , with Wally Wingert as his announcer. On April 12, 2010, bandleader Kevin Eubanks announced his departure after 18 years (15 years as bandleader) on May 28. Rickey Minor replaced him as bandleader on June 7. On July 1, 2010, Variety reported that only six months into its second life, Leno's Tonight Show posted its lowest ratings since 1992. By September 2010, Leno's ratings had fallen below O'Brien's when he had hosted The Tonight Show , although O'Brien's ratings had spiked during

5320-614: The "Hiyo!" chant later popularized by Ed McMahon ). While the show was not an overwhelming success in its day, David Letterman , Steve Martin , Harry Shearer , Robin Williams , and a number of other prominent comedians have cited Allen's "Westinghouse show," which they watched as teenagers, as being highly influential on their own comedic visions. Allen later produced a second half-hour show for Westinghouse, titled Jazz Scene USA , which featured West Coast jazz musicians such as Rosolino, Stan Kenton , and Teddy Edwards . The short-lived show

5453-413: The "best talk show on television", created by the person who "invented the television talk show", and added: The amazing thing about this show is that it actually comes off as a talk show, with a talk show's rhythm and pace. A truly conversational script is a tough trick to turn; Allen turns it with apparent ease. Allen was a "philosophy fanatic" and avid reader of classic literature and history. He wrote

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5586-499: The 11:35 period, The Late Show would largely maintain its lead over The Tonight Show in total viewers in early Fall, during which Letterman was receiving tabloid attention due to a blackmail scandal . In addition, The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien was in the unusual situation of being a talk show following a talk show hosted by its predecessor on the same network, and the booking war that resulted often left The Tonight Show getting second dibs on guests. One publicist reported that

5719-433: The 1970s as "Raymond J. Johnson, Jr." ("You can call me Ray! Or you can call me Jay!"). The Filmways show was offered to local stations in both 60-minute and 90-minute versions; during each taping, after an hour had passed, Allen simply said goodbye to part of his audience and continued the show for those stations using the longer version. This Filmways show ran through 1971. Allen returned to guest host The Tonight Show for

5852-661: The Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio (2001). In 1996, Allen was presented with the Martin Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP). He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Hollywood theater named in his honor. Allen was born in New York City, the only child of Billy Allen ( né Carroll Abler ) and Belle Montrose (born Isabelle Donohue ),

5985-466: The Street" interviews about some topical subject. Poston would appear as a dullard who could not remember his own name. Nye's character was an effete advertising executive named Gordon Hathaway, known for greeting the host with "Hi ho, Steverino!" Dana played amiable Latino "Jose Jimenez." Knotts was an exceedingly jittery man who, when asked if he was nervous, invariably replied with an alarmed "No!". Harrington

6118-749: The Three Stooges , and a host of others. The show's regulars were Tom Poston , Louis Nye , Bill Dana , Don Knotts , Pat Harrington, Jr. , Dayton Allen , and Gabriel Dell . All except film veteran Dell, who had appeared in the Bowery Boys movie series (also known as the Dead End Kids and the East Side Kids ), were relatively obscure performers prior to their stints with Allen, and all went on to stardom. The comedians in Allen's gang often were seen in his "Man in

6251-428: The aftermath of the fallout, he responded: "Well, if you look at where [Conan's Tonight Show ] ratings were, it was already destructive to the franchise". Leno was criticized for his remark, which contradicted his statement that "I think Conan is doing fine" mere months earlier, after which O’Brien's ratings were on an upward trend. Some observers considered the portrayal of O'Brien's ouster as being specifically about

6384-423: The aggression was such that The Jay Leno Show had signaled to potential guests that doing O'Brien's program before Leno's would be punished with secondary placement in the line-up. Though NBC claimed that the performance of The Jay Leno Show offered no surprises and that O'Brien was meeting expectations as well, the network had failed to anticipate the impact that Leno's weaker 10   pm lead-in would have on

6517-491: The album Steve Allen At The Piano for Columbia Records . He then signed with Decca Records , recording for their subsidiaries Brunswick Records and then Coral Records . Allen would release a mixture of novelty singles, jazz recordings and straight pop numbers for Decca throughout the 1950s, before switching to Dot Records in the 1960s. Allen's best-known song, " This Could Be the Start of Something ", dates from 1954. Though it

