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163-607: Dangerfield began his career working as a stand-up comic at the Fantasy Lounge in New York City. His act grew in popularity as he became a mainstay on late-night talk shows throughout the 1960s and 1970s, eventually developing into a headlining act on the Las Vegas casino circuit. His breakout film role came as a boorish nouveau riche golfer in the ensemble sports comedy Caddyshack (1980). He since starred in

326-442: A marijuana smoker; the book's original title was My Love Affair with Marijuana . Although Jewish , Dangerfield referred to himself as an atheist during an interview with Howard Stern on May 25, 2004, about four months before his death. Dangerfield added during the interview that he was a "logical" atheist, adding: "We're gorillas - does a gorilla come back?" In the same interview, he lamented that he "suffered greatly for being

489-525: A 33-year career on late-night TV, and was succeeded the following September by Stephen Colbert—who departed from Comedy Central and The Colbert Report to host the program. On August 6, 2015, Jon Stewart also retired from The Daily Show (being succeeded by fellow cast member and South African comedian Trevor Noah ), joining The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as an executive producer and occasional contributor. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert achieved critical and ratings successes for its satire of

652-457: A Carson competitor, CBS's The Pat Sajak Show , lasted less than 16 months, debuting in 1989 and being canceled in 1990. ABC opted not to compete against Carson with a late-night talk show; in 1980, it produced a pilot of a Richard Dawson -hosted show called Bizarre (it instead went to series on Showtime with John Byner as host) and, for two years, carried the weekly sketch comedy series Fridays . ABC instead counterprogrammed Carson with

815-597: A battle with network executives, leading to her being replaced by Arsenio Hall . Hall performed extremely well among viewers in the 18–49 demographic; however, Fox had already greenlit The Wilton North Report to replace The Late Show , leading to Hall hosting his own late-night talk show in syndication after The Late Show was canceled in 1988. The Late Show continued with several unknown hosts until its cancellation. Hall's syndicated show, The Arsenio Hall Show , began in syndication in 1988, becoming more popular among younger viewers than Carson. The last network attempt at

978-598: A change of pace from the comedy persona that made him famous, he played an abusive father in Natural Born Killers in a scene for which he wrote or rewrote all of his own lines. Dangerfield was rejected for membership in the Motion Picture Academy in 1995 by the head of the academy's Actors Section, Roddy McDowall . After fan protests, the academy reconsidered, but Dangerfield then refused to accept membership. In March 1995, Dangerfield

1141-528: A character who is essentially a parody of Dangerfield's onstage persona. He also appeared as himself in an episode of Home Improvement . Dangerfield appears in the 2000 Adam Sandler film Little Nicky , playing Lucifer , the father of Satan ( Harvey Keitel ) and grandfather of Nicky (Sandler). Dangerfield was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution , which has displayed one of his trademark white shirts and red ties. When he handed

1304-465: A complete version of " For Sentimental Reasons ". Cooke had been cut off four weeks earlier during a live performance of " You Send Me " as the show's allotted time expired, causing an outrage among television audiences. Sullivan rebooked Cooke for the December 1 show to overwhelming success. Between 1966 and 1971, Jim Henson performed some of his Muppet characters on the show. The characters made

1467-450: A concert series, The Midnight Special , that aired Friday nights, and a low-cost talk show, The Tomorrow Show , hosted by Tom Snyder , that aired Mondays through Thursdays. Both shows aired immediately following Carson's Tonight Show at 1:00 a.m. ET . Tomorrow was different from The Tonight Show . For instance, the show originally featured no studio audience, while Snyder would conduct one-on-one interviews (Snyder's guest list

1630-513: A demanding rider . In late 1963, Sullivan and his entourage happened also to be passing through Heathrow and witnessed how the Beatles ' fans greeted the group on their return from Stockholm, where they had performed a television show as warmup band to local stars Suzie and Lill Babs . Sullivan was intrigued, telling his entourage it was the same thing as Elvis all over again. He initially offered Beatles manager Brian Epstein top dollar for

1793-458: A format that migrated to television from radio, where it had been the dominant form of light entertainment during most of the old-time radio era. The Pepsodent Show , which opened each weekly episode with host Bob Hope 's rapid-fire, topical and often political observational comedy , was a particularly important predecessor to the late-night format. Early television variety shows included The Ed Sullivan Show (originally known as Toast of

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1956-469: A former RKO movie theater at 2248 Broadway (81st Street). One Ed Sullivan Show was broadcast on August 22, 1954, from the new studio, but it was mostly used for one-time-only specials such as Rodgers and Hammerstein 's March 31, 1957 Cinderella . (The facility was later acquired by TeleTape Productions and became the first studio where the PBS children's program Sesame Street was produced.) CBS Studio 72

2119-452: A germ-infested world on his own", lived with Dangerfield until Ancis's death in 2001. Dangerfield resented being confused with his on-stage persona. Although his wife Joan described him as "classy, gentlemanly, sensitive and intelligent," he was often treated like the loser he played and documented this in his 2004 autobiography, It's Not Easy Bein' Me: A Lifetime of No Respect but Plenty of Sex and Drugs . In this work, he also discussed being

2282-514: A guest artist. Late-night talk shows are a widely-viewed format in the United States, but are not as prominent in other parts of the world. Shows that loosely resemble the format air in other countries, but generally air weekly as opposed to the nightly airings of those in the United States. They also generally air in time slots considered to be prime time in the United States. Late-night talk shows had their genesis in early variety shows,

2445-472: A host of, a slated replacement show (see below). Many late-night talk shows went off the air in the days following the September 11 attacks of 2001, while their networks aired round-the-clock news coverage. Letterman was the first to return on September 17, addressing the situation in an opening monologue. The show was not presented in its normal jovial manner, and featured Dan Rather , Regis Philbin , and

2608-632: A later date. The heart surgery took place on August 24, 2004. Upon entering the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center , he uttered another characteristic one-liner when asked how long he would be hospitalized: "If all goes well, about a week. If not, about an hour and a half." Dangerfield died on October 5, 2004. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles . On

2771-415: A leisurely ten minutes or so. Now they do two or three minutes. And in those early days I talked too much. Watching these kines I cringe. I look up at me talking away and I say "You fool! Keep quiet!" But I just keep on talking. I've learned how to keep my mouth shut. The show enjoyed phenomenal popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. As it had occurred with the annual telecasts of The Wizard of Oz in

2934-461: A man in his neighborhood. The man would pay Rodney a nickel and kiss him for five minutes. After Cohen's father abandoned the family, his mother moved him and his sister to Kew Gardens, Queens , where Dangerfield attended Richmond Hill High School , graduating in 1939. To support himself and his family, he delivered groceries and sold newspapers and ice cream at the beach. At the age of 15, he began to write for stand-up comedians while performing at

3097-410: A modified version of that show's set. After leaving NBC, O'Brien began hosting his new late night talk show, Conan , on TBS on November 8, 2010, after the non-compete clause in his NBC contract had lapsed. In March 2013, news broke that NBC was expected to part ways with Leno for good after his contract expired in 2014, clearing the way for Fallon (whose tenure at Late Night had found success with

3260-473: A musical performance from Tori Amos . Politically Incorrect also resumed on September 17 and immediately drew controversy due to remarks Maher and a guest ( Dinesh D'Souza ) made concerning the "coward" label given to the terrorists by President George W. Bush . The Tonight Show returned the following night, featuring John McCain and a performance from Crosby, Stills, and Nash . After NBC's placeholding run of SCTV at 1:35 a.m. came to an end after

3423-607: A new prime time talk show on NBC, The Jay Leno Show . It aired on weeknights at 10   p.m. ET/PT before late local news and The Tonight Show , and featured sketches and elements carried over from his tenure. The program faced dismal ratings, which also led to complaints from NBC affiliates that it was impacting the viewership of their late local newscasts. On January 7, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that The Jay Leno Show would be moved to 11:35 p.m. and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien would be moved from 11:35 p.m. to 12:05 a.m. effective March 1, 2010,

