Shall attempt to wrap this non-chronological series about late night TV a la The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 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 CNN series directed by John Ealer.
The six episode series is overall good, the utterly inexplicable omission of our favorite show of all the post-1990 late-night series, The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson notwithstanding.
The guy who sat behind the coveted host desk for the greatest number of late night shows other than Johnny Carson and David Letterman 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 (and also enjoy his recent Jay Leno’s Garage videos about classic cars). With his hosting literally hundreds of Tonight Shows is it possible to forget how good Jay was at stand-up? Yes.
Jay and Jerry Seinfeld were the hardest working stand-up comics in showbiz and toured ALL THE TIME back in the 1970's and early 1980's.
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 version of The Tonight Show was, Jay was destined to be compared to Johnny Carson. Both Shemp and Jay make this comedy fan laugh, but that's the breaks.
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 involving NBC and The Tonight Show engulfed Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien (spotlighted in Part Four of this series).
Notably, Conan, a writer for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons prior to hosting Late Night With Conan O’Brien, brought Robert Smigel of Triumph The Insult Comic Dog fame with him as part of a crew of ace writers that included Brian Stack, Brian McCann, Mike Sweeney, Dan Cronin, Berkley Johnson and Matt O' Brien.
At least Conan got Norm to appear on his last Tonight Show!
The knowledgeable pop culture aficionados who produce the Late Night Saga videos at the Fanboy Films YouTube channel elaborate in detail on this.
Jay, interviewed by fellow comic Howie Mandel, elaborates:
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, the snarkiest snark other than David Spade, been in showbiz 30 years earlier, one could envision him as a guest host for Johnny Carson. And, yes, that's right, he preceded Jon Stewart AND Craig Ferguson as host of their respective shows.
While Mr. Kilborn is a talented fellow, at this blog we are partial to The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
Mr. Ferguson, in this writer's opinion the funniest of the latter-day late night hosts, took The Late Late Show into ultra-zany and uncharted territory.
Especially like appearances by Lewis Black, another outstanding stand-up comedian, on The Late Late Show.
And, speaking of outstanding stand-up comedians, all appearances of Robin Williams on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson are must-see TV.
While Mr. Ferguson, after ten seasons of his show, has been off the air for a decade, he still has very enthusiastic fans on YouTube. There is a 9 hour compilation of its highlights, playlists from the YouTube poster named Fergufool and the Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson Archive channel, which, among numerous clips, includes excellent comedy from season 7, season 8 and season 9 of the series.
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 Meyers, 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.
Alas, an accurate and complete history of late night TV, sadly, not unlike a history of silent movies, would demand that all those shows that ended up dumped in the East River show up again in pristine condition. After all, Groucho, Ernie Kovacs, Mort Sahl and Bob Newhart all hosted!
How do we finish this series? With The Tonight Show Band playing Johnny Carson’s favorite tune, Here’s That Rainy Day.
Thanks for the laughs, all of you!