6650-469: The arena laughing. An example: Leone gives Smith a full nelson now, slipping it up from either a half-nelson or an Ozzie Nelson . Now the boys go into a double pretzel bend with variations on a theme by Veloz and Yolanda . After CBS radio gave Allen a weekly prime time show, CBS television believed he could be groomed for national television stardom and gave him his first network show. The Steve Allen Show premiered at 11 a.m. on Christmas Day, 1950, and

6783-679: 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!" However, citing that he would prefer to do one prime-time show per week rather than five late-night installments, Paar eventually left the show two years later in March 1962, at the pinnacle of his success as host. The guests on the last show were Jack E. Leonard , Alexander King , Robert Merrill and Buddy Hackett . Among those appearing in taped farewell messages were Richard Nixon , Robert F. Kennedy , Billy Graham , Bob Hope and Jack Benny . Hugh Downs

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6916-530: The award-winning show Meeting of Minds , which aired on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The series brought together actors portraying historical figures such as Socrates , Marie Antoinette , Thomas Paine , Sir Thomas More , Attila the Hun , Karl Marx , Emily Dickinson , Charles Darwin , Oliver Cromwell , Daniel O'Connell , Galileo , and many others, as if transported from the past, all in

7049-470: The band for Jack Paar, and, after a short while of using comic actor Franklin Pangborn , Hugh Downs was Paar's announcer. For most of Johnny Carson's run on the show, the 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

7182-417: The band. (Newsom also took over when Severinsen was absent from the show.) 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. Wrestling holds A clinch hold (also known as a clinching hold ) is a grappling hold that is used in clinch fighting with the purpose of controlling

7315-454: The cancellation of his primetime show. O'Brien's rating surge during the controversy was also seen by some of his proponents as having the potential to be the host's "Hugh Grant moment" – an allusion to a 1995 interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that aired shortly after the British actor had been caught publicly soliciting a prostitute. Leno's interview with Grant was widely watched due to

7448-439: The comedy ensemble show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In . In 1968 Steve Allen returned to syndicated variety/talk with a new show for Filmways , produced and co-written by Jeff Harris and Bernie Kukoff. The show was a free-wheeling, light-entertainment blend of comedy sketches, musical specialties, and conversation. It sometimes featured the same wacky stunts that would influence David Letterman in later years, including becoming

7581-405: The course of almost 70 years, The Tonight Show has undergone only minor title changes. It aired under the name Tonight for several of its early years, as well as Tonight Starring Jack Paar and The Jack Paar Show due to the runaway popularity of its host, eventually settling permanently on The Tonight Show after Carson began his tenure in 1962, albeit with the host's name always included in

7714-449: The debut of Saturday Night Live in October 1975, NBC aired The Best of Carson on Saturday nights at 11:30 pm. Apart from the show's brief run as a news show in 1957, its shortest-serving host was Conan O'Brien, who went on to continue hosting a late-night program following his controversial departure . O'Brien hosted 146 episodes over the course of fewer than eight months before Leno

7847-544: The distributor chose not to broadcast it nationally, feeling it would not draw a large enough audience. Even PBS backed off on showing it, and many in the television industry felt the series was "too thoughtful" for the American public. Allen then produced the first shows at his own expense, which resulted in attracting major backers. It eventually aired nationally, beginning in 1977. The series, consisting of six hour-long episodes per season, became enormously popular. Allen received

7980-433: The dominance of the Sunday night ratings first by CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show then by ABC's Maverick . Unlike the first installment of Johnny Carson's tenure, which is lost except for audio recordings, a kinescope recording of most of the first Tonight Show under Allen survives. In this recording, Allen states during his opening monologue that "this show is going to go on forever"; although in context (and as part of

8113-489: The editor from New York City newspapers. Allen's show also had one of the longest unscripted "crack-ups" on live television when Allen began laughing hysterically during "Big Bill Allen's Sports Roundup". Allen, known for his infectious high-pitched cackling laugh, laughed uncontrollably for over a minute with the audience laughing along, because, as he later explained, he caught sight of his unkempt hair on an off-camera monitor. He kept brushing his hair and changing hats to hide

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8246-501: The faux stuntman character Super Dave Osborne. On October 30, 1988, Allen played a radio newscaster in a remake of the famous The War of the Worlds broadcast of fifty years earlier. The 1988 version was produced by WGBH in Boston and picked up by 150 National Public Radio stations. According to his own estimate, Allen was a prolific composer who wrote more than 8,500 songs, although only