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3586-441: A note which the host read live on air. The group's last appearance on Sullivan's program was via prerecorded promotional clips of their songs " Two of Us " and " Let It Be ", broadcast on the show on the first day of March in 1970. Although both videos were recorded in late January 1969, the delay was due to the band's dissatisfaction with the tedious Let It Be album sessions and the group's impending break-up . In all probability,

3749-424: A perfectionist"; he also said "My mother never hugged me, kissed me, nothing, okay? Other kids would go to sleep listening to a fairy tale . I went to sleep with a fight downstairs, listening to a guy yelling 'Enough! Enough!'" On November 22, 2001 (his 80th birthday), Dangerfield suffered a mild stroke while doing stand-up on The Tonight Show . While Dangerfield was performing, host Jay Leno noticed something

3912-432: A plethora of fill-in hosts for the next four years. Even MTV entered the late-night contest when it debuted The Jon Stewart Show , hosted by Jon Stewart , which ran until 1995. Letterman initially won the late-night ratings battle but fell behind Leno in 1995; Leno generally remained in first place until first leaving Tonight in 2009. To combat NBC's Late Night , CBS gave Letterman's studio Worldwide Pants control of

4075-801: A regular on The Dean Martin Show and appeared on The Tonight Show more than 70 times. In 1969, Dangerfield teamed up with Anthony Bevacqua to build the Dangerfield's comedy club in New York City, a venue where he could perform on a regular basis without having to constantly travel. The club remained in continuous operation until October 14, 2020. Dangerfield's was the venue for several HBO comedy specials starring such stand-up comics as Jerry Seinfeld , Jim Carrey , Tim Allen , Roseanne Barr , Robert Townsend , Jeff Foxworthy , Sam Kinison , Bill Hicks , Rita Rudner , Andrew Dice Clay , Louie Anderson , Dom Irrera , and Bob Saget . In 1978, Dangerfield

4238-554: A result, unlike Broadway Open House , Tonight proved to be a resounding success. The success of the show led Allen to receive another show, entitled The Steve Allen Show , which would compete with The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday nights. Meanwhile, hosting duties of The Tonight Show were split between Allen and Ernie Kovacs ; Kovacs had defected to NBC from his own late-night show on the then-crumbling DuMont Television Network . Both Allen and Kovacs departed from Tonight in 1957 in order to focus on Allen's Sunday night show. After

4401-410: A return to late-night television with a new syndicated program from Sony Pictures Television , Channel Surf with Craig Ferguson ; as opposed to The Late Late Show and other late-night shows, the program was pitched as having a specific focus on television as a topic, and air in a half-hour timeslot. James Corden hosted his final episode of The Late Late Show on April 27, 2023, in a departure that

4564-462: A satire of opinion-based cable news programs, featuring Colbert portraying a narcissistic pundit reminiscent of Fox News hosts such as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity , among other influences. Jake Sasseville entered the late-night arena after a self-syndication campaign got him clearance on several ABC affiliates by local general managers in 2008. The Edge with Jake Sasseville aired after Jimmy Kimmel Live! in some markets, reaching

4727-472: A season, such as his "Little Italian Mouse" puppet sidekick Topo Gigio , who debuted December 9, 1962, and ventriloquist Señor Wences debuted December 31, 1950. While most of the episodes aired live from New York City, the show also aired live on occasion from other nations, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan. For many years, Ed Sullivan was a national event each Sunday evening and

4890-461: A settlement with NBC that allowed him to leave The Tonight Show on January 22, 2010, ending his affiliation with NBC after 22 years. Leno began his second tenure as host of The Tonight Show on March 1, 2010, after the 2010 Winter Olympics , but only after major controversy . Leno's second Tonight iteration was taped at NBC's Studio 11 in Burbank, the former home of The Jay Leno Show , with

5053-755: A similar show on NBC called Fifteen with Faye for about six months before committing the CBS show. Emerson's show was distinguished from her competition on NBC in that she was more openly political; Emerson, an avowed Democrat , regularly interviewed political and intellectual figures on her show (among them Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ) in addition to a smattering of vaudeville and variety acts. The first version of The Tonight Show , Tonight Starring Steve Allen , debuted in 1954 on NBC . The show created many modern talk show staples including an opening monologue, celebrity interviews, audience participation, comedy bits, and musical performances; it also had some holdovers from

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5216-486: A single show but the Beatles manager had a better idea – he wanted exposure for his clients: the Beatles would instead appear three times on the show, for only a minimal fee, but receive top billing and two spots (opening and closing) on each show. The Beatles appeared on three consecutive Sundays in February 1964 to great anticipation and fanfare as " I Want to Hold Your Hand " had swiftly risen to No. 1 in

5379-459: A string of comedy films such as Easy Money (1983), Back to School (1986), Rover Dangerfield (1991), Ladybugs (1992), and Meet Wally Sparks (1997). He took a rare dramatic role as an abusive father in Oliver Stone 's satirical crime film Natural Born Killers (1994). Over his career he released seven comedy albums including his iconic album No Respect (1980) which won

5542-530: A successful news magazine entitled Nightline , beginning in 1980. Beginning on August 22, 1988, NBC concluded its main programming for the day with a half-hour entry, Later , hosted by NBC sportscaster Bob Costas and airing at 1:35 a.m. Eastern, after Letterman, Mondays through Thursdays. It originated from 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York and bore a strong resemblance to an earlier NBC late-night favorite, Tom Snyder's Tomorrow, due to its lack of

5705-454: A surprise appearance to thank Dangerfield for his years of support. Dangerfield was married twice to Joyce Indig, a singer. They married on October 3, 1951, divorced in 1961, remarried in 1963, and divorced again in 1970, although Rodney lived largely separated from his family. Together, the couple had two children: son Brian Roy (born 1960) and daughter Melanie Roy-Friedman, born after her parents remarried. From 1993 until his death, Dangerfield

5868-456: A total of 25 appearances. Henson's Muppets were introduced on The Ed Sullivan Show on September 18, 1966. Sullivan introduced the characters as "Jim, uh ... Newsom's puppets." The act featured a small ball of fur growing into the Rock and Roll Monster (performed by Jim Henson , Jerry Nelson , and Frank Oz ) with three heads and six arms lip-syncing to the unreleased song "Rock It to Me" by

6031-599: A total of 35 million homes, despite the network's concerns. The show went off the air in 2010. Another syndicated show that earned significant clearance in the late 2000s was Comics Unleashed , which was produced by Byron Allen 's Entertainment Studios , and had still been cleared by some stations (such as WCBS-TV and other CBS owned-and-operated stations ) as late as 2013 without any new episodes having been produced. Scottish native Craig Ferguson succeeded Kilborn as host of The Late Late Show in 2005, renaming it The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson . TBS entered

6194-516: A traditional studio-based format. Politically Incorrect was canceled due to low ratings in the summer of 2002, after which Maher joined HBO and began hosting the similarly formatted weekly series Real Time . ABC then tapped Comedy Central personality Jimmy Kimmel to host a more traditional late-night program, Jimmy Kimmel Live! . From its beginning in 2003 until early 2013, the show aired following Nightline on ABC's late-night lineup. With Nightline past its prime in audience size due to

6357-552: A week before the show began.) For the next season, the only late-night program on the networks was NBC's Nightcap , a preview of the next day's programming hosted by Mary Kay Stearns . The first late-night television talk show was The Faye Emerson Show , hosted by actress Faye Emerson . It began airing on CBS on October 24, 1949, in local East Coast markets before the network moved the 15-minute show, which regularly aired up to 11pm, nationwide in March 1950. In 1950, Emerson also hosted

6520-466: A week with guest hosts and "Best of Carson" reruns the other two nights. From 1983 to 1986, Rivers and Brenner served as Carson's permanent guest hosts. Many in 1986, including top executives at NBC, thought it was possible that Johnny Carson would retire after reaching his 25th anniversary on October 1, 1987, as it was such a logical cut-off point. In the spring of 1986, a confidential memo, between top NBC executives listing about ten possible replacements in

6683-504: A year, the network debuted Last Call with Carson Daly in its place in January 2002; Daly was a former MTV VJ . Four months later, it expanded to five nights a week (from Later's four), and unlike the other shows on the air at the time, only a half-year's worth of first-run programs were recorded each season. In 2009, Last Call was retooled with a travelogue -like format, using interviews and performances filmed on-location rather than

Rodney Dangerfield - Misplaced Pages Continue

6846-528: A young, culturally savvy audience that was very desirable to advertisers) to take over The Tonight Show beginning that year, which also marked the 60th anniversary of the franchise. NBC confirmed the change on April 3, 2013. Under Fallon, the show returned to New York City, where the show originated from its 1954 debut until 1972; NBC no longer owns the former company-owned studios in Burbank where Carson and Leno's programs originated (O'Brien's Tonight Show taped at nearby Universal Studios ). On May 13, 2013, it

7009-490: Is a genre of talk show , originating in the United States . It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the day's news, guest interviews, comedy sketches and music performances. It is characterized by spontaneous conversation , and for an effect of immediacy and intimacy as if the host were speaking directly to each member of the watching audience. Late-night talk shows are also fundamentally shaped by

7172-763: The Joey Bishop Show, with Regis Philbin as his sidekick, to its late-night lineup in 1967, employing a talk show format, in an attempt to compete against the Tonight Show, which lasted until 1969. CBS went without late-night TV (the closest thing it would have to a late-night show was its late-prime-time variety show The Danny Kaye Show from 1963 to 1967) until 1969, when it acquired The Merv Griffin Show from syndication; Griffin returned to syndication in 1972, and CBS would not air any further late-night talk shows until 1989, instead opting for reruns, lifestyle programs and, later, imported Canadian dramas in

7335-496: The 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign and the presidency of Donald Trump ; following the 2018–19 television season, it was the highest-rated late-night talk show overall for the third season in a row, and narrowly beat The Tonight Show in key demographic (18-to-49-year-old) viewership for the first time since 1994–95. On February 12, 2019, NBC announced that Last Call with Carson Daly would conclude after its 2000th and final episode. Daly had already reduced his role on

7498-620: The Ed Sullivan Show . Chris remained the lead trumpet player with The Ed Sullivan show from the first show in 1948 to the last show in 1971. Trumpets : Chris Griffin, Bernie Privin, Jimmy Nottingham , and Thad Jones ; Chris's son Paul Griffin was a regular substitute trumpeter Trombones : Roland Dupont, Morton Bullman, Frank Rehak , and Cliff Heather Saxophones : Toots Mondello, Hymie Schertzer, Ed Zuhlke, et al Piano : Hank Jones Drums : Specs Powell /Howard Smith Percussion : Milton Schlesinger, who similarly played from

7661-609: The Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album . He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002. Health troubles curtailed his output through the early 2000s before his death in 2004, following a month in a coma due to complications from heart valve surgery. Rodney Dangerfield was born Jacob Cohen in the Village of Babylon, New York , on November 22, 1921. He was the son of Jewish parents Dorothy "Dotty" Teitelbaum and

7824-511: The Nevele , a former resort in Ellenville, New York . Then, at the age of 19 he legally changed his name to Jack Roy. He struggled financially for nine years, at one point performing as a singing waiter until he was fired, before taking a job selling aluminum siding in the mid-1950s to support his wife and family. He later quipped he was so little known that when he gave up show business, "I was

7987-497: The United Network that ever made it to air (because that network only had a handful of affiliates, it also syndicated the program to CBS, ABC and independent stations); it, along with the network, only lasted five weeks in summer 1967. Steve Allen himself returned to NBC late night in syndication twice in this time frame, first with a show that ran from 1962 to 1964 and then with a series that ran from 1968 to 1971. ABC added

8150-579: The Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes . CBS filled the Late Late Show timeslot with reruns and previously-unaired episodes of Comics Unleashed . The revival, titled After Midnight , premiered on January 16, 2024. Late-night talk show viewership had a brief peak in 2016 in the wake of retirements and new hosts but has been in steep decline since then. Conan O'Brien, in a 2023 interview, noted that several factors played into

8313-542: The vaudevillian performer Phillip Cohen, whose stage name was Phil Roy. His mother was born in Hungary . Phillip Cohen was rarely home; his son normally saw him only twice a year. Late in life, Cohen begged for, and received, his son's forgiveness. Cohen's mother was reportedly emotionally distant for most of his childhood and did not show signs of affection towards her son. In an interview with Howard Stern on May 25, 2004, Dangerfield told Stern that he had been molested by

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8476-440: The "Rodney Respect Award" include Tim Allen (2007), Jim Carrey (2009), Louie Anderson (2010), Bob Saget (2011), Chelsea Handler (2012), Chuck Lorre (2013), Kelsey Grammer (2014), Brad Garrett (2015), Jon Lovitz (2016), Jamie Masada (2019), Jimmy Fallon (2021), Whitney Cummings (2022), and Ken Jeong (2024). In memoriam, Saturday Night Live ran a short sketch of Dangerfield (played by Darrell Hammond ) at

8639-764: The 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie . The musical's plot revolves around an ordinary teen girl's chance to kiss a rock star live on the Sullivan show, and in the song "Hymn for a Sunday Evening," her family expresses their regard for the program in worshipful tones. Sullivan appeared as himself in the musical's 1963 film adaptation . In September 1965, CBS started televising the program in compatible color , as all three major networks began to switch to 100 percent color prime time schedules. CBS had once backed its own color system, developed by Peter Goldmark , and resisted using RCA's compatible process until 1954. At that time, it built its first New York City color TV studio, Studio 72, in

8802-405: The 1960s and the 1970s, the family ritual of gathering around the television set to watch Ed Sullivan became almost a U.S. cultural universal. He was regarded as a kingmaker , and performers considered an appearance on his program as a guarantee of stardom, although this sometimes did not turn out to be the case. The show's status at the turn of the decade is illustrated by its use as the backdrop of

8965-794: The 5th Dimension , Ella Fitzgerald , the Four Tops , Dick Gregory , W. C. Handy , Lena Horne , the Jackson 5 , Mahalia Jackson , Louis Jordan , Bill Kenny , B. B. King , George Kirby , Eartha Kitt , Gladys Knight & the Pips , Little Anthony and the Imperials , Moms Mabley , Johnny Mathis , the Miracles , Melba Moore , the Platters , Leontyne Price , Richard Pryor , Lou Rawls , Della Reese , Nipsey Russell , Nina Simone , Sly and

9128-1011: The Beatles , the Supremes , the Dave Clark Five , the Animals , Creedence Clearwater Revival , Dusty Springfield , the Beach Boys , the Jackson 5 , Stevie Wonder , Buddy Holly , Janis Joplin , the Rolling Stones , the Mamas and the Papas , the Lovin' Spoonful , Herman's Hermits , the Doors , Dionne Warwick , Barbra Streisand , Petula Clark , Vanilla Fudge , and the Band . The Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster appeared on

9291-473: The Bruthers. After the act was done, the Rock and Roll Monster shrunk back into the ball of fur which is then eaten by Sour Bird (who was previously used in a commercial for Royal Crown Cola ). The show is also noteworthy for showcasing performances from numerous classic Broadway musicals of the era, often featuring members of the original Broadway casts. These include: Most of these artists performed in

9454-452: The December 15, 1946, episode as a "movie star" on Jack's Christmas Card list. The name was also used by Ricky Nelson in a 1962 television episode of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet , as a phony name for a blind date. Dangerfield reached national prominence appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show in March 1967. He soon began headlining shows in Las Vegas and continued making frequent appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show . He also became

9617-509: The Ed Sullivan Show , Ed Sullivan's Rock 'n Roll Classics , and 115 half-hour The Best of The Ed Sullivan Show specials, among others. Performances of this show are also available as video and audio downloads and as an app on iTunes ." In 2021, MeTV began airing on Sunday nights half hour packages of performances from the show. In the early years of television, both CBS and NBC networks had their own symphony orchestras. NBC's

9780-554: The Ed Sullivan Show Orchestra was a specialist and more than capable of covering the complete spectrum of music. The lead trumpet player is the "concert master" of a studio orchestra. Chris Griffin (formerly with the trumpet section of Harry James , Ziggy Elman and the Benny Goodman Band) was Ray Bloch 's lead trumpet player for the many radio and television shows that he conducted, including

