September 27, 1954: "The Tonight Show" Premieres

Steve Allen on the 1st broadcast

September 27, 1954: Having already had success with the early-morning program Today, a.k.a. The Today Show, NBC premieres Tonight, a.k.a. The Tonight Show. It sets the standard for all late-night network shows to follow, with an opening monologue with jokes about what's going on in the world at the moment, comedians, musical performances, and a host behind a desk talking to a guest in a chair.

There would also be an announcer/sidekick and an orchestra, and both the announcer and the leader of the orchestra would occasionally banter with the host.

The original host was comedian and songwriter Steve Allen. At the time, what would later be called a "television special" was called a "television spectacular." Allen explained to the audience what Tonight was going to be: "It's not a 'spectacular.' It's going to be more of a 'monotonous!'' He also says that the location for broadcast, the Hudson Theatre (which still stands, at 139 West 44th Street, right off Times Square), was chosen because, "It sleeps about 800 people."

The show began at 11:30 PM, U.S. Eastern Time, and ran an hour and a half, to 1:00 AM, at which point the network would go off the air. In 1957, Allen left, and was replaced by Jack Paar, and the show was expanded to an hour and 45 minutes. Paar had some disputes with the network, and left and returned in 1960, before leaving for good in 1962.

Johnny Carson was brought on as host, the show was cut back to 90 minutes, and for 30 years, he dominated late-night TV. He proved so popular -- How popular was he? Well, for one thing, "How hot was it?" and jokes like it appear to have started on his version of The Tonight Show -- that when he asked for something, he always got it, for NBC's fear of losing him.

He wanted more money? He was paid more, with inflation factored in, than any performer in the history of American network television. He wanted to form his own production company, so that he could preserve every show, after finding out that NBC had taped over the 1st 10 years of his version to cut costs? The network couldn't stop him.

He wanted to cut the show from 90 minutes to 60 in 1980? It was cut. He wanted to work only 4 days a week instead of 5, and then only 3, leaving Tuesdays and eventually also Mondays to feature what NBC called The Best of Carson? Done. He wanted to go to England for 2 weeks, because he was a tennis fan and wanted to see Wimbledon live? NBC was already broadcasting Wimbledon, so this was cross-promotion, and they were all for it.

He wanted to take more vacations, forcing more Best of Carson? They accepted it, and just sat there and took it when, in the 1980s, he joked about the President taking vacations, too, at his ranch outside Santa Barbara, saying, "Ronald Reagan spends more time in California than I do!" (The show had been moved from New York to Los Angeles -- well, Burbank, a place Johnny liked to joke about -- in 1972.)

The juggernaut came to an end, and, tired of it, Johnny -- one of the few celebrities in America whose first name, only, could be mentioned, and everyone knew exactly who you were talking about -- retired in 1992. After years of guest-hosts, and hinting that his successor would be either David Letterman or Joan Rivers, in 1987, Jay Leno became his permanent fill-in, and the regular host starting in 1992.

It was often said that, once Johnny Carson joked about something, it was safe for everyone else to joke about it. But he was never malicious about it. Leno was a bit edgier, trying jokes that Carson never would, pushing the envelope. When Johnny bombed a few jokes in a row, and got booed, he would go into a tap-dance, while the orchestra played "Tea for Two," and the audience always cheered this. But if Jay bombed, and got booed, he would wiggle his fingers, and say, "Come on, come on, come on," like he was challenging the studio audience, all 500 or so strong, to a fight.

On the Friday night of his 1st week, Jay brought on Blue Man Group, a very bizarre act that the studio audience still went nuts over. When they were done, Jay walked over, and said, borrowing a line from a series of Oldsmobile commercials of the time, "This is not your father's Tonight Show!" (I can vouch for that: My father loved Johnny, but he never warmed up to Jay, and stopped watching.)

