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This Week In May Marked A Seismic Change In Late Night TV
May 22, 1992 marked the literal end of an era. It was the final Johnny Carson Show after decades as the acknowledged then-greatest host of late night in TV history. That came to end on a Friday evening at 11:35PM when he made his final address to a loyal audience. On that night, millions who had long stopped watching, tuned in to see his final farewell. Note that the very last credit was given over to someone who never appeared on the show - Rick Carson, Johnny's son, who died in a tragic car accident just a year before.
Three days later, May 25th, exactly 31 years ago to the day, late night viewers also tuned back to NBC to see what Jay Leno would do with the iconic Tonight Show, which not only had a new host, but a new set and a new location - Los Angeles. 
- torontostan
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RadioActive wrote:
which not only had a new host, but a new set and a new location - Los Angeles.
No sir....... Leno actually started across the hallway in NBC Burbank's studio 3 (Carson was in studio 1).
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He also made no mention of Carson.
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which not only had a new host, but a new set and a new location - Los Angeles.
No sir....... Leno actually started across the hallway in NBC Burbank's studio 3 (Carson was in studio 1).
You are correct. I believe I was thinking of Conan O'Brien, another (brief) Tonight Show host, who had his own show from New York and was then dispatched to L.A. While I wasn't a huge Conan fan, I will never forget the show in which the location transition became a big deal. This sketch/intro has stayed with me all those years. That's probably what I was thinking of.
Still pretty funny to this day.
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Thread Starter- Tomas Barlow
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No sir....... Leno actually started across the hallway in NBC Burbank's studio 3 (Carson was in studio 1).You are correct. I believe I was thinking of Conan O'Brien, another (brief) Tonight Show host, who had his own show from New York and was then dispatched to L.A. While I wasn't a huge Conan fan, I will never forget the show in which the location transition became a big deal. This sketch/intro has stayed with me all those years. That's probably what I was thinking of.
Still pretty funny to this day.
Fantastic stuff. I always found Conan awkward as an interviewer but the bits, skteches, scripted pieces, etc. were great. Big fan here.
He leaned into the awkwardness and made it a strength.
- Tomas Barlow
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He also made no mention of Carson.
He claims he was encouraged not to, but he did on night two after being heavily criticized.
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....and it should be noted the Head Writers for Carson at that time were from Oshawa...
Listeners of CFNY-FM during the 80's will remember those two writers from this song.....
They were head writers of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1988 to 1992.
As a writing team, Vickers and Nicholls have over 1200 hours of produced television credits, including creating twenty TV series, writing and producing 38 television and radio pilots, and writing and producing over 400 episodes of children's TV (as of 2022).
Last edited by Marsden (May 26, 2023 1:42 am)