9943-578: The Family Stone , The Talbot Brothers , the Temptations , Martha and the Vandellas , Ike & Tina Turner , Leslie Uggams , Sarah Vaughan , William Warfield , Dionne Warwick , Dinah Washington , Ethel Waters , Flip Wilson , Jackie Wilson , Nancy Wilson , and Stevie Wonder . Before his death in a plane crash in December 1967, soul singer Otis Redding had been booked to appear on

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10106-481: The Metropolitan Opera and the staff orchestra would accompany divas such as Eileen Farrell , Maria Callas or Joan Sutherland . The musicians needed to be prepared to switch gears for Ella Fitzgerald , Diahann Carroll or Sammy Davis Jr. . and then onto The Jackson Five , Stevie Wonder or Tom Jones or Itzhak Perlman . They also needed to perform with some of the greatest dancers and ballerinas of

10269-577: The South. Never had a bit of trouble. The show included entertainers such as Frankie Lymon , The Supremes , Marian Anderson , Louis Armstrong , Pearl Bailey , LaVern Baker , Harry Belafonte , Brook Benton , James Brown (and the Famous Flames ), Cab Calloway , Godfrey Cambridge , Diahann Carroll , Ray Charles , Nat King Cole , Bill Cosby , Count Basie , Dorothy Dandridge , Sammy Davis Jr. , Bo Diddley , Duke Ellington , Lola Falana ,

10432-457: The Town ), which aired on CBS Sunday nights from 1948 to 1971, and Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle , which aired on NBC from 1948 to 1956. These shows aired once a week in evening time slots that would come to be known as prime time . The first show to air in a late-night timeslot itself, Broadway Open House , aired on NBC in 1950 and ended a year later after host Jerry Lester left

10595-642: The air during this period. The Ed Sullivan Show was originally broadcast via live television from CBS-TV Studio 51, the Maxine Elliott Theatre , at Broadway and 39th Street, before moving to its permanent home at CBS-TV Studio 50 in New York City (1697 Broadway, at 53rd Street), which was renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater on the occasion of the program's 20th anniversary in June 1968. The last original Sullivan show telecast (#1068)

10758-695: The associated video was an early MTV hit. The video featured cameo appearances by Don Novello as a last rites priest munching on Rodney's last meal of fast food in a styrofoam container and Pat Benatar as a masked executioner pulling a hangman's knot . The two appear in a dream sequence wherein Dangerfield is condemned to die and does not get any respect, even in Heaven, as the gates close without his being permitted to enter. Though his acting career had begun much earlier in obscure movies like The Projectionist (1971), Dangerfield's career took off during

10921-564: The chagrin of some of their castmates. Initial reviews of Caddyshack praised Dangerfield's standout performance among the wild cast. His appearance in Caddyshack led to starring roles in Easy Money and Back to School , for which he also served as co-writer. Unlike his stand-up persona, his comedy film characters were portrayed as successful, confident and generally popular despite being characteristically loud, brash, and detested by

11084-567: The charts. Their first appearance on February 9 is considered a milestone in American pop culture, and furthermore the beginning of the British Invasion in music. The broadcast drew an estimated 73 million viewers, a record for US television at the time (broken three years later by the series finale of The Fugitive ). The Beatles followed Ed's show opening intro, performing " All My Loving "; " Till There Was You ", which featured

11247-514: The day of Dangerfield's death, the randomly selected Joke of the Day on his website happened to be "I tell ya I get no respect from anyone. I bought a cemetery plot. The guy said, 'There goes the neighborhood!'" This led his wife, Joan Dangerfield, to choose "There goes the neighborhood" as the epitaph on his headstone, which has become so well known that it has been used as a New York Times crossword puzzle clue. Dangerfield's widow held an event in which

11410-476: The decline, all of which impacted his decision to end Conan and focus on other projects, including a saturated market, the loss of the captive audience to video on demand options, and a changing culture that made it more difficult to make genuine fun of the culture (O'Brien, who tended to rely less on political humor than some of his contemporaries, cited Donald Trump as an example of a figure so polarizing that even those who do not like him would be repulsed by

11573-434: The earlier time slot, forcibly changed the show's format to resemble Carson's, and added gossip reporter Rona Barrett as a co-host. The two did not get along and had an acrimonious relationship on and off the air. The agreement gave Carson's production company ownership of the timeslot following Tonight , which, a year later, Carson Productions and NBC used to create Late Night with David Letterman . When NBC offered Snyder

11736-524: The early 1980s, when he began acting in hit comedy movies. One of Dangerfield's more memorable performances was in the 1980 golf comedy Caddyshack , in which he played an obnoxious nouveau riche property developer who was a guest at a golf club, where he clashed with the uptight Judge Elihu Smails (played by Ted Knight ). His role was initially smaller, but because he and fellow cast members Chevy Chase and Bill Murray proved adept at improvisation, their roles were greatly expanded during filming, much to

11899-511: The end of the year. On September 8, 2014, British actor and comedian James Corden was announced as the new host of The Late Late Show . His incarnation of the program was modelled more upon British chat shows such as The Graham Norton Show , de-emphasizing the monologue and relying on multiple guests present throughout the entire show (rather than interviewed individually). Meanwhile, in May 2015, David Letterman retired from Late Show, ending

12062-496: The event of Carson's retirement the next year, was leaked. When Rivers saw it, she was shocked to see that she was nowhere on the list despite the fact that she had been The Tonight Show' s permanent guest host since 1983. In 1986, Joan Rivers joined the brand-new Fox network, where she would host her own late-night talk show, The Late Show , which competed directly against The Tonight Show . Clint Holmes served as Rivers' announcer while Mark Hudson served as band leader. Carson

12225-417: The exception of The Daily Show, which opted to continue without an audience as a stylistic choice) had full audiences return to their studio. One of the few programs initially unaffected by COVID-19 restrictions was A Little Late , as it had already filmed the entirety of its first season in 2019. The program shifted to a home-based production for its second season in January 2021, with Singh citing both

12388-409: The exclusive rights to the complete library of The Ed Sullivan Show from Ed Sullivan 's daughter Elizabeth and her husband Bob Precht . The collection consists of 1,087 hours of kinescopes and videotapes broadcast by CBS on Sunday nights from 1948 to 1971. Since acquiring the rights to The Ed Sullivan Show library, SOFA Entertainment has catalogued, organized and cleared performance rights for

12551-443: The few entertainment shows to have run in the same weekly time slot on the same network for more than two decades (during its first season, it ran from 9 to 10 p.m. ET). Virtually every type of entertainment appeared on the show; classical musicians, opera singers, popular recording artists, songwriters, comedians, ballet dancers, dramatic actors performing monologues from plays, and circus acts were regularly featured. The format

12714-417: The final time on August 14, 1965. The show was broadcast September 12, 1965, and earned Sullivan a 60-percent share of the nighttime audience for one of the appearances . This time they followed three acts before coming out to perform " I Feel Fine ", " I'm Down ", and " Act Naturally " and then closed the show with " Ticket to Ride ", " Yesterday ", and " Help! " Although this was their final live appearance on

12877-444: The first African-American female late-night host. Unfortunately, Garrett only lasted a year before NBC canceled the 12 + 1 ⁄ 2 -year-old Later in favor of reruns of the critically acclaimed cult Canadian-produced sketch comedy series, SCTV , itself a former NBC late-night program that aired Fridays between 1981 and 1983. That action, a temporary measure, was necessitated by the prolonged development of, and negotiations with

13040-534: The first class of The Rodney Dangerfield Institute of Comedy. The class is a stand-up comedy class which is taught by comedienne Joanie Willgues, aka Joanie Coyote. In August 2017, a plaque honoring Dangerfield was installed in Kew Gardens, his old Queens neighborhood. In 2019, an inscription was made to the "Wall of Life" at Hebrew University 's Mt. Scopus Campus that reads "Joan and Rodney Dangerfield." Late-night talk show A late-night talk show

