The Tonight Show

I don't see much difference between Fallon owning the show and Lorne Michaels owning it. Michaels now owns (or shares ownership of Tonight and Late Night). Michaels' loyalty may have been to NBC, but he doesn't have much to be loyal to Comcast for. They need him more than he needs them. And now he controls 11.5 hours of airtime each week (more if you count the specials and the SNL re-air on Saturdays at 10 p.m.). So it isn't like NBC has the cards when it comes to late night.

 

Nonsense. Letterman's disengagement came much later. He ran off Robert Morton three years into the CBS run, which would suggest he was still pretty hands-on with things then.

The surrender came years later, when he realized he wasn't going to beat "Tonight." The combination of the ratings issues, fatherhood and age led to the disconnect that it apparent now.

 

He's certainly got more edge so far than Leno did.

 

“There’s been quiet talk behind the scenes for months that Dave will have Jay Leno on as a guest,” one insider said. “(Letterman’s) producers waited until Fallon debuted (on ‘Tonight’), give him space out of respect, but are now ready to pull out all the stops.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/confidential/letterman-leno-steal-fallon-thunder-article-1.1622031

 

Yeah, that's not the least bit funny or creative. How about some bad headlines, Jay?

 

Carson lovers, be sure to watch this. Get past the Julie Andrews bit and you'll find some pure off-camera Carson.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jOtOsi9NcVY

 

This is the best breakdown of this topic that I've read. Carson and Letterman are, what I call "tortured geniuses". Flip on the light and the camera, they can't do no wrong, but their perfectionism and attitude/behavior was one that most were willing to tolerate, and in the case of NBC, they wanted nothing to do with.

Strong personalities have strong, to the point of irrational levels of, ego.

The more I think and read about Leno, the more I understand him and his role with The Tonight Show.

I thought it was great that Joan Rivers made an appearance in Fallon's debut. That exile was long enough for her.

On Fallon, I didn't watch much of his work on SNL or on Late Night. All I knew is that the Roots was his house band, and I would catch snippets of his best skits on YouTube. I don't I've ever seen a debut week like Fallon pulled off. I enjoyed it.

 

If Fallon can encourage his guests to stick around, I hope it might resemble these gems:

http://youtu.be/cLiEVvGMjhk?t=48s
http://youtu.be/q5_V9RT8aR8

 

Another favorite Carson, on one of the rare nights Doc was sitting in the second chair.

 

An All-Timer. Doc keeps hitting them out of the park.

 

Just catching up on my magazine reading, and read this take that hits the mark perfectly for me. (Some of you might need to set your opinion of Jones aside for a moment, if possible)

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/jimmy-fallon

The key graf:

 

Screw that. I hope it's like this: