January 3, 1989: "The Arsenio Hall Show" Premieres

January 3, 1989: The Arsenio Hall Show premieres in syndication. It was a new way of doing a late-night talk show.

A native of the Cleveland suburbs -- he liked to joke that he drove into the Los Angeles studio that morning from Cleveland -- Arsenio had become famous as a good friend of Eddie Murphy, acting as his "second banana" in the 1988 film Coming to America. Previously, he had been the announcer/sidekick for Alan Thicke on his late-night talk show, Thicke of the Night, in the 1983-84 season.

That show didn't do well, so Arsenio knew what not to do when Paramount Pictures gave him the chance to be the 1st black host of a late-night show. He knew The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was not appealing to black fans, and there was an entire generation of young people who were waiting to see who would succeed Johnny when he retired: His regular guest host, Jay Leno; or the host of the show that followed, Late Night with David Letterman.

So Arsenio aimed his show at young people, and made no bones about it bein back-oriented. As he said on the celebration of his 1,000th show:

I've had black singers. I've had white singers. I've had white singers who think they black. I've had black singers who think they're white. I've had male singers who think they're female singers. It's music's United Nations!

But he wasn't only going for the young audience. Carson had said that the guest he most wanted to get, but never did, was Elizabeth Taylor. Arsenio got her. Johnny did, shortly thereafter, but Arsenio got her first.

The Arsenio Hall Show is best remembered for 3 episodes: Basketball star Magic Johnson, appearing on November 8, 1991, the day after his HIV diagnosis; Mayor Tom Bradley, during the Los Angeles riots, April 30, 1992; and Bill and Hillary Clinton, the day after the California Primary, June 3, 1992.

It is also remembered for the Cleveland Browns-inspired little bleacher section by the band, the Dawg Pound, and the accompanying fist-pumps and "Woofs"; and for Arsenio's "Things that make you go, 'Hmmmm... '"

Carson retired in 1992. Famously, Leno got the job. Letterman was furious, and so were his fans. Hall thought he was ready to become the new King of Late Night, and appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly magazine with the headline, "I'm gonna kick Leno's ass." And with the Clintons' appearance, just 1 week after Leno took over The Tonight Show, it looked like he might.

Earlier in 1992, former Saturday Night Live castmember Dennis Miller began hosting The Dennis Miller Show, in syndication. The hope was that Miller, rather than Leno, Letterman or Hall, would be the successor to the soon-to-retire Carson as "The King of Late Night."

His show lasted 6 months. As it turned out, while he could be funny on SNL for 7 minutes, he couldn’t do 44 minutes (an hour minus commercials) of monologue and interviews. The experience embittered him, and turned him into a very nasty conservative.

The following year, with Letterman's NBC contract running out, CBS snapped him up. And Fox started The Chevy Chase Show. Now, Jay, Dave, Arsenio and Chevy were all competing against each other in the 11:35 to 12:35 (Eastern Time) time slot. And Dave took the ratings lead, taking a big chunk of the older contingent of Tonight Show fans who liked Johnny but not Jay, and a big chunk of the white contingent of Arsenio's fans. Chevy was the 1st casualty, as his show was mocked as the worst in late-night history.

So Arsenio went from 3rd and next-to-last to 3rd and last. He rolled the dice: On February 7, 1994, he announced that he would be featuring Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan had been reaching young black men for 30 years by that point, but he had been appealing to reverse racism and anti-Semitism, so Arsenio got ripped in the media for this.

He decided to balance it out, booking gospel singer Kirk Franklin, and promised that he would give them both equal time on the show, which aired on February 25. But he caught so much flak for booking Farrakhan at all that he decided to "bump" Franklin, and did the whole hour with Farrakhan. TV critics were in agreement that Arsenio went soft on him.

Paramount made an announcement that the show was not in imminent danger of cancellation. But Arsenio announced on April 18, 1994, that he was not going to continue the show, simply saying "it's time." The last episode aired on May 27, 1994.

A funny thing happened after Arsenio confirmed his failure to "kick Leno's ass": Most of his fans went over to Jay. Once Arsenio left the air, Dave never led Jay in the ratings again. Eventually, Arsenio and Jay made up and restored their friendship.

After staying out of the spotlight for a while to raise his son, in 2012, Arsenio won on The Celebrity Apprentice, raising money for the Magic Johnson Foundation. In the 2013-14 season, a new Arsenio Hall Show ran in syndication. In 2021, he reprised his role as Semmi to Murphy's Akeem in Coming 2 America.

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January 3, 1989 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was in the middle of its Playoffs. There were 10 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 109-107 in overtime at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Charlotte Hornets, 109-106 at the Charlotte Coliseum.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons, 123-104 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Indiana Pacers, 119-98 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 126-121 at the Chicago Stadium. Michael Jordan scored 41 points.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Utah Jazz, 104-102 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena was converted into the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.) Karl Malone scored 35 points in defeat for the Jazz. Hakeem Olajuwon led the Rockets with 26 points.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Denver Nuggets, 129-105 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the Dallas Mavericks, 123-96 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Miami Heat, 119-95 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 116-106 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Dale Ellis of the Sonics led all scorers on the night with 42 points.

And there were 2 games in the NHL. The New York Islanders lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1 at the Nassau Coliseum. And the Calgary Flames beat the Quebec Nordiques, 5-1 at the Saddledome in Calgary.