13203-565: The first time in its history that the show would begin after midnight in the Eastern Time Zone. On January 12, 2010, O'Brien publicly announced in an open letter that he intended to leave NBC if it moved The Tonight Show to any timeslot after midnight in order to accommodate The Jay Leno Show at 11:35 p.m. ET. He felt it would damage the show's legacy, as it had always started after the late local news since it began in 1954. After several days of negotiations, O'Brien reached

13366-487: The first to last show. John Serry Sr often augmented the orchestra as the lead accordionist during the 1950s. Unlike NBC's The Tonight Show , which celebrated the notoriety of their musicians in Skitch Henderson 's or Doc Severinsen 's "Tonight Show Band", the CBS producers of The Ed Sullivan Show decided to hide their famed musicians behind a curtain. Occasionally, CBS would broadcast specials and call upon

13529-451: The gates of heaven. Saint Peter mentions that he heard Dangerfield got no respect in life, which prompts Dangerfield to spew an entire string of his famous one-liners. After he's done, he asks why Saint Peter was so interested. Saint Peter replies, "I just wanted to hear those jokes one more time" and waves him into heaven, prompting Dangerfield to joyfully declare: "Finally! A little respect!" On October 26, 2004, an episode of George Lopez

13692-487: The genre competed against general variety shows for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series . Jay Leno hosted his final episode of The Tonight Show on May 29, 2009, with his successor Conan O'Brien, and musician James Taylor as his guests. O'Brien took over hosting duties on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien the following Monday, June 1, 2009. In September 2009, Leno began hosting

13855-534: The gutter without knocking down any of the pins. He also appeared in the endings of Billy Joel 's music video of " Tell Her About It " and Lionel Richie 's video of " Dancing on the Ceiling ". In 1990, Dangerfield was involved in Where's Rodney? , an unsold TV pilot for NBC . The show starred Jared Rushton as a teenager, also named Rodney, who could summon Dangerfield whenever he needed guidance about his life. In

14018-446: The host was having an intense Sunday-night rivalry with Steve Allen. Allen had the singer on July 1 and trounced Sullivan in the ratings. When asked to comment, [Sullivan] said that he wouldn't consider presenting Presley before a family audience. Less than two weeks later he changed his mind and signed a contract." At the time, Presley was filming Love Me Tender , so Sullivan's producer, Marlo Lewis , flew to Los Angeles to supervise

14181-431: The largest single audience in television history. The latter percentage share, remains, to this date, the largest in the history of US television . Sullivan hosted a second appearance by Presley on October 28, 1956. For his first segment, Elvis performed "Don't Be Cruel", then "Love Me Tender". For the second segment, Elvis sang " Love Me ", and for his third, he sang a nearly four-minute-long version of "Hound Dog". For

14344-403: The late-night TV race was hosted by Les Crane , which pioneered the controversial tabloid talk show format that would not become popular until two decades later. With most viewers not accustomed to the visceral conflict it entailed, Crane's show lasted only six months. Shorter still was The Las Vegas Show , a Las Vegas -based late-night show hosted by Bill Dana that was the only offering of

14507-495: The late-night scene in 2009 when it debuted Lopez Tonight , hosted by comedian George Lopez . On September 27, 2004, the 50th anniversary of The Tonight Show ' s debut, NBC announced that Jay Leno would be succeeded by Conan O'Brien , in 2009. Leno explained that he did not want to cause a repeat of the hard feelings and controversy that occurred when he was picked for the show over David Letterman following Carson's retirement in 1992. O'Brien's final Late Night episode

14670-417: The mention of him, even in a satirical context, while those who are his fans would be offended). In a 2024 podcast, Jimmy Kimmel admitted that he only agreed to continue Jimmy Kimmel Live! because he feared he had no career options if the show were to end, also noting that he anticipated that within the next ten years, the networks would decide that the format was no longer cost-effective and cancel all of

14833-637: The most popular lineup of Diana Ross , Mary Wilson , and Florence Ballard appeared 7 times from December 1964 through May 1967. The group reappeared on the series in October 1967 as the newly rebilled "Diana Ross & the Supremes", with Ballard replacement Cindy Birdsong and Ross more prominently featured. The Supremes' final appearance on the show, shortly before it ended, served as the platform to introduce America to Ross's replacement, Jean Terrell , in March 1970. In an era when few opportunities existed for black performers on national television, Sullivan

14996-447: The names of the group members superimposed on closeup shots, including the famous " SORRY GIRLS, HE'S MARRIED " caption on John Lennon ; and " She Loves You ". The act that followed the Beatles in the broadcast, magician Fred Kaps , was pre-recorded in order to allow time for an elaborate set change. The group returned later in the program to perform " I Saw Her Standing There " and " I Want to Hold Your Hand ". The following week's show

15159-598: The only one who knew I quit." In the early 1960s, he started reviving his career as an entertainer. Still working as a salesman by day, he returned to the stage, performing at hotels in the Catskill Mountains , but still finding minimal success. He fell into debt, about $ 20,000 by his own estimate and couldn't get booked. He later joked, "I played one club; it was so far out, my act was reviewed in Field & Stream ." Dangerfield came to realize that what he lacked

15322-508: The orchestra to perform. When Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, music was hastily composed for the orchestra in a special tribute that also featured jazz pianist Bill Evans , who had recently composed an elegy to his father. The Ed Sullivan Show is especially known to the World War II and baby boomer generations for introducing acts and airing breakthrough performances by popular 1950s and 1960s musicians such as Elvis Presley ,

15485-475: The original shows. Starting in 1991, SOFA Entertainment has re-introduced The Ed Sullivan Show to the American public by producing numerous network specials, syndicating a half-hour series (that also aired on TV Land, PBS , VH1 and Decades ) and home video compilations. Some of these compilations include The 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Beatles , All 6 Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Rolling Stones , Elvis: The Ed Sullivan Shows , Motown Gold from

15648-435: The pandemic and a creative preference against a traditional studio-based format. Singh opted not to continue A Little Late beyond 2021, and NBC returned the time slot to its affiliates. Conan concluded its run on June 24, 2021, with O'Brien having announced plans to produce a weekly "variety" show for HBO Max and focus on other digital media projects. On January 17, 2023, it was announced that Craig Ferguson would make

15811-461: The personality of the host. The late-night talk show format was popularized by Johnny Carson and his sidekick Ed McMahon with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on NBC . Typically the show's host conducts interviews from behind a desk, while the guest is seated on a couch. Many late night talk shows feature a house band which generally performs cover songs for the studio audience during commercial breaks and occasionally will back up

15974-493: The position in 1967 and served as bandleader with the NBC Orchestra . The show originated from NBC Studios in New York City but, as part of Carson's shifting the show toward a more entertainment-oriented program, moved to Burbank, California , in 1972. NBC's two other rivals during the early television era, CBS and ABC , did not attempt any major forays into late-night television until the 1960s. ABC's first effort at

16137-501: The post- Late Show time slot, and would premiere The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder in 1995—serving as a spiritual successor to Snyder's Tomorrow . They had originally attempted to lure Bob Costas away from NBC and Later (offering to have him host The Late Late Show and become a correspondent for CBS's newsmagazine 60 Minutes ) , but were unsuccessful due to his desire to stay with NBC Sports , as well as his relationship with NBC chief Dick Ebersol . Snyder departed in 1999 and

16300-491: The program 67 times, a record for any performer. Bill Haley & His Comets performed their hit " Rock Around the Clock " in early August 1955, later recognized as the first rock and roll song broadcast on a national television program. The American public's first exposure to Itzhak Perlman was on the show in 1958, when he was 13. This performance was a breakthrough not only for classical music, but also for Perlman, who rode

16463-1029: The program in 2013 due to his commitments to the Today Show and other projects. On September 16, 2019, NBC premiered A Little Late with Lilly Singh —a new talk show hosted by Indian-Canadian YouTuber Lilly Singh . She became the first openly bisexual person and the first person of Indian descent to host a U.S. late-night talk show. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , nearly all U.S. late-night talk shows were forced to impose major changes to their formats in March 2020 due to public health orders and restrictions on gatherings. They initially adopted formats produced remotely from their hosts' homes, with all guests appearing via videoconferencing . By July 2020, late-night shows began to migrate back to studio-based productions, but with reconfigured or different studios than normal with no audience, and continued use of remote interviews. By October 2021, all late night TV shows (with

16626-432: The program was ready for color transmission. In the late 1960s, Sullivan remarked that his program was waning as the decade went on. He realized that to keep viewers, the best and brightest in entertainment had to be seen, or else the viewers were going to keep on changing the channel. Along with declining viewership, Ed Sullivan attracted a higher median age for the average viewer (which most sponsors found undesirable) as

16789-414: The proliferation of cable news, and ABC believing in stronger ratings potential in the timeslot, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was moved to 11:35 p.m. ET/PT on January 8, 2013—placing it in line with its competitors, Letterman and Leno. On October 17, 2005, Comedy Central premiered The Colbert Report , a spin-off of The Daily Show hosted by regular cast member Stephen Colbert . The show was structured as

16952-494: The radio era, including a vocal group ( Steve and Eydie , who went on to decades of success after Tonight ) in addition to the house band, something that later late-night shows would abandon. By this point, the Federal Communications Commission had lifted a freeze on new television stations, which allowed new stations to appear across the country, and television set sales soon grew exponentially. As

17115-430: The remaining shows: "maybe there'll be one." - DRC (Congo) Le #ChezfrancisKakondeshow on Antenne A Monday/Wednesday and Friday at 23h30 (20th season) since 2003–2023 Host: Francis Kakonde The Ed Sullivan Show The Ed Sullivan Show is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan . It

17278-509: The same makeup and costumes that they wore in the shows, often providing the only visual recordings of these performances by the original cast members, since there were no network telecasts of the Tony Awards until 1967. Many performances have been compiled and released on DVD as The Best of Broadway Musicals – Original Cast Performances from The Ed Sullivan Show . In a 1958 NEA interview, Sullivan noted his pride about

17441-553: The scheduling of the March 1970 broadcast was to promote the release of the band's upcoming film Let It Be in May of that year. The Supremes were a special act for The Ed Sullivan Show . In addition to 14 appearances, they were a personal favorite of Sullivan, whom he affectionately called "The Girls". Over the five years they performed on the program, the Supremes performed 15 of their hit singles, and numerous Broadway showtunes and other non-Motown songs. The group featuring

17604-636: The seasons went on. Younger viewers were growing to actively dislike the program; in 1970, Sullivan's compilation special Ed Sullivan's Swinging Sixties drew widely negative reviews. These factors were the reason the show was cancelled by CBS on March 16, 1971, as part of a mass cancellation of advertiser-averse programming . While Sullivan's landmark program ended without a proper finale, Sullivan produced one-off specials for CBS until his death in 1974, including an Ed Sullivan Show 25th anniversary special in 1973. In 1990, television documentary producer Andrew Solt formed SOFA Entertainment, Inc. and purchased

17767-690: The shirt to the museum's curator, Rodney joked, "I have a feeling you're going to use this to clean Lindbergh 's plane." Dangerfield played an important role in comedian Jim Carrey 's rise to stardom. In the 1980s, after watching Carrey perform at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, Rodney signed Carrey to open for Dangerfield's Las Vegas show. The two toured together for about two more years. When Dangerfield celebrated his 80th birthday on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in November 2001, Carrey made

17930-400: The show according to his preferences, the show was canceled the following month. On NBC's Later, Bob Costas gave way to the host of the cable show Talk Soup , Greg Kinnear , whose tenure was accompanied by a move to Burbank and toward a more conventional, audience-and-celebrity-driven format. Kinnear parlayed that experience into a movie career and stayed only two years; he was succeeded by

18093-419: The show during Paar's hosting resulted in many NBC affiliates deciding to clear the show. He was noted for his conversational style, relatively high-brow interview guests, feuds with other media personalities (his animosity toward print journalists Ed Sullivan and Walter Winchell marked a power shift from print to television; Winchell's career never recovered from the damage), and mercurial personality. Paar quit

18256-505: The show in 1960 in a dispute over a censored joke, but was allowed to come back a month later. He permanently left the show in 1962, saying that he could not handle the workload of The Tonight Show (at the time, the show ran 105 minutes a day, five nights a week), and he moved to his own weekly prime-time show, which ran until 1965. After Paar's departure, hosting duties were filled by Groucho Marx , Mort Sahl , and many others. Johnny Carson took over as host of The Tonight Show in 1962 and

18419-460: The show the following year. One telecast included African-American bass-baritone Andrew Frierson singing " Ol' Man River " from Kern and Hammerstein 's Show Boat , a song that, at that time, was usually sung on television by white singers, although it was written for a black character in the musical. However, Sullivan featured "rockers", and gave prominence to black musicians "not without censorship". For instance, he scheduled Fats Domino "at

18582-450: The show was renamed The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson . Carson streamlined the format of the show, focusing more on entertainment personalities, tweaking the monologue to feature shorter jokes, and emphasizing sketch comedy. Ed McMahon served as Carson's announcer, while from 1962 to 1966, the band was led by Skitch Henderson , who hired, among others, Doc Severinsen . When Henderson left, Milton DeLugg took over. Severinsen assumed

18745-410: The show with " I Saw Her Standing There ", " From Me to You ", and " I Want to Hold Your Hand ". They were shown on tape February 23 (this appearance had been taped earlier in the day on February 9 before their first live appearance). They followed Ed's intro with " Twist and Shout " and " Please Please Me " and closed the show once again with " I Want to Hold Your Hand ". The Beatles appeared live for

18908-646: The show's June 20, 1948, debut, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis performed along with singer Monica Lewis and Broadway composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II previewing the score to their then-new show South Pacific , which opened on Broadway in 1949. From 1948 through 1962, the program's primary sponsor was the Lincoln-Mercury Division of the Ford Motor Company ; Sullivan read many commercials for Mercury vehicles live on

19071-569: The show's end in case he had to cancel a guest". He presented Domino alone at his piano singing as if he were a young Nat 'King' Cole or Fats Waller , as he performed "Blueberry Hill". On March 4, 1962, Sullivan presented Domino and his band, who did " Jambalaya ", Hank Williams' " You Win Again ", and "Let the Four Winds Blow". All seven of Domino's band members were visible to millions of viewers. On December 1, 1957, Sam Cooke performed

19234-407: The show's role in improving the public's understanding of mental illness . Sullivan considered his May 17, 1953, telecast to be the single most important episode in the show's first decade. During that show, a salute to Broadway director Joshua Logan , the two men were watching in the wings, and Sullivan asked Logan how he thought the show was doing. According to Sullivan, Logan told him that the show

19397-469: The show, a combination of frustration with being upstaged by his sidekick Virginia "Dagmar" Lewis , burnout from having to go through a large amount of material in a short time, and the lack of enough television sets in the United States to make television broadcasting in late nights viable. (Lester himself was a last-minute replacement host for up-and-coming 26-year-old comic Don Hornsby , whom Hope had recommended to NBC but who caught polio and died less than

19560-404: The show, the group provided filmed promotional clips of songs to air exclusively on Sullivan's program over the next few years, including videos of both " Paperback Writer " and " Rain " from 1966 and three clips from 1967, including " Penny Lane ", " Strawberry Fields Forever ", and " Hello, Goodbye ." In late 1967, the group also sent a telegram to Sullivan in addition to their promotional clips,

19723-464: The show. For his first set, Elvis played " Don't Be Cruel " and " Love Me Tender ". According to writer Elaine Dundy , Presley sang "Love Me Tender" "straight, subdued and tender ...  – a very different Elvis from the one on The Steve Allen Show three months before". Elvis's second set consisted of " Ready Teddy " and a shortened version of " Hound Dog ". Popular mythology states that Sullivan censored Presley by shooting him only from

19886-461: The third and final appearance on January 6, 1957, Presley performed a medley of "Hound Dog", "Love Me Tender", and " Heartbreak Hotel ", followed by a full version of "Don't Be Cruel". For a second set later in the show he sang "Too Much" and " When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again ". For his last set he sang " Peace in the Valley ". For this third appearance, it was decided to shoot the singer only from