8379-401: The film Picnic in 1955; the song was a No. 13 U.S. hit in a vocal version for The McGuire Sisters in 1956. The song, however, is chiefly remembered as an instrumental, often performed in a medley with " Moonglow ," a popular song from 1933. Two instrumental versions charted in the U.S. top 5 in 1956, including a No. 1 hit version by Morris Stoloff . Because he did not write the music, Allen

8512-437: The green light: Allen would return to his roots as a late-night star, in a weeknight revival of The Steve Allen Show . Silverman scheduled the hourlong show for five nights a week at 12:30 a.m. Eastern time, immediately following The Tonight Show. Allen was excited about the opportunity, only to be disappointed: Johnny Carson was opposed to the plan and voiced his objections to Silverman. Silverman's own schedule of new NBC shows

8645-761: The ground, also known as lay and pray. In combat sports a submission hold (colloquially referred to as a " submission ") is a grappling hold that is applied with the purpose of forcing an opponent to submit out of either extreme pain or fear of injury. Submission holds are used primarily in ground fighting and can be separated into constrictions ( chokeholds , compression locks , suffocation locks) and manipulations ( joint locks , leverages , pain compliance holds ). When used, these techniques may cause dislocation , torn ligaments , bone fractures , unconsciousness , or even death . Common combat sports featuring submission holds are: The same hold may be called by different names in different arts or countries. Some of

8778-404: The host's ratings to be spin, as it ignored O'Brien's far less expensive contract (and thus far less expensive buyout), O'Brien's improving ratings before the controversy, and O'Brien's younger demographics, all of which suggested profitability. After the decision was made to reinstate Leno, NBC executives and Leno maintained in the media that O'Brien's ratings were responsible for his removal from

8911-416: The job" in the wake of his (Leno's) eventual departure. Five years later, what was to have been the final episode of The Tonight Show with Leno as host aired on Friday, May 29, 2009. Not wanting Leno, who remained number one in the ratings, to move to a competing network, NBC signed the host to a new contract to host a new prime-time talk show beginning in September 2009, entitled The Jay Leno Show , with

9044-440: The job; Francis was among the first women to ever host a late-night talk show. Griffin was so well received as a guest host that NBC gave him his own daytime talk show, the first of three he would host in his broadcasting career, which debuted the same day Carson took over the late-night show, and Lewis's two-week stint was so successful that NBC seriously considered retracting their offer to Carson. Lewis subsequently wound up hosting

9177-538: The late 1980s, Leno was designated the permanent and only guest host, and consequently hosted several dozen episodes each year, totalling 333 "guest host" appearances during Carson's tenure. On May 22, 1992, Johnny Carson retired after three decades behind the iconic late-night desk, and was replaced by Jay Leno amid national and media controversy. David Letterman not only wanted to move into that earlier time slot from his Late Night spot (which had been broadcast following Carson's program) after The Tonight Show , and

9310-480: The late-night broadcast himself. An English lady is visiting Switzerland. She asks about the location of the "W.C."  The Swiss, thinking she is referring to the Wayside Chapel, leaves her a note that said (in part) "the W.C. is situated nine miles from the room that you will occupy. It is capable of holding about 229 people and it is only open on Sunday and Thursday. It may interest you to know that my daughter

9443-525: The late-night television universe, 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 and behind that iconic desk, for the better part of two decades, although Leno consistently enjoyed higher ratings after the first two years. On September 27, 2004, the 50th anniversary of the show's premiere, NBC announced that Leno would be succeeded by Conan O'Brien in 2009. The network shocked Leno, who had been consistently number one in

9576-727: The later Steve Allen years, regular audience member Lillian Miller (usually referred to as "Miss Miller") became such an integral part that she was forced to join American Federation of Television and Radio Artists , the television/radio performers union. She would continue to perform the same service for most of the major talk shows for decades, including those hosted by Paar, Carson, Merv Griffin (until 1986), and Mike Douglas , among others. 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

9709-454: The local 11   pm news, which suffered a drastic drop in ratings (between 25%–50% nationwide) as a demonstrable result. As the affiliates rely on the revenue generated during the news, this generated a furor from the local stations and placed pressure on NBC to quickly fix the 10   pm situation, which was contributing to a cascading effect on the ratings of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon , although

9842-484: The local network affiliate station in New York City . Beginning in September 1954, it was renamed Tonight! and began its historic run on the full NBC network. Notes for hosting history The first Tonight announcer was Gene Rayburn . Allen's version of the show originated talk show staples such as an opening monologue, celebrity interviews, audience participation, and comedy bits in which cameras were taken outside

