The other day I found myself working at my computer, the television on in the background. I was not even paying attention to the TV really. My subconscious was half-listening to it, and even though I was focused on my workload, a comedian on the TV kept piercing through my awareness. Fifteen seconds after he would tell the joke, my subconscious brain would comprehend it, and I found myself laughing. Still not looking up from my work, still not even sure which show happened to be on the TV or what comedian happened to be speaking. Finally, after laughing for the tenth time, I thought to myself, “whomever this guy is deserves to be on TV and deserves his own talk show”. At that moment, my amused subconscious was too much for my conscious mind to bear, and I broke concentration from my workload to glance up at the television.
The TV channel had been left on NBC, which was odd since I rarely watch NBC during a weekday. I believe the show itself was either the 3rd or 4th hour of the Today show. Which is a show I honestly don’t believe I have ever watched for more than 30 seconds in the entirety of my life. The guest was none other than Jay Leno. I think he was promoting the upcoming season of Jay Leno’s Garage on CNBC. Leno was absolutely killing it, joke after joke. How ironic it was that without the bias of being fully aware of who was speaking, I had thought that this guy on the TV would be a great talk show host.
Of course, as most people probably remember, Jay Leno had been host of The Tonight Show from 1992-2009, and then again from 2010 to 2014. As a kid, I grew up watching The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. I would have bet heavily that the first article I wrote about a Tonight Show host would have been about Johnny Carson, as I was, and am, quite the fan of his incarnation of the show. Carson is still considered by most to be the greatest host in the history of the genre. I am as shocked as anyone that my first Tonight Show article winds up being about Jay Leno.
A quick summary of The Tonight Show for those unaware of the history of the show. The show began in 1954, the first host being legendary comedian Steve Allen. The show originated from Rockefeller Center in New York City, starting at 11:15pm, after your late local news. The show would last 1 hour and 45 minutes, five nights per week. This was in the beginning of television, and in many ways was experimental television. Everything was new and being tried for the first time, as this new medium was still so young. I can’t say I am too familiar with the original edition of The Tonight Show. Most of the clips I have seen have been Allen interacting with passers-by on the streets of Manhattan, and otherwise just having a television open house of wackiness as American fell asleep.
Steve Allen eventually moved on to host a Sunday night show. A battle of television variety shows against the legendary CBS television host, Ed Sullivan, and his show, Toast of the Town. With Allen having moved on to bigger and brighter things, The Tonight Show itself then moved on to its next host, Jack Paar. Again, I can’t say I am too familiar with much of the Jack Paar era, which lasted from 1957-1962. I believe he focused on longer interviews, more serious subject matter, current events and topics of the day. From what I can gather, he lived with his heart on his sleeve, and often America tuned in just to see if Paar would get through the show with his psyche intact.
Paar eventually became exhausted and left the highly-rated show. That is when Johnny Carson, a comedian that had hosted various game shows, was hired to become the host. Johnny’s show should be familiar to anyone today, as his interpretation of the late night show has become the standard for all late-night television. A band, a monologue, a desk, some guests. It’s the same format that all the late-night hosts are still using today. Carson would host the show from 1962-1992, the show was immensely popular. He would move the show from New York to Los Angeles in 1972, and shorten the show, first from 1 hour and 45 minutes down to 90 minutes, and eventually to 60 minutes. Other television networks tried to compete with Johnny Carson, but to no avail. Every attempt to dethrone Carson failed. The only thing that really lasted was ABC’s Nightline, as they did not even attempt to compete head on, but instead counter-programmed with news programming at night.
Throughout the years, Carson would employ various guest hosts for The Tonight Show as he took a myriad of vacations. Bob Newhart, Joey Bishop, Garry Shandling, Jerry Lewis, Joan Rivers, David Letterman, and Jay Leno were among the most frequent. As the duration of The Tonight Show were cut back 105 minutes to 60 minutes, NBC created other late night programming to follow The Tonight Show. The original post-Tonight show being Tomorrow with Tom Snyder. Later on, Late Night with David Letterman would take over the post-Tonight time slot.
Fast forward to 1992, Johnny Carson was retiring from hosting The Tonight Show. The heir apparent was not so apparent. David Letterman had been toiling away at 12:30am, ready to take over the reins at 11:30pm. Jay Leno had been the permanent guest host for Carson for over five years. Leno hosted most every Monday night, as well for weeks at a time when Carson was on vacation. NBC desperately wanted to hold on to both popular comedians. Both popular comedians desperately wanted to be the new permanent host of The Tonight Show. The amount of intrigue that took place to take over as host of this show is mind-blowing. There is a great book called The Late Shift by Bill Carter (which was turned into a made-for-TV movie) which I highly recommend. It documents the shenanigans in far greater detail than I can do here. There are so many twists and turns that they are almost not believable (including Jay Leno hiding in a closet to spy on a phone conversation being held by NBC executives). Suffice it to say, when the dust settled, Jay Leno was host of The Tonight Show, David Letterman moved to CBS to create The Late Show at 11:30pm. NBC was at a loss with what to do at 12:30am, eventually settling on a complete unknown Conan O’Brien, a person which most people did not think would last more than a year or two.
I was Team Dave. It seems like most people I knew were Team Dave. It seems as if most comedians were on Team Dave as well, gathered from what I would read in newspaper articles when comedians gave their opinions. Dave was cool, Jay was not. Entertainment Weekly magazine seemed to go out of their way to talk down about Leno. I don’t know why that was the case. But it just was. In fact, it still seems to be that way today. There was an innate feeling in the zeitgeist that Dave deserved The Tonight Show and meanie Jay Leno prevented him from having it. At first, Letterman would win the 11:30 ratings battle, but after a few years Leno took the crown away from Letterman and never gave it back.
