The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Spoiler alert. One of the subplots to the season six premiere of Mad Men — timed to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays at the end of 1967 — placed one of Peggy’s ad campaigns in peril thanks to a stand-up comedian’s performance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. …
The calendar may have read April 1 when Jay Leno opened his Tonight Show monologue with an April Fool’s crack about his relationship with his employers at NBC, but after midnight, ’twas April 2 when Leno gave Jimmy Fallon the most seamless transition possible in video and in song, dueting …
Of course, Jimmy Kimmel has opinions about the latest chapter that is the ongoing saga of NBC screwing around with The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Kimmel has impersonated Leno for an entire episode of his own late-night show, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, which just moved up a half-hour in …
Twenty-one years ago, NBC announced an orderly transition for The Tonight Show, handing over the hosting reins from icon Johnny Carson to his permanent guest host, Jay Leno. Carson’s own favorite, Late Night host David Letterman, bolted to CBS. In 2004, NBC vowed to do better, and announced an orderly …
On Oct. 1, 2012 — the 50th anniversary of Johnny Carson‘s debut on The Tonight Show on NBC — a military base in California turned up footage long thought lost of the legendary late late-night TV host. The find is just one of the more remarkable events happening this fall …
For the first time in 13 years, Conan O’Brien paid a visit to David Letterman’s TV talk show. O’Brien took over NBC’s Late Night show from Letterman when the latter bolted to CBS for an 11:35 p.m. slot, all because NBC chose Jay Leno over Letterman. Now O’Brien knows that …
When you have a couple of hours to spare, please spare yourself the time to learn (or re-learn) your history of television. Who knows? It might come in handy the next time our world sees a sea-change in technology. Like. Oh. Say when the Internet becomes the medium and the …
A great new documentary, Johnny Carson: King of Late Night, debuts tonight on PBS. Check your local listings for times and repeat airings. Before you watch it, though, treat yourself to some outtakes. Drew Carey and Ray Romano remember their debuts on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. In this …
Can you separate the Jim Norton you hear on Opie & Anthony’s radio show from the Jim Norton you see on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show from the Jim Norton you may have read about in either of his best-selling books of essays? Of course. In “Despicable,” Norton’s first CD in …
Kathleen Madigan was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this week. Not the same episode as President Barack Obama. But close. Very close. So close that Madigan still felt comfortable expressing her opinion on Obama’s job performance, as well as the Republican challengers. Madigan also makes a compelling case …