9975-408: The main hosts, a number of regular "guest hosts" have been used, notably Ernie Kovacs , who hosted two nights per week during 1956–1957, and a number of guests used by Carson, who curtailed his own hosting duties back to three nights per week by the 1980s. Among Carson's regular guest hosts were Joey Bishop , McLean Stevenson , David Letterman , David Brenner , Joan Rivers , and Jay Leno, although

10108-467: The messy hair, and the more he tried to correct his appearance the messier and funnier it got. Allen helped the then-new Polaroid camera become popular by demonstrating its instant-picture capabilities during live commercials and amassed a huge financial windfall for his work because he had opted to be paid for it in Polaroid Corporation stock. Allen remained host of "Tonight" for three nights

10241-403: The monologue, Leno's most popular segment, the essence of the program. This would move The Tonight Show to 12:05 a.m., a post-midnight start for the first time in its sixty-year history, while Late Night with Jimmy Fallon would be pushed to 1:05   am, and Last Call with Carson Daly would likely be cancelled. Under NBC's (later contested) interpretation of O’Brien's contract, the host

10374-453: The network. Skip Brittenham, an entertainment attorney and partner at the law firm that had negotiated Leno's contract, was later asked about this claim in an interview. Though Brittenham refused to comment on the veracity of the publicly reported penalty figure, he allowed that "I think the facts speak for themselves." On January 21, it was announced that NBC had struck a deal with O'Brien in which he would leave The Tonight Show and receive

10507-568: The newest and then lowest-rated radio and television network, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC, as the Blue Network , had been separated from NBC in 1943 owing to government pressure). Because Carson was under contract through September to ABC and producer Don Fedderson (who held him to his contract until the day it expired), he could not take over as host until October 1, 1962. The months between Paar and Carson were filled by

10640-472: The opponent. In wrestling it is referred to as the tie-up. The use of a clinch hold results in the clinch . Clinch holds can be used to close in on the opponent, as a precursor to a takedown or throw , or to prevent the opponent from moving away or striking effectively. Typical clinch holds include: A pinning hold (also known as a hold down and in Japanese as osaekomi-waza , 抑え込み技, "pinning technique")

10773-491: The panic ended. Carson's ratings usually substantially led his timeslot, in spite of the fact that he intermittently faced many other late-night competitors including Les Crane , Bill Dana , David Frost , Regis Philbin , Alan Thicke , Jerry Lewis , Joan Rivers , David Brenner , Pat Sajak , Ron Reagan , Dennis Miller , and most notably Steve Allen , Arsenio Hall , Joey Bishop, Merv Griffin, and Dick Cavett (Carson saw his friend Cavett as his real competition but Cavett

10906-684: The practice has been mostly abandoned since hosts currently prefer reruns to showcasing potential rivals. The Tonight Show is the world's longest-running talk show and the longest-running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States. It is the third-longest-running show on NBC, after the news-and-talk shows Today and Meet the Press . The current incarnation is taped from Studio 6B at NBC Studios in Rockefeller Center in New York,

11039-486: The ratings for eighteen months before eventually cementing his number one status. The Jay Leno Show debuted in September 2009, three months into O'Brien's Tonight Show tenure, performing to significantly lower ratings than the primetime dramas it had replaced on NBC and trailing the competition. NBC had expected the drop, having calculated that lower ratings would be balanced by a talk show's correspondingly lower expense compared to more popular scripted programming. In

11172-410: The ratings of O'Brien's Tonight Show had already nosedived months before Leno's prime time show went on the air. On January 7, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that beginning March 1, 2010, Leno would move from his 10 p.m. weeknight time slot back to the traditional Tonight Show slot at 11:35. Under this proposal, Leno's show would be shortened from an hour to 30 minutes, which would make

11305-653: The ratings, for the first time since Leno returned to hosting The Tonight Show. By May 2011, Leno regained the lead over Letterman and held it until leaving the show in February 2014. In August 2012, The Los Angeles Times reported that The Tonight Show was in trouble for a number of reasons, notably that NBC was losing money. The Times later elaborated, noting that advertising revenue from The Tonight Show had dropped more than 40% since 2007, from $ 255.9 million annually to $ 146.1 million. Still, despite these problems, during 2012–13, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

