Legendary comedienne Joan Rivers was previously the permanent guest host on The Tonight Show when Carson was under the weather or unable to appear on the broadcast. Rumor has it that Rivers accepted her own show on the then-new Fox network because her name was left off a list of possible hosts to take over should Carson retire. The bad blood between the two continued until Carson's death in 2005.
The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers premiered on October 9, 1986 with Cher, Pee-Wee Herman, Elton John, and David Lee Roth as guests. The show soon fizzled in the ratings and led to Rivers being fired, and soon the show was helmed by a slew of guest hosts including Arsenio Hall, who used the experience to transition into his own late night show. Chevy Chase began his notoriously brief period as a late night talk show host on September 3, 1993. The show debuted on Fox with guests Goldie Hawn and Whoopi Goldberg. Reviews of the show were immediately horrendous and the show was swiftly cancelled just one month later.
David Letterman was the one time heir apparent forThe Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. Letterman has been a fixture on late night Television since his February 1, 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman. In 2013, Letterman surpassed his friend and mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late night talk show host in TV history. For this Volume, we've unearthed some extraordinary appearances of David Letterman onThe Tonight Show.
Now we'd like to present you with three historic shows featuring David Letterman. Johnny Carson will be forever known as the king of late night television. His 30 years as host of "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" serves as an achievement—both in longevity and artistically—for current and future talk show hosts to aspire to. After being reluctantly ousted from The Tonight Show, the self-described "palest host in late night history" found a home on TBS with Conan. Speculation ran wild as to who the first guest was going to be, and it ended up being somebody no one—not even the person herself—could have guessed.
Out of three possible choices, fans hilariously got to vote between Jack Nicholson, the Sultan of Brunei, or a woman named Arlene Wagner, the curator of the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum in Leavenworth, Washington. The other guests that night were Seth Rogen, Lea Michele, and musical guest Jack White. For our first Volume in this newly released series we are featuring "Mr. Don Rickles has nothing against the people he insults while doing his routines, it's all just part of the act. When asked about his insult comedy style Rickles stated "You know, every night when I go out on stage, there's always one nagging fear in the back of my mind.
I'm always afraid that somewhere out there, there is one person in the audience that I'm not going to offend! " Rickles was a favorite guest onThe Tonight Show starring Johnny Carsonand you can tell that Johnny loved to let him do his thing. Now we'd like to present you with two classic shows and a rare bonus clip featuring "Mr. After O'Brien became host, however, The Tonight Show lost viewers. In an effort to improve ratings and return Leno to late night , NBC suggested that The Tonight Show be pushed back by 30 minutes to accommodate a new program for Leno.
O'Brien, however, rejected the proposal, and speculation soon began that Leno would rejoin The Tonight Show. After several weeks of heated negotiations, O'Brien left the show in late January, and Leno returned as host in March. The program's ratings soon rebounded, but in 2013 Leno announced that he would be stepping down as host the following year. You know Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, and Jimmy Fallon, but do you know all the other hosts of "The Tonight Show"? This iconic late night talk show has had a number of talented and very funny men walk through the stage curtain and deliver the monolog over the years.
Neither O'Brien's version of the program, which premiered June 1, 2009, nor The Jay Leno Show generated the ratings NBC had expected. The network decided to move a condensed 30-minute version of Leno's show to O'Brien's time slot, and O'Brien's Tonight Show a half-hour later. This decision met with opposition from O'Brien, and his stint on The Tonight Show ended January 22, 2010, after which he began his own talk show on TBS.
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno then began its second incarnation, the sixth of the franchise, on March 1, 2010. Leno left The Tonight Show for good on February 6, 2014 and on February 17, was succeeded by Late Night host Jimmy Fallon, at which time the series returned to New York for the first time since 1972. Jay Leno is mostly known for being a comedian and one of America's longtime talk show hosts. However, in addition to his talk show career, he is an avid car collector. In fact, Leno is such a gearhead, these days it might be argued that he's as famous for his car collection as he is for his successful career — at least in automotive circles.
Leno has a garage full of rare and obscure vehicles, vintage cars and motorcycles, as well as other cars and bikes that are more mainstream but caught his interest. Renaissance man and host extraordinaire Carson Daly has been the skipper of Last Call with Carson Daly since 2002. Cavett has had many talk show incarnations over the years, but he'll always be remembered for his erudite and provocative late night show that ran on ABC from 1969 to 1975. His first guests on the premiere episode of The Dick Cavett Show were Woody Allen, opera singer Beverly Sills, President of Hunter College Jacqueline Wexler, and actor Robert Shaw.
