The Late Night Distemper of Our Times →
Fantastic article from WFMU about late-night chaos throughout history. Among other things, it details how NBC has, in fact, been fucking up The Tonight Show since 1954. They ordered Steve Allen to leave the show he created, angered Jack Paar enough that he quit the show mid-episode, and, of course, famously installed Jay Leno against Johnny Carson’s and pretty everyone else’s wishes. At one point, they actually turned the show into a game show.
And yet, despite NBC’s best efforts, The Tonight Show remained a cultural institution, simply because the hosts were just that good. Until recently, anyway. The network’s finally won — twenty years from now, they won’t have to deal with any more comics saying “I grew up dreaming of hosting The Tonight Show.”
