The Late Show (1986 talk show)

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The Late Show (1986 TV series)
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The Late Show
Also known asThe Late Show Starring Joan Rivers (1986–1987)
Genre
Fox Television Network
Written byMonty Aidem
Hank Bradford
Stan Burns
Londos D'Arrigo
Wayne Kline
Toem Perew
Michael Prescott
Daniel Rosen
Dennis Snee
Levi Taylor
Patric Verrone
Billy Sammeth
Presented byJoan Rivers
Arsenio Hall
Ross Shafer
Narrated byClint Holmes
Daniel Rosen
Theme music composerMark Hudson
Michael Sembello
ComposerJay Richard Kennedy
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons2
Production
Executive producersEdgar Rosenberg
Howard Bolter
ProducersBruce McKay, John Scura, Nora Fraser
Production locationsFox Television Center,
Los Angeles, California
EditorsWanda Armstrong (assistant editor)
Jay Richard Kennedy (music editor)
Running time45–48 minutes
Production companies
  • Fox Square Productions
  • 20th Century Fox Television
Original release
NetworkFox
ReleaseOctober 9, 1986 (1986-10-09) –
October 28, 1988 (1988-10-28)
Related
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Joan Rivers Show
The Arsenio Hall Show

The Late Show is an American late-night talk show and the first television program broadcast on the then-new Fox Network. Hosted by comic actress Joan Rivers, it debuted on October 9, 1986, under the title The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. It is also the first late-night show hosted by Arsenio Hall.

Background

The talk show was a direct attempt at competing against NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where Rivers had been Carson's permanent guest host since 1983.[1] The show was initially broadcast live.

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 spring 1986, a confidential memo between top NBC executives listing about 10 possible successors in the event of Carson's retirement the next year was leaked. Rivers was shocked to see that she was not on the list.[1]

In an article she wrote for People magazine, Rivers said that NBC offered her only a one-year contract in 1985 as permanent guest host while Carson's contract had been renewed for two years, which signaled to her that her future was uncertain as her previous one year contracts had run the same length as Carson's. In addition, Rivers noted numerous snubs from NBC executives over the years, such as not being invited to the annual Carson party until recently, and taking the fall for a controversial joke that management approved during rehearsal. Rivers had received higher-paying offers from other networks in prior years but declined them out of her loyalty to Carson, but in 1986 as NBC was unwilling to give assurances on her future and negotiations were fruitless, this was the impetus for Rivers to seriously consider the Fox offer.[1]

Rivers and Carson

Fox was looking for a host for a late-night talk show for the network's launch in October 1986. Through its purchase of Metromedia, it had been airing The Merv Griffin Show (a syndication stalwart for two decades) but opted to drop that program (leading to its cancellation) to make room for its own show. The new network offered Rivers the job at a salary higher than what NBC was paying. She accepted and Carson was blindsided by the news when he saw the press conference on television. Moments later, when Rivers called him at home, he refused to take the call.[1]

Carson was furious when he found out about Rivers going to Fox. Carson stated that he felt betrayed by Rivers – not because she dared to compete with him, but because she was not honest with him beforehand about her intentions and did not ask him for advice and his blessing. For her part, Rivers was adamant that her problem was with NBC and not with Carson, who was like a father figure to her. She stated that she didn't want to tell Carson before the announcement was made because she was afraid Fox would cancel the deal if word leaked out. She had previously been ordered by Carson's producers and lawyers not to go to him with her problems, as they kept Carson completely insulated since he was a major source of NBC profits; thus Carson had been completely unaware of Rivers' problems with NBC.[1]

When others obtained their own competing shows (such as

ratings. Rivers did not appear on the Tonight Show again during the remainder of Carson's tenure after 1986 or during that of his successors (in this case, Jay Leno and subsequently, Conan O'Brien) until February 17, 2014, when she appeared in a cameo on Jimmy Fallon's first show, by which point Carson had been dead for nine years.[2]

Rivers spoke highly of Carson the night he died on January 23, 2005, but revealed that he never spoke to her again.[3]

History

Sagging ratings and carriage refusals

After a moderate start,

Omaha refused outright out of loyalty to Carson, who hailed from Corning, Iowa, east of Omaha and started his career on local radio and television. The network acquiesced to allow some stations out of that obligation so that the network launched in primetime with as many affiliates as possible, at the cost of ratings and access to The Late Show. For instance, at the time the show launched Fox had not closed on its purchase of its Boston station, WXNE-TV (now WFXT). That station's previous owners, the Christian Broadcasting Network
, objected to the show's content and refused to clear it. As a result, until Fox took control of the station in January, its audio feed aired on a low-rated AM station.