In 2009, Leno retired, and The Tonight Show was handed over to Conan O'Brien, who had taken over the following show, Late Night, in 1993 when Letterman moved from NBC to CBS. Former Saturday Night Live castmember Jimmy Fallon replaced O'Brien as host of Late Night. O'Brien bombed, and NBC begged Leno to come back. After 9 months, Conan was canned, and Jay was reinstated.

Leno ruled the late-night roost for another 4 years, finally retiring of his own accord in 2014. Fallon was promoted, and took The Tonight Show back to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where Carson had hosted it from 1962 to 1972. It remains the most popular late-night show on American TV.

Steve Allen died in 2000, Jack Paar in 2004, Johnny Carson in 2005. As of September 27, 2022, Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien are still alive.

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September 27, 1954 was a Monday. Baseball was between the end of its regular season and the start of the World Series. Football was in midweek: Monday Night Football was 16 years away. And both the NBA and the NHL were out of season. So there were no scores on this historic day. 

February 11, 1960: Jack Paar Walks Off "The Tonight Show"

February 11, 1960: Jack Paar, host of The Tonight Show on NBC, walks off the stage, intending never to return. It was the biggest scandal American television had seen since Arthur Godfrey fired Julius La Rosa 7 years earlier.

The Tonight Show had begun in 1954, with Steve Allen as host. He built a career as a comedian and a game-show host, before being named host of The Tonight Show on July 29, 1957. His original announcer was Franklin Pangborn, famous as a comedic actor in the 1930s, but he was soon fired, for "not showing spontaneous enthusiasm." His health may have been a factor, as he died a year later. He was replaced by NBC journalist Hugh Downs, who stayed with Paar to the end.

It was Paar, born in Canton, Ohio in 1918, who made The Tonight Show an entertainment juggernaut. He strove for compelling conversation as well as humor. His guests tended to be literate raconteurs such as Peter Ustinov, or intellectuals such as William F. Buckley Jr., as opposed to just actors or other performers selling their current work, while Paar earned a reputation as a superb storyteller, with what became a catchphrase, "I kid you not."

The show was not broadcast live. Rather, it was recorded on kinescope, then on videotape, for broadcast at 11:30 PM. On February 10, 1960, Paar told this joke:

An English lady is visiting Switzerland. She asks about the location of the "W.C." The Swiss, thinking she is referring to the "Wayside Chapel," leaves her a note that said, in part, "The W.C. is situated nine miles from the room that you will occupy... It is capable of holding about 229 people, and it is only open on Sunday and Thursday... It may interest you to know that my daughter was married in the W.C., and it was there that she met her husband... I shall be delighted to reserve the best seat for you, if you wish, where you will be seen by everyone."

NBC censors refused to broadcast that joke, because, for most Americans, "W.C." meant "water closet," which meant "room with a toilet in it." They replaced that section of the show with news coverage. That was bad enough. For Paar, the dealbreaker was that they didn't tell him about it beforehand.

So, the next night, February 11, Paar told Downs he was quitting the show. Downs thought he was joking. But, sitting at his desk, Paar said this:

I am leaving The Tonight Show. There must be a better way of making a living than this. There's a way of entertaining people without being constantly involved in some form of controversy which is on me all the time. It's rough on my wife and child, and I don't need it.

I like the National Broadcasting Company. They've been swell to me. And I've been pretty wonderful to them. I took over a show with 60 stations. There is now 158. This show is sold out. It's the highest, I think, money-producer for this network. And I believe I was let down by this network at a time when I could have used their help. You have been peachy to me always.

And then Paar got up, and walked off the stage. Downs later said he still expected Paar to return, but the abrupt departure left Downs to finish the broadcast himself.

Under almost any other circumstances, that would have been the end of it. NBC would have accepted that Paar was gone, replaced him the next night, banned him from the network for life, and moved on. But The Tonight Show wasn't just The Tonight Show. Most people weren't even calling it The Tonight Show. They were calling it The Jack Paar Show. And it was, as Paar said, their highest money-producing show. Could NBC air The Tonight Show without Jack Paar?

