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The Story Of Late Night

seatownmedia

seatownmedia

Who is enjoying this CNN mini-series? I have watched the first two episodes and I think this is really well-done. The first episode featured the 50's and early 60's highlighting Steve Allen and Jack Paar. This past weekend Johnny Carson is highlighted, as well as SNL. Lots of footage I have never seen before. For us baby boomers this is must-see. For other generations, the series will get to you in a couple of weeks!
 
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The Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett segments were intriguing. I always liked both of them. The Cavett Watergate bit was gold.

The Special on Marvin Gaye that aired last night was also well done. Talent and musicianship was very high quality back then. Gaye was at a level very few artists can reach...
 
I'm gonna have to wait on this one, since I don't have the cable. It used to be a treat to stay up late and watch Carson when I was a kid. A few years back I got to spend some time with one of his more frequent guests (Bob Uecker) and he told me the story of how he became one of Johnny's favorites.
 
My personal favorite was Craig Ferguson. That show was completely out of control. From the robot sidekick Geoffrey Peterson to the dancing horse Secretariat. Complete and total craziness. Unfortunately everything now seems way too tame. Although I think carpool karaoke is brilliant.
 
Ferguson had a good run. His "Late Late Show" was always interesting and often hysterical. I thought he may have equaled Letterman and was better than Jay Leno...
 
TheBigA said:
My personal favorite was Craig Ferguson. That show was completely out of control. From the robot sidekick Geoffrey Peterson to the dancing horse Secretariat. Complete and total craziness. Unfortunately everything now seems way too tame. Although I think carpool karaoke is brilliant.
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Ferguson's brilliance was that he savagely deconstructed the late night talk show tropes on a regular basis. Geoff started as a riff on the sidekick thing, but then (thanks to the brilliant Josh Robert Thompson) became arguably the funniest sidekick in late night.

Then of course there were the puppets. Whadda do everybody...whadda do...
 
The cnn series will eventually get to the 21st century but you gotta like the history. It was so important and so predictive. I find it fascinating.
 
tbolt909 said:
Ferguson had a good run. His "Late Late Show" was always interesting and often hysterical. I thought he may have equaled Letterman and was better than Jay Leno...
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Interestingly, Peter Lasally who produced the Carson show for years before moving on to be Letterman's producer after Johnny's retirement, was key in selecting Craig Ferguson and campaigning for him to get the gig as host of the Late Late Show after Craig Kilborn's departure (incidentally, Lasally didn't agree with Kilborn's selection for that gig). Lasally then came out of semi-retirement to executive produce Ferguson's show for its entire run, and gave him tips to help make him a better, more effective late night host.

For those who liked The Story of Late Night, you might also enjoy watching a series of videos on YouTube were Peter Lasally interviewed with the group that produced a ton of those Archive of American Television videos. Lots of cool backstories and interesting perspectives on Carson, Tom Snyder, Letterman, the battle between Leno and Letterman to replace Johnny, the various hosts of the Late Late show, etc.
 
If this is the same miniseries, *I* was able to contribute to it.
One of the producers up in Ontario contacted me during the initial COVID shutdowns in April 2020. They got permission from NBC to use footage of two episodes of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (from 2001 and 2004) in that documentary. But when Cuomo issued the NY PAUSE order in March 2020, NBC's archives were shut down and locked up. They came to me for a copy direct from my VHS tapes. Gave them snapshots of the video quality, and they gave the green-light. They were able to convert the tapes and copy the footage off that they needed. And gave me some decent compensation for it too.

As you are watching, when they get to the 2000s, where the late-night hosts spent a lot of time on Bush, just know this...one of my estate sale VHS tapes ended up in that show! You never know what will happen with 50c and a Maxell blank tape with a bunch of stuff scratched out on the home-recorded label. :)
 
BTW, I didn't grow up with Johnny Carson but I love watching old clips of him. I don't care if those Carnac jokes are 40 years old and talk about Elizabeth Taylor and Jimmy Carter. They are funny and stand the test of time. Leno's Headlines were some of the best things about that show. And Letterman always had a way of making anyone laugh.
Late-night TV sucks nowadays. Am I alone in saying that? Probably not. Fallon, Kimmel, Colbert, Corden...they all seem the same. The only difference is that Corden was able to stay at 12:37am for more than one season SOLELY because of Carpool Karaoke. Even Trevor Noah isn't as great as Jon Stewart once was at the Daily Show.
 
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