20049-441: The time slot after Letterman, he refused it, having always been resentful of the forced change in format, and NBC News Overnight , a newscast, took the slot instead, some months after Tomorrow's final broadcast in 1982. During his tenure as host of The Tonight Show , Carson became known as The King of Late Night . While numerous hosts ( Merv Griffin and Dick Cavett being the best-known) attempted to compete with Carson, none

20212-623: The time slot. By the 1960s, NBC had already cornered the market for late-night television viewing and would dominate the ratings for several decades in the future. A number of restrictions on television networks that took effect in 1971, among them a nationwide prohibition on tobacco advertising , the requirement that a portion of prime time be set aside for local stations , and rules prohibiting networks from also acting as syndicators , prompted NBC to extend its broadcast day by an additional hour with programming it hoped would recuperate some of its lost revenue. In 1973, NBC launched two new programs:

20375-597: The time, from Gregory Hines , Juliet Prowse , Maria Tallchief or Margo Fonteyn to the Peter Gennaro dancers. In the process, the musicians collaborated with several internationally recognized ballet troupes including: Ruth Page 's Chicago Opera Ballet , the London Festival Ballet , Roland Petit 's Ballets de Paris and Russia's Igor Moiseyev Ballet. Few musicians are capable of crossing over from one genre to another. However, each member of

20538-525: The treatment of the mentally ill and the granting of funds for the construction of new psychiatric hospitals . Occasionally Sullivan would feature a Hollywood actor introducing a clip from a film in which he or she currently starred. Burt Lancaster made an appearance in 1962, speaking about Robert Stroud , the character he portrayed in Birdman of Alcatraz , and introducing a clip from the film. And although Sir Laurence Olivier personally did not appear on

20701-470: The two left, the format changed to something similar to Today and was renamed Tonight! America After Dark, hosted first by Jack Lescoulie , and later by Al Collins, with interviews conducted by Hy Gardner , and a house band led by Lou Stein performing. The show was not popular, leading to many NBC affiliates dropping the show. The show returned to the original format that year and was renamed Tonight Starring Jack Paar . The even greater success of

20864-499: The two segments telecast that night from CBS Television City in Hollywood. Sullivan, however, was not able to host his show in New York City because he was recovering from a near fatal automobile accident. Charles Laughton guest-hosted in Sullivan's place, and opened the show. Music journalist Greil Marcus wrote that Sullivan's choice to have Elvis appear after Laughton's introduction was an attempt to make Elvis less prominent in

21027-475: The typical late-night trappings in favor of a low-key but intense concentration upon Costas interviewing a single guest. Costas hosted the program until 1994. Carson retired as host of The Tonight Show in 1992 following his 30th anniversary as host. This garnered major media attention and speculation on who would replace Carson. The two candidates were David Letterman (host of Late Night since 1982) and Jay Leno (Carson's regular guest host since 1987). Leno

21190-438: The very successful Late Night with David Letterman on NBC expanded from four to five nights per week, displacing the four-year-old Friday Night Videos to the timeslot following it. FNV, which had several subsequent format changes, ran until 2002. Carson did not retire in 1987, instead continuing as host until 1992 with Leno as sole permanent guest host. Rivers was fired from The Late Show in 1987 after abysmal ratings and

21353-402: The waist up, but in fact, Presley's whole body was shown in the first and second shows. Although Laughton was the main star and there were seven other acts on the show, Elvis was on camera for more than a quarter of the time allotted to all acts. The show had a 43.7 rating, and was viewed by a record 60,710,000 people which at the time represented an 82.6% share of the television audience, and

21516-609: The waist while he performed. Although much has been made of the fact that Elvis was shown only from the waist up, except for the short section of "Hound Dog", all of the songs on this show were ballads. Although Sullivan praised Elvis at the end of the show, Elvis claimed in a 1969 interview that Sullivan had expressed a very different opinion backstage: "Sullivan's standing over there saying, 'Sumbitch. ' " The second and third appearances drew 57 and 54.6 million viewers, respectively. Years later, Sullivan tried to book Presley again, but declined after Presley's representatives presented

21679-474: The waves of admiration to new heights of fame lasting a generation. On September 9, 1956, Presley made his first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (after earlier appearances on shows hosted by the Dorsey Brothers , Milton Berle , and Steve Allen ), even though Sullivan had vowed never to allow Presley on the show. According to Sullivan biographer Michael David Harris, "Sullivan signed Presley when

21842-414: The wealthy elite. Throughout the 1980s, Dangerfield also appeared in a series of commercials for Miller Lite beer, including one in which various celebrities who had appeared in the ads were holding a bowling match. With the score tied, after a bearded Ben Davidson told Rodney, "All we need is one pin, Rodney", Dangerfield's ball went down the lane and bounced perpendicularly off the head pin, landing in

22005-566: The word "respect" had been emblazoned in the sky, while each guest was given a live monarch butterfly for a butterfly-release ceremony led by Farrah Fawcett . UCLA 's Division of Neurosurgery named a suite of operating rooms after him and gave him the "Rodney Respect Award", which his widow presented to Jay Leno on October 20, 2005. It was presented on behalf of the David Geffen School of Medicine /Division of Neurosurgery at UCLA at their 2005 Visionary Ball. Other recipients of

22168-617: Was a champion of black talent. He launched the careers of many performers by presenting them to a nationwide TV audience and ignored the criticism. In an NEA interview, Sullivan commented: The most important thing [during the first ten years of the program] is that we've put on everything but bigotry . When the show first started in '48, I had a meeting with the sponsors. There were some Southern dealers present and they asked if I intended to put on Negroes. I said yes. They said I shouldn't, but I convinced them I wasn't going to change my mind. And you know something? We've gone over very well in

22331-417: Was a half hour in length and (following a brief host monologue) featured a panel of four guests debating topical issues while Maher moderated in a comedic fashion. With the new millennium in 2000, NBC's Later finally got another permanent host after various figures had taken the chair for several years, in the form of a VH1 personality, Cynthia Garrett, who broke the proverbial " glass ceiling " by becoming

22494-505: Was among the most popular celebrity tattoos in the United States. On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno , May 29, 2009, Leno credited Dangerfield with popularizing the style of joke he had long been using. The format of the joke is that the comedian tells a sidekick how bad something is, and the sidekick—in this case, guitar player Kevin Eubanks —sets up the joke by asking just how bad that something is. The official Rodney Dangerfield website

22657-541: Was an "image", a well-defined on-stage persona that audiences could relate to, one that would distinguish him from other comics. After being shunned by some premier comedy venues, he returned home where he began developing a character for whom nothing goes right. Roy took the name Rodney Dangerfield from an episode by Jack Benny on his radio program in a 1941 broadcast. The name was referenced as an actor who Jack had invited to his upcoming Christmas Party, but Mary Livingstone had never heard of him. The name surfaces again in

22820-652: Was announced that Fallon's former SNL castmate Seth Meyers would assume the duties of Late Night once Fallon moved to The Tonight Show . The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon debuted during NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics in Russia on February 17, 2014, while Late Night with Seth Meyers debuted one week later. 2014 and 2015 saw a realignment to CBS's late night lineup: in April 2014, Craig Ferguson announced that he would leave The Late Late Show at

22983-546: Was basketball player and later entrepreneur Magic Johnson , whose syndicated The Magic Hour was a major flop and effectively ended any future efforts from anyone else at a syndicated late-night talk show at that point in time. ABC finally re-entered the late-night first-run comedy fray, after an absence of 15 years, in 1997 by placing Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher (which had aired on Comedy Central from 1993 to 1996) into its lineup after Nightline . Unlike traditional late-night talk shows, Politically Incorrect

23146-402: Was becoming "another one of those and-then-I-wrote shows"; Sullivan asked him what he should do about it, and Logan volunteered to talk about his experiences in a mental institution. Sullivan took him up on the offer, and in retrospect believed that several advances in the treatment of mental illness could be attributed to the resulting publicity, including the repeal of a Pennsylvania law about

23309-526: Was broadcast from Miami Beach where Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali ) was in training for his first title bout with Sonny Liston . The occasion was used by both camps for publicity. On the evening of the television show (February 16) a crush of people nearly prevented the band from making it onstage. A wedge of policemen were needed and the band began playing " She Loves You " only seconds after reaching their instruments. They continued with " This Boy " and " All My Loving ", then returned later to close