11438-654: The road to produce episodes remotely in its first year, spending four days at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida in June 2014 to promote new attractions at NBCUniversal 's theme parks there. In February 2015, Fallon presented a special Sunday night show from Phoenix, Arizona airing after NBC's coverage of Super Bowl XLIX , followed by four days of shows in Stage 1 at Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles (where Conan O'Brien's version

11571-403: The rock band U2 , plus an assortment of celebrity cameos, including an appearance by one of Fallon's direct broadcast competitors, Stephen Colbert (who would later replace David Letterman on the competing The Late Show in 2015), and another by former permanent guest host Joan Rivers , making her first appearance on Tonight since cutting ties with Carson in 1986. The show's opening sequence

11704-511: The same studio used during the later Jack Paar era and the first 10 years of Carson. During its initial run under Steve Allen, it originated from the Hudson Theatre on Broadway. From 1973 to 2009, and from 2010 to 2014 the show was taped at one of three different studios at NBC's Burbank, California Studios . During Conan O'Brien's brief tenure, the show was taped at an opulently reworked studio on Stage 1 of Universal Studios Hollywood . Over

11837-468: The scandal, and Leno's fortunes in his rivalry with Letterman permanently turned around in its wake. The New York Post advanced a theory that O'Brien being the cheaper host to lose was the cardinal factor in NBC's decision to negotiate his departure. The Post claimed that Leno had an "ironclad" guarantee for $ 150 million if he had been taken off the air, far higher than what it would cost for O'Brien to depart

11970-469: The scripts based on the actual writings and actions of the guests, and as host would lead the conversations to different subjects. He described the show as "drama disguised as a talk show." Most of the female roles (Marie Antoinette, Catherine the Great , Florence Nightingale , et al.) were portrayed by Allen's wife, the actress Jayne Meadows – over her objections. She resisted monopolizing these roles, but Allen

12103-606: The series after the host, and as such the program, though officially still called Tonight , was also 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. Paar also introduced the idea of having guest hosts; one of these early hosts was Johnny Carson . It was also one of the first regularly scheduled network shows to be telecast in color beginning sporadically in September 1957, with regular color broadcasts beginning in September 1960. On February 11, 1960, Jack Paar unexpectedly walked off

12236-454: The show in the midst of the program – an absence that lasted almost a month – after NBC censors edited out a segment taped the night before about a joke involving a "WC" ("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 to finish

12369-517: The show ran for 105 minutes and then was reduced to ninety minutes in early 1967 when Carson stopped appearing for the first 15 minutes because most affiliates were carrying their local news during that time slot as they expanded to half an hour. During Carson's 1980 contract negotiations, the show was shortened to sixty minutes beginning that September, where it has remained since. NBC also broadcast The Best of Carson which were repeats of some of Carson's popular older albeit usually recent shows. Prior to

12502-474: The show returned in the fall of 1961—on ABC , as The New Steve Allen Show . Nye, Poston, Harrington, Dell, and Dayton Allen returned. New cast members were Joey Forman , Buck Henry , the Smothers Brothers , Tim Conway , and Allen's wife Jayne Meadows. The new version was canceled after fourteen episodes. From 1962 to 1964, Allen recreated The Tonight Show on a new show, The Steve Allen Show , which

12635-538: The show went on the full NBC network as The Tonight Show , with fellow radio personality Gene Rayburn (who later went on to host hit game shows such as Match Game , 1962–1982) as the original announcer. The show ran from 11:15 p.m. to 1 a.m. on the East Coast. While Today developer Sylvester "Pat" Weaver often is credited as the Tonight creator, Allen often pointed out that he had created it earlier as

12768-466: The show wrote, "One of the most hilarious one-man comedy sequences projected over the TV cameras in many a day ... The guy's a natural for the big time." Leaving CBS, Allen briefly hosted a talent-competition program on ABC called Talent Patrol in the first months of 1953. At the same time, he became a regular on the popular panel television game show What's My Line? from January 1953, substituting for

12901-412: The show's final days during the media publicity onslaught, and this tally pivots upon that anomalous spike in O'Brien's ratings. NBC ratings specialist Tom Bierbaum commented that due to the host being out of late-night television for a period of time and the subsequent 2010 Tonight Show conflict , Leno's ratings fall was "not a surprise at all." In October 2010, David Letterman beat Leno's program in

13034-463: The show. In July 1957, NBC returned the program to a talk/variety show format once again, with Jack Paar (who left his role as morning show host on CBS to join NBC) becoming the new solo host of the show. Under Paar, most of the NBC affiliates that had dropped the show during the ill-fated run of Tonight! America After Dark began airing the show once again. Paar's era began the practice of branding

13167-551: The studio, as well as music including guest performers, a house vocal group (duo Steve and Eydie , who would marry each other in 1957) and a house band under Lyle "Skitch" Henderson . When the show became a success, Allen got a primetime Sunday comedy/variety show in June 1956, leading him to share Tonight hosting duties with Ernie Kovacs during the 1956–57 season . To give Allen time to work on his Sunday evening show, Kovacs hosted Tonight on Monday and Tuesday nights with his own announcer ( Bill Wendell ) and bandleader. During

13300-409: The suspended Hal Block , and replacing Block by March. He continued on the show until 1954, and returned frequently as a panelist until the series ended in 1967. He once appeared as a regular contestant on June 19, 1966, but the panel failed to guess his line, which was selling motorcycles; Allen at the time was co-owner of a Los Angeles dealership selling Honda motorcycles. Those introducing him as

13433-442: The talk show format introduced by Allen and honed further by Paar. Carson is the longest-serving host to date, although he is not the host with the most episodes. The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson aired for 30 seasons between October 1962 and May 1992. Leno has the record of having hosted the greatest number of total televised episodes. Leno's record is due to the fact that, unlike Carson (who only produced new shows three days

13566-465: The term "larger than Steve Allen's breadbox" in reference to any item under discussion. He also presented Southern California eccentrics, including health food advocate Gypsy Boots , quirky physics professor Dr. Julius Sumner Miller , wacko comic Professor Irwin Corey , and an early musical performance by Frank Zappa . During one episode, Allen placed a telephone call to the home of Johnny Carson, posing as

13699-410: The time period, when he was told that he would be fired in five years, with O'Brien taking over the slot at that time. Leno told his audience about this unique network decision at the beginning of his next show, mentioning that he had 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

13832-405: The time slot. On April 3, 2013, after a dispute with the network over Leno's joking about the network's poor prime time performance in his monologues, NBC announced that Leno would retire in 2014, with Late Night host Jimmy Fallon taking over The Tonight Show after the conclusion of NBC's coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics . It was Leno's suggestion to use NBC's coverage of the Olympics as

13965-436: The title. Beginning with Carson's debut episode, network programmers, advertisers, and the show's announcers would refer to the show by including the name of the host: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson , The Tonight Show with Jay Leno , The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien , and, currently, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon . In 1957, the show briefly tried a more news-style format. It has otherwise adhered to

14098-447: The traditional Tonight Show time slot, while O'Brien's supporters argued that the incumbent host had been denied the unambiguous transition, network support and time to grow that his predecessor had received. In addition, it was pointed out that Leno's 10   pm program, rather than O'Brien's performance, had forced the need for line-up changes, while Leno's penalty clause all but guaranteed his continued presence on NBC late night after

14231-644: The way through the early part of Carson's run. The Lou Stein Trio originally provided musical accompaniment during the short run of Tonight! America After Dark , which ran for six months between the Steve Allen/Ernie Kovacs and Jack Paar eras of The Tonight Show , and was later replaced by the Mort Lindsey Quartet, which in turn, was replaced by the Johnny Guarnieri Quartet. José Melis led

14364-427: The week, Mary Kay's Nightcap (which mostly consisted of previews of the next day's programming) also aired that season. The format of The Tonight Show can be traced to a nightly 40-minute local program in New York, hosted by Allen and originally titled The Knickerbocker Beer Show (after the sponsor). It was quickly retitled The Steve Allen Show . This premiered in 1953 on WNBT-TV (now broadcasting as WNBC-TV),

14497-408: Was announced as coming from nearby Hollywood ) for the remainder of his tenure. Carson lacked the mercurial, electric personality of Paar, and his version of The Tonight Show never riveted the country's attention the way that Paar's had, but his more predictable approach eventually became part of the cultural landscape by virtue of the fact that the viewership, in a basically three-network paradigm,

14630-607: Was being arrested on obscenity charges. Footage from this program was first telecast in 1998 in a Bruce documentary aired on HBO . Regis Philbin briefly took over hosting the Westinghouse show in 1964. The show also featured many jazz songs played by Allen and members of the show's band, the Donn Trenner Orchestra, which included such virtuoso musicians as guitarist Herb Ellis and flamboyantly comedic hipster trombonist Frank Rosolino (whom Allen credited with originating

