Sets That Never Were…But Should Be! NBC Late Night Empire
by stevejrogers - 8 cards (Last updated on Jan 8, 2022)
September 27th of 2024 will mark the 70th anniversary of the debut of the historic late night TV franchise on NBC, The Tonight Show.
Considering licensing rights, dealing with estates, production companies, studios, etc, this is a project that can not be produced, but fun to think about.
Being generous this has to be done in series, with all sorts of inserts, autos and even memorabilia (how much would a swath of a shown worn Carson jacket fetch!).
Personally, the bulk, on The Tonight Show proper would be;
Steve Allen/Jack Parr The Early Years
Johnny Carson I The NYC early days
Johnny Carson II The move to LA through this final show
Jay Leno Both tenures in the same series
Conan O’Brien
Jimmy Fallon
I’d also run a dedicated 7th series to the iconic shows that followed The Tonight Show. Notably Tomorrow with Tom Snyder, and the Late Night series with David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.
As well as an insert touch on various other similar gabfest format shows NBC produced for overnight time slots over the years, such as Later and Last Call.
While the show hosts would dominate the set, cards would feature prominent guests, guest hosts, unique segments, memorable moments and characters done on the show, etc.
Main set on the Steve Allen (9/27/1954-1/25/1957) and Jack Paar (7/29/1957-3/30/1962) years.
Also spotlights Allen’s band leader Skitch Henderson, announcer Gene Rayburn. As well as Ernie Kovacs’ tenure as a guest host early in the week when Steverino was tabbed to host a Sunday prime time variety show.
As an aside, Ed Sullivan and clones (like Allen's) in the primetime weekly variety show genre through the decades would also be quite an epic set as well.
There is a brief time in-between Allen and Paar in 1957 that deserves a card, Tonight! America After Dark which was more akin to the Today Show than the comedy of Allen and Kovacs.
Jack Paar’s run would include his band leader José Melis and announcer for most of the run Hugh Downs. Subset would include various guest hosts, as well as the run of guests hosts between Paar’s last show and Johnny Carson’s first. Oddly enough, Carson was a fill-in guest for Paar on occasion.
Carson's run in Burbank, 5/1/1972 through 5/22/1992, is really the Golden Age of the show, and probably deserves the biggest spotlight of this mega set.
For what its worth, this is probably due in large part to Carson wresting control of his content early in this time. Pretty much all of his New York years is lost to history due to film damage and being taped over. Its also in this time, 1980 to be exact, when re-broadcasts would become a standard way of filling in off-nights. And Carson Productions even have best of packages starting with the 1970s that have been produced for home video purposes.
Ed McMahon and Doc Severinsen get another spotlight in this series, along with producer/executive producer Fred de Cordova who often bantered with Johnny during the show, and band member Tommy Newsom who filled in when Severinsen was off or was filling in for McMahon.
Another spotlight on this set would be the rise of guest stars such as David Brenner, Joan Rivers, and Jay Leno whom would fill in as Johnny had his workload lessened.
Also a big spotlight in this set, either in the set itself or as a chase insert, would be the standup comedians who performed over the years.
The Burbank move coincided with the rise of the LA standup comedy club scene. So the show would feature a Who's Who of 1970s and 1980s comics working on their sets on The Tonight Show. So the show pretty much was a huge gig to get for any working comedian during those years.
Easily the most polarizing host in the history of the franchise. Both with the way his tenures started (5/25/1992-5/29/2009 and 3/1/2010-2/6/2014) and his general appeal, or lack thereof in some regards as a comedian, interviewer and all around entertainer.
Announcer spotlights for Edd Hall, John Melendez, and Wally Wingert. And bandleader spotlights for Branford Marsalis, Kevin Eubanks and Rickey Minor.
Series V Conan O'Brien
The shortest set, but O'Brien should get a bigger nod in the subsequent series on the Late Night franchise.
In any event, this series will focus on his brief tenure 6/1/2009-1/22/2010.
Spotlights would include announcer/side kick Andy Richter, and band leader Max Weinberg. Both carrying over from their duties on the Late Night With Conan O'Brien show
The current incarnation kicked off on 2/17/2014, and has been on the air ever since. Early in 2021 it was announced that Fallon would be host of the show for 5 more years.
Fallon brought the show's production back to New York, in fact the same studio 6B at Rockefeller Center that both Paar and Carson had used.
Like O'Brien, Fallon's announcer (though not a McMahon/Richter esque sidekick on the couch) Steve Higgins, and house band The Roots carried over from his tenure on Late Night. Both get spotlights here.
I wondered if this should be a subset, or full blown set, but the Late Night franchise has been such an iconic powerhouse for the 12:30-1:30 timeslot, the post Tonight Show programing deserves its own series.
Covering;
Tomorrow with Tom Snyder 10/15/1973-12/17/1981. Rona Barrett was a co-host from October 1980 through June 1981.
Late Night With David Letterman 2/1/1982-6/25/1993
Spotlight cards on announcer Bill Wendell, and band leader Paul Shaffer.
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
9/13/1993-2/20/2009
Spotlight cards on announcer Joel Godard, Ed McMahon inspired sidekick on the couch Andy Richter, and band leader Max Weinberg.
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
3/2/2009-2/7/2014
Spotlight cards on announcer Steve Higgins and house band The Roots.
Late Night with Seth Meyers
2/24/2014-
Spotlight cards on announcer Ron McClary and bands Fred Armisen & The 8G Band, Cue Card Wally, and The Jackals.
Probably more of an insert, or a subset to pad out Series VII out would be cards spotlighting other NBC gabfest weekend late night shows. Basically keeping the same talk show formats as Tonight Show, Tomorrow and Late Night.
Music video programing, news magazines and sketch comedies (SCTV served as overnight programing for a while) do not count;
Later 8/22/1988-1/18/2001
Bob Costas 8/22/1988-2/25/1994
Greg Kinnear 2/28/1994-1996
Guest Hosts 1996-2000 Most prominently; Rita Sever, Cindy Crawford and Lynne Koplitz
Cynthia Garrett 1/31/2000-1/18/2001
Last Call with Carson Daly
1/8/2002-5/24/2019
A Little Late with Lilly Singh
9/16/2019-6/3/2021
Following A Little Late’s cancellation, the daily post Late Night timeslots went back to affiliate station's discretions.