23472-537: Was conducted by Arturo Toscanini and CBS's by Alfredo Antonini . The Ed Sullivan Show (originally presented as: The Toast Of The Town ) was basically a musical variety show, and thus members of the CBS orchestra were folded into the Ed Sullivan Show Orchestra, conducted by Ray Bloch. During the early days of television, the demands on studio musicians were many-tiered. They needed to be proficient in all genres of music, from classical, to jazz and to rock and roll. The Ed Sullivan Show would regularly feature singers from

23635-463: Was dedicated to the memory of Dangerfield, who had passed away two weeks prior. On September 10, 2006, Comedy Central 's Legends: Rodney Dangerfield commemorated his life and legacy. Featured comedians included Adam Sandler , Chris Rock , Jay Leno , Ray Romano , Roseanne Barr , Jerry Seinfeld , Bob Saget , Jerry Stiller , Kevin Kline , and Jeff Foxworthy . In 2007, a Rodney Dangerfield tattoo

23798-447: Was demolished in 1986 and replaced by an apartment house. CBS Studio 50 was finally modernized for color broadcasts in 1965. The 1965–66 season premiere starred the Beatles in an episode airing on September 12, which was the last episode to air in black and white. This occurred because the episode was taped at the Beatles' convenience on August 14, the eve of their Shea Stadium performance and a two-week tour of North America, slightly before

23961-399: Was essentially the same as vaudeville and, although vaudeville had undergone a slow demise for a generation, Sullivan presented many ex-vaudevillians on his show. Originally co-created and produced by Marlo Lewis , the show was first titled Toast of the Town , but was widely referred to as The Ed Sullivan Show for years before September 25, 1955, when that became its official name. In

24124-712: Was eventually chosen, leading to Letterman leaving the network to launch a direct competitor late-night talk show, the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS in 1993. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno debuted in 1992. Letterman was replaced by newcomer Conan O'Brien as host of Late Night . Arsenio Hall's show lost numerous affiliates after Letterman's debut and his show was canceled one year later. Fox returned to late-night television in September 1993 with The Chevy Chase Show . However, due to sagging ratings, disastrous reviews and Chase's embitterment at not being allowed to do

24287-405: Was ever successful in drawing more viewers than Carson did on Tonight , not even ABC's short-lived revival of Paar's show in 1973 using the name Jack Paar Tonite (though Paar blamed erratic scheduling and his own unwillingness to succeed at the expense of Cavett, his friend and former writer). Much like Paar, Carson became tired of fulfilling the workload of 525 minutes a week, so The Tonight Show

24450-460: Was first announced a year prior. It was reported that CBS was reconsidering the future of the Late Late Show franchise in favor of lower-cost formats; in November 2023, the network officially announced that it would premiere a Taylor Tomlinson -hosted revival of @midnight —a comedy panel show previously aired by corporate sibling Comedy Central from 2013 through 2017—as a replacement in 2024. Its development and premiere had been delayed due to

24613-526: Was incensed that Rivers did not consult him beforehand and never spoke to her again. Brenner also left Tonight in 1986, although he did so amicably, to launch a syndicated 30-minute late-night talk show called Nightlife , which was canceled after one season. Garry Shandling , who had been a frequent guest host in the early 1980s, served as permanent guest host, alternating with Jay Leno , from 1986 to 1987, when he left to focus on his cable show , leaving Leno to be Carson's sole guest host. In June 1987,

24776-421: Was invited to be the keynote speaker at Harvard University 's Class Day, an annual ceremony for seniors the day before commencement. His 1980 comedy album No Respect won a Grammy Award . One of his TV specials featured a musical number, "Rappin' Rodney", which appeared on his 1983 follow-up album, Rappin' Rodney . In December 1983, the "Rappin' Rodney" single became one of the first Hot 100 rap records, and

24939-595: Was married to Joan Child, whom he met in 1983 at a flower shop she owned in Santa Monica, California . At the time of a People magazine article on Dangerfield in 1980, he was sharing an apartment on Manhattan 's Upper East Side with a housekeeper, his poodle Keno, and his closest friend of 30 years, Joe Ancis, whom Dangerfield called "the funniest man in the world"; Ancis was also a friend of and major influence on Lenny Bruce . Ancis, who Roseanne Barr described as "too psychologically damaged to be able to live in

25102-466: Was nominated for a Webby Award after it was relaunched by his widow, Joan Dangerfield, on what would have been his 92nd birthday, November 22, 2013. Since then, Dangerfield has been honored with two additional Webby Award nominations and one win. In 2014, Dangerfield was awarded an honorary doctorate posthumously from Manhattanville College , officially deeming him Dr. Dangerfield. Beginning on June 12, 2017, Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy hosted

25265-470: Was often more eclectic and would sometimes include the intellectuals and cultural and artistic figures that Carson had long since abandoned) with a cigarette in hand. Carson's new contract in 1980 allowed him to cut the length of his show from 90 minutes to 60 minutes, and for a short time, Tomorrow was moved to an earlier timeslot, to fill the time gap left by Carson's move. NBC felt that Snyder's more conversational style would not bring in enough viewership in

25428-625: Was on March 28, 1971, with guests Melanie , Joanna Simon , Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass and Sandler and Young . It was one of many older shows with followings in undesirable key demographics that were purged from the network lineups that summer. The purge led into the Prime Time Access Rule taking effect that fall. Repeats were scheduled through June 6, 1971. Along with the new talent Sullivan booked each week, he also had recurring characters appear many times

25591-544: Was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie . In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked No. 15 on TV Guide ' s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time . In 2013, the series finished No. 31 in TV Guide Magazine's 60 Best Series of All Time. From 1948 until its cancellation in 1971, the show ran on CBS every Sunday night from 8–9 p.m. Eastern Time , and it is one of

25754-538: Was shortened to 90 minutes and again to 60 minutes in 1980 with 15 weeks of vacation a year. Because of a lack of competition, Carson was free to take time off (by 1980, he was only hosting three new shows a week) and have guest hosts on the show on a weekly basis, and for weeks at a time when Carson was on vacation, including Joey Bishop (a former competitor of his), Joan Rivers , David Letterman , Bob Newhart , Don Rickles , David Brenner and Jerry Lewis . In his final years, Carson produced new shows only three nights

25917-439: Was succeeded by Craig Kilborn ; at this time, The Late Late Show switched to a more conventional (albeit lower-budget) format in line with Late Show and its competitors. Kilborn had previously served as host of The Daily Show , a late-night satirical news program on Comedy Central , and upon Kilborn's departure, Jon Stewart replaced him on that program. Perhaps one of the most unusual late-night hosts to come out of this boom

26080-483: Was taped on February 20, 2009. Saturday Night Live alum Jimmy Fallon took over as host of Late Night on March 2, 2009. The popularity of late-night shows in the United States has been cited as a key factor in Americans not getting a requisite seven to eight hours of sleep per night. Since 2015, late-night talk shows have competed for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Talk Series ; prior to then,

26243-540: Was the first celebrity to personally own a website and create content for it. He interacted with fans who visited his site via an "E-mail me" link, often surprising people with a reply. By 1996, Dangerfield's website proved to be such a hit that he made Websight magazine's list of the "100 Most Influential People on the Web". Dangerfield appeared in " Burns, Baby Burns ", an episode of the animated television series The Simpsons in which he played Mr. Burns 's son Larry Burns,

26406-488: Was the first exposure for foreign performers to the American public. On the occasion of the show's tenth anniversary telecast, Sullivan commented on how the show had changed during a June 1958 interview syndicated by the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA): The chief difference is mostly one of pace. In those days, we had maybe six acts. Now we have 11 or 12. Then, each of our acts would do

26569-419: Was wrong with Dangerfield's movements and asked his producer to call the paramedics. During Dangerfield's hospital stay, the staff were reportedly upset that he smoked marijuana in his room. Dangerfield returned to the Tonight Show a year later, performing on his 81st birthday. On April 8, 2003, Dangerfield underwent brain surgery to improve blood flow in preparation for heart valve -replacement surgery on

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