14763-421: Was brought back as host, where he served for almost four additional years. Current host Fallon debuted on February 17, 2014. Fallon had previously hosted Late Night with Jimmy Fallon , and before Late Night he was a popular member of the cast of Saturday Night Live , co-hosting the " Weekend Update " segment with Tina Fey as well as performing sketches. From 1950 to 1951 NBC aired Broadway Open House ,

14896-416: Was considered personally by Carson (whose opinion was not revealed until several years later) as his 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 in spite of Leno's ratings success as recurring substitute host, left NBC (on Carson's advice) and joined rival network CBS . Their new program and entry into

15029-641: Was consistently the highest-ranking late-night show, regularly achieving audiences of over 3.5 million, according to Nielsen ratings . Leno's audience became considerably smaller after its peak 2002–03 season, when it routinely attracted 5.8 million viewers a night. This was partly due to the continuing fragmentation of the TV audience, with an increasing number of cable shows, such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart , The Colbert Report and Conan O'Brien's new show on TBS , in addition to competition with Letterman on CBS and since January 8, 2013, Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC , although Leno continued to lead

15162-472: Was directed by filmmaker Spike Lee . As part of the transition to Fallon, The Tonight Show would be brought back to New York City after 42 years in Southern California. Approximately $ 5 million was budgeted to renovate Studio 6B , where Fallon recorded Late Night . The move also enabled NBC to take advantage of a newly enacted New York state tax credit for talk shows that are "filmed before

15295-403: Was failing (Allen's Comedy Hour ran for only five episodes and The Big Show for only eleven) and the network couldn't afford to alienate the highly successful Carson, so the new Steve Allen show was abandoned. From 1984 to 1986, Allen created and hosted Steve Allen's Music Room which aired on the newly formed Disney Channel . This was a talk show with jazz vibraphonist Terry Gibbs leading

15428-518: Was favorable, and it was found that he had brought down the median age of The Tonight Show audience by a decade compared with his predecessor, indicating that a generational shift was taking effect as O'Brien established himself in an earlier timeslot. Taking this into account, columnist Tom Shales assessed in August 2009 that O'Brien was in a better position than Leno had been when he began his Tonight Show run in 1992; Leno consistently lost to Letterman in

15561-441: Was hosted by Oscar Brown, Jr. In 1964 Allen returned to network television as moderator of the game show I've Got a Secret (replacing original host Garry Moore ). In the summer of 1967, he brought most of the regulars from over the years back with The Steve Allen Comedy Hour , featuring the television debuts of Rob Reiner , Richard Dreyfuss , and John Byner , and featuring Ruth Buzzi , who would become famous soon after on

15694-668: Was hosted first by Jack Lescoulie (also an announcer and long-time cast member on the Today morning program, 1952–1967) and then by Al ("Jazzbo") Collins , with interviews conducted by Hy Gardner , and music provided by the Lou Stein Trio (later replaced by the Mort Lindsey Quartet , then the Johnny Guarnieri Quartet ). This new version of the show was unpopular, resulting in a significant number of NBC affiliates dropping

15827-471: Was infinitely more monolithic than it later became. Examples include when he played the game Twister with Eva Gabor in 1966, which increased the sales of the relatively unknown game. In December 1973, when Carson joked about an alleged shortage of toilet paper , panic buying and hoarding ensued across the United States as consumers emptied stores, causing a real shortage that lasted for weeks. Stores and toilet paper manufacturers had to ration supplies until

15960-467: Was insistent. She recalled in 1994, "He came to me and he said, 'You're gonna play Cleopatra .' I said, 'I am not! Go away. Go away!' And he calmly said, 'It's a divorce if you don't play it.'" Allen first conceived the show in 1959 but took almost 20 years to make it become reality. He initially produced a version in 1971 that aired locally in Los Angeles and earned three Local Emmy Awards. But, although it received critical acclaim from Hollywood critics,

16093-419: Was later moved to a thirty-minute, early evening slot. The new show required him to relocate, with his family, from Los Angeles to New York. It ran until 1952, after which CBS tried several different formats to showcase Allen's talent. He achieved national attention in early January 1951, when he was pressed into last-minute service to guest host the hugely popular Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts when Godfrey