On September 9, 2013, Hall returned to late night with a new version of The Arsenio Hall Show. As with his first show, his second go-around ran in syndication. On his first night back, Chris Tucker and Paula Abdul were guests, and Snoop Lion performed. But Hall's comeback was short-lived; the show was cancelled after just one season.
On January 3, 1989, Hall's first guests were Brooke Shields, Leslie Nielsen, and musical guest Luther Vandross. Robin Williams appeared onThe Tonight Show starring Johnny Carsonnine times, and each time it was comedy magic. His first appearance in 1981 was legendary and he won Johnny over with his trademark manic energy and stream-of-consciousness lunacy. Over the years Robin was such a great guest that he landed a spot on Johnny's penultimate episode with Bette Midler on May 21, 1992.
The aforementioned show as well as Robin's first appearance have been released on the Ultimate Collection. Now we'd like to present you with three more classic shows featuring Robin Williams. NBC is worried that ABC's Kimmel will establish himself as a go-to late night performer for a younger generation if the network doesn't move swiftly to install Fallon. ABC moved Kimmel's time slot to directly compete with Leno earlier this year. Jay Leno never officially retired from late night, or the entertainment world altogether.
He was pushed out of The Tonight Show more than he bowed out gracefully. When it came time for Leno's contract to end in 2014, rather than negotiate to renew it, NBC decided to pull the plug and replace Leno with Late Night host, Jimmy Fallon. After Carson retired from "Tonight," comedian and regular guest host Jay Leno took over the late night desk.
This is a list of episodes for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that aired in 2013 and 2014. The final episode of the series aired on February 6, 2014. Johnny Carson opened his shows with a standup comedy monologue, a notion which became a staple of nearly all late-night talk shows. In later years Carson's extended vacations became a running joke, and his chair was filled with a series of guest hosts. His final show on 22 May 1992, with Carson being serenaded by guest Bette Midler, is remembered as one of TV's great farewells.
As mentioned earlier, Leno has a garage full of rare, vintage, antique, and expensive cars and motorcycles near the Burbank Airport. Leno's car collection currently hosts 181 cars and 160 motorcycles, and it's estimated to be worth anywhere between $52 to $100 million. In 1980 Rodney Dangerfield was at the height of his popularity and at the top of his form.
The movieCaddyshackwas released on July 25, 1980, two days after the first show featured on this DVD. His comedy albumNo Respectwon a Grammy Award that same year. His appearance inCaddyshackled to starring roles inEasy MoneyandBack To School. Rodney, who based his entire comedy routine on getting no respect, is ironically one of the most respected comics of all time. Now we're pleased to bring you two full shows and an extended bonus clip featuring Rodney Dangerfield during the peak of his career. Jerry Seinfeld's career took off after he made a successful appearance onThe Tonight Show starring Johnny Carsonon May 6, 1981.
Johnny was impressed and Jerry became a frequent guest onThe Tonight Show. In 1989 the sitcom Seinfeld aired on NBC, and by its fourth season, it had become the most popular and successful sitcom on American television. All the shows featured on this DVD are before Jerry's sitcom had aired on NBC. Now, we'd like to present you with three classic shows featuring Jerry Seinfeld.
Jay Leno made his first appearance onThe Tonight Show starring Johnny Carsonon March 2, 1977. He was a hit with Johnny andThe Tonight Showaudience from the beginning. Starting in 1987, Leno was a regular guest host onThe Tonight Show, and in 1992 he famously took over for Johnny Carson.
Leno continued to lead all late-night programming in the Nielsen ratings prior to 2009, and he had his final show on February 6, 2014. Now, we'd like to present you with three vintage shows featuring Jay Leno. After over 15 years on the air as the host of The Tonight Show, Jay Leno decided he wanted to conquer new challenges, namely in primetime. Thus, The Jay Leno Show was set to air in the fall of 2009 and Jay Leno's final episode of The Tonight Show as its host aired on May 29th of that previous summer. Leno's primetime program was flailing in the ratings and O'Brien wasn't doing much better with his younger version of "Tonight." Through all of this, NBC felt pressure to bring Leno back to late night. Leno had the last laugh, though, regularly beating his late night competition in the ratings.
Leno also brought a more mellow, California-flavor to the program. Leno is the author of a book titled Leading with My Chin, which was published by HarperCollins and hit the bookstores this past fall. He has also published four versions of Headlines, a series of books and desk calendars featuring his favorite funny newspaper headlines, and Police Blotter, a book with humorous newspaper clips concerning police stories. Proceeds from the book sales of Headlines and Police Blotter go to charities. Leno was born in New Rochelle, New York, and raised in Andover,Massachusetts.
