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.