16226-534: Was marked by the same wild, unpredictable stunts, and comedy skits that often extended across the side street to an all-night food outlet known as the Hollywood Ranch Market, where Allen had a hidden camera spying on unsuspecting shoppers. On one show, he had an elephant race down the side street, much to the annoyance of the occupants of the neighboring houses. On this show, he originated the term "little black things" in reference to anything regarding food, and

16359-416: Was married in the W.C. and it was there that she met her husband. I shall be delighted to reserve the best seat for you, if you wish, where you will be seen by everyone'. —Censored joke dropped from February 11, 1960, show Paar returned to the show on March 7, 1960, strolled on stage after the opening credits, struck a pose, and said, "As I was saying before I was interrupted . . ." After

16492-438: Was never a hit, the song was recorded by numerous artists, including Count Basie , Tony Bennett , Bobby Darin , Ella Fitzgerald , Mark Murphy Judy Garland , Aretha Franklin , Lionel Hampton , Claire Martin and Oscar Peterson . Allen used it as the theme song of The Tonight Show in 1956/57, and as the theme song to many of his later television projects. Allen wrote the lyrics for the standard " Theme from Picnic " from

16625-432: Was not credited as a songwriter on the instrumental versions. The Tonight Show The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has been broadcast on NBC since 1954. The program has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 2010–2014), Conan O'Brien (2009–2010), and Jimmy Fallon (2014–present). Besides

16758-731: Was on ABC, a much smaller network at the time). As primetime variety shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show faded in prominence over the course of the 1970s, Carson's Tonight Show emerged as a showcase for all kinds of talent, as well as continuing the tradition of a vaudeville-style variety show. Carson's show continued Paar's tradition of launching the careers of a number of comedians, in Carson's case including Jerry Seinfeld , David Letterman , Joan Rivers , Jeff Foxworthy , Ellen DeGeneres , Freddie Prinze , David Brenner , Tim Allen , Drew Carey , and Roseanne Barr . Carson also frequently used guest hosts, especially after 1981 when he negotiated

16891-400: Was only guaranteed The Tonight Show in name rather than the 11:35   pm slot with which it was synonymous. On January 10, NBC confirmed it would be moving Leno out of primetime as of February 12 and intended to move him back to late-night as soon as possible. TMZ reported that O'Brien was given no advance notice of this change, and that NBC offered him a choice: The Tonight Show in

17024-436: Was produced). Aside from the title change and a new set, Fallon's version of The Tonight Show is nearly identical to the format of Late Night he employed, as he imported many of his signature comedy bits and much of his Late Night staff, including house band The Roots and announcer Steve Higgins . Prior to the transition, Fallon said, "In our heads, we've been doing The Tonight Show for five years. We're just on at

17157-404: Was replaced by Ed Herlihy . Groucho Marx introduced Carson as the new host on October 1, 1962. Ed McMahon was Carson's announcer and on-screen side-kick, the same role he'd filled on Who Do You Trust? McMahon also introduced Carson with the drawn out catchphrase "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!" The Tonight Show orchestra was, for Carson's first four years, still led by Skitch Henderson . After

17290-399: Was syndicated by Westinghouse TV. The five-nights-a-week taped show was broadcast from an old vaudeville theater at 1228 North Vine Street in Hollywood that was renamed The Steve Allen Playhouse . The new Allen show could be programmed by local stations as an alternative to the networks' late-night shows, but many stations opted to broadcast the Allen show during the daytime hours. The show

17423-452: Was the Italian immigrant and former golf-pro Guido Panzini. Dayton Allen, who had gotten his start playing various characters on the children's television series "Howdy Doody," played wild-eyed zanies answering any given question with the question "Why not?" Dell usually played straight men in sketches (policemen, newsmen, dramatic actors, etc.), and occasionally played the character Boris Nadel,

17556-402: Was the announcer, and José Melis led the band. The Jack Paar Show was moved to the evening's prime time (as The Jack Paar Program ) and aired weekly on Friday nights through the 1965 season. Johnny Carson was chosen as Paar's successor when Paar chose to leave The Tonight Show for a prime time show. Carson was host at the time of the weekday afternoon quiz show Who Do You Trust? on

17689-402: Was unable to appear. He turned one of Godfrey's live Lipton tea and soup commercials upside down, preparing tea and instant soup on camera, then pouring both into Godfrey's iconic ukulele. With the audience (including Godfrey, watching from Miami) laughing uproariously and thoroughly entertained, Allen gained major plaudits both as a comedian and as a host. Variety magazine editors who had seen

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