Years went by, a whole decade, and during that time (as Jay dominated 11:30), Conan O’Brien built up a nice following at 12:30. Now stop me if this sounds familiar, NBC desperately wanted to hold on to both popular comedians. Both popular comedians desperately wanted to be the permanent host of The Tonight Show. There is a great book called The War For Late Night by Bill Carter (which needs to be turned into a made-for-TV movie) which I highly recommend, which documents the shenanigans in far greater detail than I can do here. There are so many twists and turns that are almost not believable.
In order to keep both stars, NBC settled on a plan in which Jay Leno would host a 10pm talk show, and Conan O’Brien would host The Tonight Show at 11:30. (Jimmy Fallon was given the reins at 12:30 to take over the Late Night program.) This scheme ended up being a failure. as Leno’s ratings at 10pm were not good, neither were Conan’s ratings at 11:30. Eventually NBC gave up on the whole thing, axing Conan, and giving The Tonight Show back to Jay Leno.
The zeitgeist once again embraced Leno’s opponent. Conan was cool, Jay was not. Jay Leno was once again the big meanie, preventing a deserving person from being host of The Tonight Show. It seems as if the universe pre-ordained that Dave and/or Conan should host The Tonight Show, but Jay Leno kept on committing the Original Sin of not letting them have the job.
I was a long-time member of Team Dave. I am someone that took a trip to New York and saw a taping of The Late Show with David Letterman in person. As I watched that 4th hour of the Today show just a few weeks ago, and Leno was making me laugh, joke after joke, it occurred to me. Mea Culpa, I was wrong. Jay was the right choice. Jay is funnier. There, I said it. He was the right choice.
I still like Dave, he’s funny too, although lately he just seems like an old guy screaming, “get off my lawn”. And heck, when it comes specifically to the interview portions of the show, I think Dave was at his best, better than Jay. But you know what, 10 minutes of Leno’s monologue is more entertaining than 60 minutes of everyone else’s entire show. Conan isn’t bad either. He had some great bits, the stuff he did with Robert Smigel was hilarious. (Side note, I don’t think Conan ever should have left New York for Los Angeles. His talk show always seemed funnier with that New York edge to it.)
But it’s time to admit it. Jay is better than Dave and deserved The Tonight Show. I was wrong, we were all wrong. Entertainment Weekly was wrong. The other comedians were wrong too. Also, Jay is funnier than Conan. He just is. It’s not a knock on the other guys. It really isn’t. Sometimes your favorite team doesn’t win the World Series, and sometimes your favorite comedian does not get to host The Tonight Show. Most of the time this happens. It’s life. It’s okay, disappointments happen. Neither Dave nor Conan deserved The Tonight Show. It’s just a job, and the funniest person was busy hosting it. If you were funnier, you probably could have hosted it too. But you are not funnier than Jay. He’s funnier, he’s better.
Leno is often criticized, people like to say his comedy is too broad. That sounds like the criticism of less funny people that are jealous of his talents. Could you imagine an owner of a company saying, “that salesman is great, but he sells too much stuff to too many people. I wish his sales were more precise and surgical like our other salesman, Dave. I just wish Jay made fewer sales like Dave or Conan.”
Leno was the more popular one with the public, almost always had better ratings. You know what, the American people were right all along. The TV critics were wrong. Jay Leno was the cool one. In hindsight, while everyone crapped on him, Leno came out night after night, made better jokes and a more watchable show. Not getting angry about it, just being a cool cat, keeping his emotions in check, and killing it night after night. I will never understand why certain people or things become “cool”. A person, an idea, a fashion trend. We all fall under the spell of it, it has a life of its own, and then we look back and wonder what in the world were we thinking. Why did I wear that? Why did we think that way? As we look back, we can see with perfect hindsight just how great Leno was and is. He was not appreciated at the time or even now.
I doubt Jay Leno has any desire to host a talk show again. Probably does not want to deal with the grind. But if he was brought back in a limited-engagement, for a week or two every 3 months. Let him be the guest host again, I believe he would dominate the ratings of the others currently occupying the 11:30 time slot.
This is not meant to be anti-Dave article. I am a still a fan of his. Letterman is a funny, funny man. He’s a great talk show host, but Jay is better.
Conan was good, he was funny too. In fact, he still is funny. This is not a zero sum situation, we don’t have to root against one person in order to like another person. Everyone can have their own unique talents, but overall Jay is just better than Conan.
Jimmy Fallon is the current host of The Tonight Show. He moved the show back to New York City. He is rather popular, although his ratings are not as good as what Leno’s ratings were. Fallon is fine, although he seems a little old to still be smashing water balloons and playing wacky games with celebrities. You’re 45 years old, man, you can grow up a little bit. Just saying. However, Fallon is indeed quite amusing. But Jay is better.
I remember first seeing Stephen Colbert as a panelist on Whose Line Is It Anyway, probably back in the late 90’s. He was really funny on that. But as talk show hosts go, guess what, Jay is better.
Jimmy Kimmel was extremely entertaining as host of Win Ben Stein’s Money. No contest though, Jay Leno is much better, much funnier, much more entertaining as a talk show host.
Johnny Carson has been and forever will be the King of Late Night Television. That is undisputed, but what is also undisputed is that Jay Leno is in 2nd place. David Letterman, Steve Allen, and everyone else can duke it out for 3rd place.
Jay is better than my guy, your guy, and anyone not name Johnny. If he ever were to come out of retirement, he would still be better than anyone out there today.
Mea Culpa, Jay was better.
Mea Culpa, Jay is better.
– MTR
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