Zeus’ Kingdom Lies In Pieces, But His Thunder Remains
Once upon a time, late night television meant one thing only – “The Tonight Show“. NBC executive Sylvester “Pat” Weaver’s innovation to expand the network’s entertainment reach into the later hours would become the biggest grossing program on NBC’s schedule, and possibly the all-time biggest cash cow in the entertainment industry. From 1954 to 1962, hosts Steve Allen and Jack Paar made the program destination TV.
But in 1962, following Paar’s departure to prime time, the third host of the show would so significantly change the the game, that his name is synonymous with late night entertainment. Johnny Carson sat behind the “Tonight Show” desk for almost thirty years, becoming the barometer for the American sense of humor, a fashion icon, and the bearer of the gold standard for TV cool. His monologue established the appropriate targets for other comics and set the boundaries of how far that mockery could go. The King of Late Night’s cultivation of almost three generations of stand-up comics made stars out of a diverse list that included Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart, Don Rickles, Rodney Dangerfield, George Carlin, Robert Klein, Andy Kaufman, future late night princes Jay Leno and David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld, Gary Shandling, Drew Carey and Bob Goldthwait.
A key part of Carson’s success on the “Tonight Show” was his interplay with announcer and “sidekick” Ed McMahon. A genuine Atlantic City boardwalk pitchman, and ex-radio guy, Ed had been Johnny’s announcer on the ABC daytime game show “Who Do You Trust?” for four years prior to their move to NBC. Over the course of that thirty-four years, the timing of their back-and-forth on the panel and in sketches became almost telepathic. Ed’s most notable phrases – “Here’s Johnny”, “You are correct, sir”, “Yes!” – became pop-culture soundbites of the first order.
Over the years, CBS, ABC and syndicators made attempt after attempt to launch real competitors against the “Tonight Show”. Hosts like Joey Bishop, Merv Griffin and Alan Thicke all failed to make a dent in Carson’s ratings. But the 1979-1980 hostage crisis in Iran provided ABC with the opportunity to establish an effective counter-programming alternative in the hard-news “Nightline” program. Then, at the very end of Fox’s two-year experiment to take on Carson, “The Late Show” (1987-1988), the network found a contender in Arsenio Hall. The exuberant African-American comedian appealed to young viewers and a more diverse audience than Carson. Though Fox only held onto to Hall for roughly a year, he took a syndication deal from Paramount to debut “The Arsenio Hall Show” in January of 1989. This show became the second late-night program to eat into Carson’s dominance of the ratings.
In May of 1991, allegedly tired of what had been a two-year backstage debate over the future of NBC late night programming in this more competitive world, Carson surprised the network at their upfront presentation by announcing his intent to retire from “Tonight” in mid-1992. While Carson mostly escaped the resulting turmoil, others were swept up into it. Jay Leno had become Carson’s “permanent” guest host in 1987, covering Monday and Tuesday nights. David Letterman had been doing a show after Carson’s, “Late Night”, since 1982. As Carson had approval of the host of the show following his, and a part-ownership stake in the show, the industry assumed Letterman was Carson’s preferred choice to succeed him on “The Tonight Show”. NBC had other ideas.
With the hopes of a dominant two-hour block of late night TV to cover a wide demographic spread, NBC chose Leno to take over “Tonight” and hoped they could financially reward Letterman enough to have him stay happily at 12:30/11:30 Central. Jay’s first show was on May 25, 1992.
Letterman’s final episode of “Late Night“, which featured Bruce Springsteen singing atop Dave’s desk, aired on June 25, 1993. His first episode of “The Late Show With David Letterman” premiered on CBS on August 30, 1993, featuring Bill Murray defacing Dave’s desk with spray-painted graffitti.
The golden age of late night TV was over, and the floodgates of competition broke wide open. But because an era ended, that didn’t mean quality evaporated. The ensuing melee made stars and icons out of a group spiritual descendents of Carson and Letterman, particularly Conan O’Brien, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert. Others, like current jobbers Jimmy Kimmel, Chelsea Handler, Jimmy Fallon and Craig Ferguson, have yet to prove they’ll have major staying power. But the key takeway is that the one world/one show paradigm is long gone. There will never be another individual late night standard-bearer like “Tonight Show With Johnny Carson”.
And, as we think about that today, on the announcement of the death Ed McMahon, and his role as the king of sidekicks, we take this opportunity to put Ed, King Carson, and their ”Tonight Show” into their rightful places in the popGeezer Hall of Fame. They won’t “be right back”, but they will be right here.
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- A Look Back At ‘Tonight Show’ (npr.org)
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