The behind-the-scenes relations between Rivers and network executives quickly eroded and Rivers was fired in May 1987. For the final show, which aired May 15, 1987, the set was vandalized with toilet paper, slime, and shaving cream. Her guests were

Pee-Wee Herman, then-fledgling comedian Chris Rock, Wendy O. Williams, and show stage manager Michelle Aller as her alter-ego Mavis Vegas Davis.[4][5] Soon afterward the program was renamed The Late Show and featured rotating guest hosts including Suzanne Somers, Richard Belzer, and Robert Townsend. After firing prospective guest host Frank Zappa
, producer John Scura replaced him with Arsenio Hall, who made his debut as a talk show host. Eventually, Hall was named the permanent replacement host in mid-1987.

The Howard Stern Show

On April 16, 1987, a meeting was held between

focus groups in California. With no formal announcement, in July, the network decided not to put the Stern show on the air.[9] Paul Noble, the former executive producer for WNYW, was never told of Fox's decision. "By today's standards, they were absolutely tame." He also said, "They were not the kind of thing that a local New York television station was prepared to get involved with at that time. It was more like off-the-wall radio."[9]

Arsenio Hall

Fox had originally cancelled The Late Show, but executives were stunned by the success of Hall, who was performing well among adults 18–49. In return, Hall was given a 13-week deal to host the show – however, a replacement program entitled The Wilton North Report was already in pre-production and scheduled, which meant that the deal would not be extended beyond that. Further, Hall would not be available in any event, as he was committed to filming the Eddie Murphy feature Coming to America. During the monologue of his final appearance as host, Hall stated that the reason he had agreed to only do 13 weeks was because that was as long as he was able to stay, as he had plans "to do other things."[10]

Clint Holmes continued as announcer while Mark Hudson remained as band leader. However, the band's name changed from "Mark Hudson and the Party Boys featuring the Tramp" – as it had been known during Rivers's tenure, with "the Tramp" referring to baritone sax player Beverly Dahlke-Smith – to simply "Mark Hudson and the Late Show Band".

Guests tended to be third-string actors, with performances by lesser-known bands such as The Williams Brothers (Los Angeles) and

The Price is Right
.

World-famous "Earthquake Astrologer from

KROQ and KFOX
", Farley Malorrus, appeared as a guest following an accurate earthquake prediction in Los Angeles during October 1987.

When problems developed with Wilton North, Fox attempted to bring back Hall – but it was too late.[11] Wilton North debuted on December 11, 1987, and was a disaster on all fronts. Fox canceled it after only 21 episodes on January 8. It started airing Late Show repeats with both Hall and Rivers on January 11, 1988, and scrambled to revive the talk show.

1988 hosts

The show came back with a new group of unknown guest hosts, including comedians Jeff Joseph and John Mulrooney; Daniel Rosen took over as announcer, while Jack Mack and the Heart Attack became the new house band. Ultimately, none of the tryout hosts would work out, and the network turned to Seattle TV personality Ross Shafer to take over The Late Show.

Ross Shafer

By the time Shafer began hosting, ratings were so low that the show could only attract newsmakers and human interest-style guests; this led to a format change in the summer to focus on tabloid and ripped-from-the-headlines stories.

Fox canceled the show effective October 28, 1988, getting out of late night until 1993, when it launched the ill-fated The Chevy Chase Show.

Notable episodes

Despite the show's low ratings by 1988, Shafer's tenure as host produced six notable episodes. These are especially notable for being the last public appearances of well-known celebrities:

Aftermath

Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host in 1990.[12][13]

Paramount Television
to launch his own show and was able to clear it on many Fox affiliates throughout the country. He essentially reclaimed his old time period, though not in the network.

Ross Shafer went on to host a revival of Match Game for ABC in 1990.

The title of The Late Show was revived by CBS in 1993 for their unrelated late-night talk show franchise The Late Show for David Letterman and since 2015 for Stephen Colbert.

See also

  • List of late night network TV programs

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Rivers, Joan (May 26, 1986). "Can I Talk? I Am Mad and Sad and Feel Attacked—So Here Is the Truth About Why I Left Tonight". People. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
  2. ^ "Joan Rivers Returns To 'Tonight Show' After Decades-Long Ban". Variety. February 17, 2014. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
  3. ^ Rivers, Joan (December 6, 2012). "Joan Rivers: Why Johnny Carson "Never Ever Spoke to Me Again"".
  4. ^ "Rivers Says Goodbye Not A Minute Too Soon". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  5. ^ "Name Is Fake But The Songs Are Her Own". Philly.com. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  6. ^ Colford, p. 176.
  7. ^ Colford, p. 177.
  8. ^ Colford, pp. 180–181.
  9. ^ a b Colford, p. 178.
  10. ^ "The Late Show with Arsenio Hall: Final Show". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  11. ^ Njeri, Itabari (1989-04-16). "We Be Havin' a Ball, Says Arsenio Hall. But Can the Talk-Show Host's Hip New Style Succeed on Late-Night TV?". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-10-09.
  12. ^ Tucker, Ken (September 14, 1990). "The Joan Rivers Show". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
  13. ^ Takeda, Allison (September 5, 2014). "Joan Rivers' Daytime Emmy Acceptance Speech in 1990 Was Both Funny and Heartbreaking: Watch". Us Weekly. Retrieved May 31, 2016.

External links