In his spare time, Leno enjoys working on his collection of classic cars and motorcycles. Before he became the permanent host of the program, Leno had been the exclusive guest host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson since September 1987. He began appearing as a guest host in 1985 after having made numerous guest appearances, the first of which was on March 2, 1977.
One of the country's premier comedians, Leno has appeared in hundreds of comedy shows around the United States for the past 20 years. In 1995, he traveled to Aviano, Italy, where he performed for military troops associated with the peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia. He remains passionate about performing in front of live audiences and appears regularly in Las Vegas, on college campuses around the United States and in other venues. In 1956, Allen began a separate prime-time show and hosted Tonight only Wednesday through Friday nights.
Mondays and Tuesdays were handled by a series of guest hosts, including avant-garde comedian Ernie Kovacs. Hailing from Rockefeller Center in the heart of New York City, Jimmy has made it his mission to make sure viewers end the day with a smile. Each weeknight, he hosts A-list guests, from movie stars to athletes, comedians, public figures and everyone in between. He also delivers a signature nightly monologue, performs in topical comedy sketches, plays fan-favorite games, and presents recurring segments like Thank You Notes. Today's popular musical guests also stop by to perform alongside house band The Roots. Late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson, including guest interviews and musical performances.
Another half-baked, late-night endeavor was former basketball star Magic Johnson's show The Magic Hour, which premiered in 1998. First guests included Mel Gibson, Laurence Fishburne, Cher, and musical performer Babyface. The—ahem—magic didn't last long, and the series was cancelled after only three months on the air. There's no word on who will guest on the May 29 series finale or, if there will even be any. Leno's predecessor, Johnny Carson, preferred to end his legendary 30 year run rather simply in June 1992, by showing various clips and chatting with Ed McMahon, Doc Severinsen, and the studio audience. Reportedly 55 million people tuned in to say goodbye on that special night.
As it turned out, both the Conan run Tonight Show and The Jay Leno Show failed to rank very highly in the ratings department. To rectify this, it was decided that Jay Leno would go back to late night with a half-hour cut in half, so Conan could premiere closer to midnight. There was a huge controversy surrounding who would replace Johnny Carson, as many people - including Carson himself - thought then-Late Night host David Letterman would - and should - get the gig. Instead, after spending the last six years popping up on The Tonight Show as a guest host whenever Carson called in sick, Jay Leno was appointed by NBC as the official host. For 66 years now, The Tonight Show has reigned supreme over the late-night television talk show world.
It is actually the longest-running late-night talk show ever and the all-time longest airing weekly episodic entertainment program in American history. When you're 40, you talk to the 26-year-old supermodels and it's sexy; when you're 67, you're the creepy old guy. At some point, you need to step back and say, "I did it." I was lucky enough to live in a time when we did very well and the show was No. 1 and then say thank you and step back. That's why I came back with something totally different [CNBC's Jay Leno's Garage] — it's nothing like what I did. I'm not a sports guy, so whenever I'd have athletes on the show, I'd have to fake it. "You were great in that third inning" [whispers to someone, "What did they do?
Another messy transition saw O'Brien relinquish his role as host, break his contract with NBC, and bolt for greener pastures on TBS. Leno returned to late night after a little more than nine months away from "The Tonight Show." When Leno left late night to take a shot at primetime in 2009, "Late Night" host Conan O'Brien stepped into the role of "Tonight Show" host. Most people assumed "Late Night" host, David Letterman, would be named Carson's replacement. But heavy lobbying—and some questionable actions by Leno's then-manager, including planting a false story that NBC executives wanted Carson gone—scored Leno the job.
The former "Tonight Show" host and current host of the 10 p.m. "Jay Leno Show" said he'd tried to avoid doing a show in prime time but was convinced by NBC that it could work. Now, he said, four months later, because of problems with NBC's affiliated stations and low ratings, network executives informed him they were canceling his show but told him he was still "a valuable asset" to the company.
Each one-hour episode of "Jay Leno's Garage" features a mix of stunts, challenges, reviews, and celebrity interviews that showcases the rich and vibrant history of the automotive industry. Whether he's exploring the story of an iconic brand, road-testing the newest supercar, or investigating the latest automotive innovations, Leno leaves no stone unturned. From classic cars to supercars and everything in between, Leno hits the road to discover exciting, weird, and wonderful vehicles. On May 20, 1993, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno traveled to the Bull & Finch Pub in Boston, Massachusetts, to celebrate the final episode of Cheers. This is the first time that The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is taped on the road.
