Shall attempt to wrap this non-chronological series about late night TV a la The Tonight Show up in an untidy way. This will be yet another too many clips, WAY too many clips proposition. Where to start? With a nod to The Story Of Late Night, the 2021 series directed by John Ealer. The six episode CNN series is overall good, the utterly inexplicable omission of The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson notwithstanding.
The guy who sat behind the coveted desk for the greatest number of late night shows was (drum roll). . . Jay Leno.
He didn't just helm The Tonight Show from May 25, 1992 to May 29, 2009 and from March 1, 2010 to February 6, 2014, Jay guest hosted for Johnny 333 times; the second and third most prolific Tonight Show guest hosts were Joan Rivers with 201 shows and Joey Bishop with 177.
Tonight Shows featuring Johnny Carson and Jay Leno together could be pretty darn hilarious.
We’re okay with Jay, like him best as a stand-up comedian. With his hosting literally hundreds of Tonight Shows is it possible to forget how good Jay was at stand-up? Yes.
In succeeding The King Of Late Night, Jay Leno ended up in the same boat as Shemp Howard, who followed Curly in The Three Stooges. No matter how good his show was, Jay was destined to be compared to Johnny Carson.
Believe it or not, Jay frequently appeared on Late Night With David Letterman in the early to mid-1980's, as he did on The Tonight Show.
There's one compilation of Jay on Letterman in the early 1980's we didn't post because it was three hours long. Meanwhile, Mr. Letterman, who thought he would be the successor to Johnny Carson, has had plenty to say over the decades about his relationship with NBC and Jay Leno.
Further late-night wars engulfed Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien.
The knowledgeable pop culture vultures at the Fanboy Films channel elaborate in detail on this.
And then there was The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn. Don’t know what Mr. Kilborn, host of The Daily Show from 1996-1998 and The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn from 1999 to 2004 is doing these days. Had Kilborn been in showbiz 30 years earlier, one could envision him as a guest host for Johnny Carson.
While Mr. Kilborn is a talented fellow, at this blog we are partial to The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
Craig Ferguson, with Conan O' Brien our favorite of the latter-day late night hosts, took The Late Late Show into zany and uncharted territory.
Especially like appearances by Lewis Black on The Late Late Show.
All appearances of Robin Williams on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson are must-see TV.
While Mr. Ferguson has been off the air for a decade, he has very enthusiastic fans on YouTube. There's the Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson Archive channel as well as as a slew of playlists of Craig Ferguson shows from the YouTube poster named Fergufool. Currently, Craig has his own You Tube channel, where he posts his stand-up specials - the latest is great - and entertaining interviews.
With that, we call this a wrap, having gone as far into modern day 21st century entertainment as this blog ever goes. Won't be covering the more recent series (Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Myers, Jimmy Fallon, James Corden), the non-Tonight Show style programs that ran on late night (Later With Bob Costas, and Late Late Show With Tom Snyder) or sketch comedy shows - Fridays, SNL, SCTV - that aired at 11:30 p.m.
How do we finish this series? With The Tonight Show band playing Johnny Carson’s favorite tune, Here’s That Rainy Day.
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