For a few days, while, they tried, but the ratings really dropped off. But both the network and Paar seemed to proud to compromise. (After all, NBC was the "Peacock Network," using the peacock, a bird often said to be "proud," to symbolize color programming.) Finally, Paar's friend, comedian Jonathan Winters, talked him into going back.

On March 7, 1960, Paar strolled on stage, struck a pose, and said, "As I was saying before I was interrupted...". After the audience erupted in applause, Paar continued, "I believe my last words were that there must be a better way of making a living than this. Well, I've looked... and there isn't." That line produced a burst of laughter from the audience.

He then went on to explain his departure with typical frankness: "Leaving the show was a childish and perhaps emotional thing. I have been guilty of such action in the past, and will perhaps be again. I'm totally unable to hide what I feel. It is not an asset in show business, but I shall do the best I can to amuse and entertain you, and let other people speak freely, as I have in the past."

Paar continued to host through 1960, having both major-part Presidential candidates, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, as guests. He stayed on through 1961, and into 1962.

But the show was an hour and 45 minutes, and doing that 5 times a week proved too much. He made a deal with NBC to not do the show on Monday nights, and reruns were aired instead. He also cut Fridays, so there were only 3 new shows a week. Finally, on March 30, 1962, Paar gave up for good, this time peacefully.

On October 1, after a few months of trying out guest hosts, NBC handed The Tonight Show over to Johnny Carson. They cut the show back to 1 hour and 30 minutes, eventually to 1 hour in 1980. And, like Paar, he would drop new Monday shows, and also new Tuesday shows.

NBC didn't want to lose Paar to another network, so they offered him The Jack Paar Program, in prime time on Friday nights. One night, he had having Liberace and rising boxer Cassius Clay, the future Muhammad Ali, on at the same time. Clay even recited his signature poetry while Liberace accompanied him on piano. He traveled to other countries with film crews, for broadcast later, interviewing such personalities as Albert Schweitzer.

On November 15, 1963, he showed film of The Beatles, the 1st time they ever appeared on American TV. He joked about their long hair, their sound, and their lyrics (in the clip, they were singing, "She Loves You," with its "Yeah, yeah, yeah"). His audience, not full of teenagers, went along with it. Two months later, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" hit Number 1, but Paar never had them on the show again. (In a 1956 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, he mocked Elvis Presley. So it wasn't just that he didn't like The Beatles: He didn't like rock and roll.)

The Jack Paar Program aired until 1965. In 1973, ABC aired Jack Paar Tonite on Saturday nights, but after 11 years of Carson, and other talk shows, including a successful one by Paar's former writer Dick Cavett, Paar seemed passé, and the show was canceled after 31 installments.

He only appeared on Carson's version of The Tonight Show twice. In 1992, after 30 years, 10 in New York and 20 in Los Angeles (well, Burbank), Carson retired, and Jay Leno was named the host. Later in the year, Leno took the show back to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York for a week, and invited Paar to be his first guest. Of the chair he was sitting in, he told Leno, "Mrs. Roosevelt sat in this chair. JFK sat in this chair. Dr. King sat in this chair. Never let Madonna sit in this chair!" The next night, Leno, his deference to his predecessor apparently finished, let Madonna sit in that chair.

Jack Paar died in 2004. He was 85 years old.

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February 11, 1960 was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 3 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Syracuse Nationals, 116-109 at the Onondaga County War Memorial (now the Upstate Medical University Arena) in Syracuse, New York.

* The Philadelphia Warriors beat the St. Louis Hawks, 139-120 at the Philadelphia Civic Center. Wilt Chamberlain did not play for the Warriors in this game. Joe Graboski did, and led all scorers on the night with 36 points.

* And the Cincinnati Royals beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 111-108 at the Minneapolis Armory. The next season, the Lakers moved to Los Angeles.

There was 1 game played in the NHL: The Boston Bruins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Boston Garden.