The very first Tonight Show when Jay Leno took over as host

[mjbab73]

Leno didn't deserve the job then...Doesn't deserve it now. He screwed Johnny, Dave, and Conan...Guess Fallon is next. Branford quit because he didn't know part of his job was going to be to half to laugh loudly at lame jokes...He also stated he had no chemistry with Jay. Guessing that Kevin Eubanks finally got tired of Leno's backstabbing ways.

[Xijre]

Wow! Is this the couple month show he did, when Carson came back?

FUCK JAY LENO! YOUR A PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT! TEAM COCO!

[samsamba08]

They're playing some Monk! You don't see that nowadays. Branford Marsalis, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Kevin Kirkland, Kevin Eubanks...and the percussion lady (who's a horrible singer).

[darthba11er]

@samsamba08

I'm glad someone said it. Her voice is dreadful

[Rodgebi]

@samsamba08 Vikki Randle. :-)

[sacker12]

That almost looks like Smitty playing concert piano.

[thesugarfatman]

Holy shit, are people stil bitching about the whole Leno Vs. Coco thing? They both freaking won! Leno got the show back and Coco got a bunch of new supporters. Strange how Jimmy Fallon was doing just fine and Coco's ratings went down and Leno's ratings were shit compared to the usual primetime stuff but they were the same as his old late night ratings. Anyway that's all the time I have to talk about the lives of Rich White Guys.

[jayrobson88]

@thesugarfatman How did Conan win? Sure he got a years salary, now he's out of a job. Leno got his ass licked by everybody.

[DrLanceAngry]

weird angle on Jay. was it like that throughout the early shows?

[hotnsexybtm]

its his best angle hes so damn ugly.

[mavivirgie]

and david letterman aint no cary grant either

[TheDuster88]

is that keven on the guitar

[Gl0veCompartment]

Fuck this fucking faggot.

[hotnsexybtm]

i dont like him either but do u have ot be so homophobic.

[FHaru1952]

Damn, that band was fantastic.

[rick9565]

Jay is a dive bar comic, look up Ding Ho in Somerville Massachusetts where he did some stand up, along with Lenny Clarke et al.

Leno just hit it lucky, he knows how to sell a joke, and thats about it.

[am1100us]

@rick9565 And what do you know how to do? Does it make you as much money as Jay?

[Mitube]

Where's the whole thing?

[NewDirection4us]

This Jazz sucks. No wonder Branford didn't last long. LOL. Jay needed a goof ball to laugh at his stupid jokes, too. Branford wasn't the man. But I wonder how much influence Big Jaw has in getting people fired at the Tonight Show. First it was Branford, then Edd Hall, then John Melendez who disappeared when Jay went prime time with the worst show on TV, and now Conan. Surprised he hasn't fired Kev in all these years but as long as Kev keeps laughing at him he will probably keep him.

[MegaObserver1]

Kev is playing guitar next to the double bass player. You don't recognize him because he had hair in those days! But he's been with Leno since Memorial Day 1992.

[MrLebaneseguy]

whers kevin?

[hgates101]

Jay is a genius stand up comedian he controls the stage like no other....but he is a horrible talk show host and is nothing compared to Letterman, Carson and even Conan

[tinister]

You have to give props to Jay for what he did as a standup comic.

He lost a lot of that edge when he starting guest hosting the Tonight Show though.

And he's completely lost it now. He should retire and refocus on standup.

[screamtherapy2010]

Jay didn't mention Johnny probably because he knew full well Johnny didn't want him for the job He wanted Letterman. Letterman had guest hosted 50 times in the years pryor to Johnny retiring. Jay is a weasel. Johnny only did 2 interviews before his death and one was on the Letterman show NOT the tonight show with Jay.

[walterglanz]

According to "The Late Shift," Leno's caustic Agent/Producer Helen Kushnik flatly refused NBC executives' strong suggestion that Leno express appreciation to Carson as a respectful gesture on this first show.

[jwdogfst]

Jay is a weasel because his dream was to host the Tonight Show just like Letterman? Only one person could have the show, so someone's feelings were going to be hurt. That's part of life.

Carson had no say in who his successor should be because NBC owned all the rights to the Tonight Show.

[screamtherapy2010]

@jwdogfst

Yes. Letterman followed Carson all those years doing Late Night. The spot belonged to him.

[jwdogfst]

Again, how does Leno having the same dream as Letterman make him a weasel? Letterman did his comedy routine at late night for NBC, and Leno did most of his on the road prior to filling in for Carson. They were comedians who took two different paths, and in the end, it was the NBC executives who made the call on The Tonight Show.

When you say the show belonged to Letterman, that is based on what? Letterman's loyalty to NBC? Loyalty, unfortunately, doesn't mean anything in show business.

[marcsman229]

DR. DRE at the drums!!

[psyber71]

Jay blamed his agent for the way he treated Johnny Carson both on-air and off-air. He doesn't have an agent to blame for undercutting Conan.

[jacksparrow011235813]

where is eubanks

[Eraldur]

I am with Coco!

[NewDirection4us]

Coco was a ratings disaster doing the Tonight Show. About half of the viewers that leno had doing it. Of course, some of that was due to lost viewers from Jay's 10pm disaster that didn't tune back to NBC for Coco after the news.

[thegov08]

yeah but he only had 7 months. give the guy a year at least. its not like he's like chevy chase who had no talk show experience. they could have pressured him to change his style a bit even, but cancelling him so early was just not right.

[NewDirection4us]

Actually, they didn't "cancel" him, he quit. The network offered him a 12:05 time slot for his show and he said no. If you work for a company making millions of dollars a year like these late night stars do, and they ask you to do something to help them pay your enormous salary, the right thing to do is to oblige them, not shake them down like Conan did. He chose to quit rather than stay and help the network. So, please, knock off the "poor Conan talk".... he quit and got million$.

[thegov08]

@NewDirection4us yeah he got a 40mil payout so I dont feel sorry for him. But that doesn't change the fact that he wasn't given enough time at 11:30. 7 months for a late night talk show host who had been on the network for 17 years. How about at least giving him a year to prove himself, or how about cancelling jay leno who was mainly responsible for conan's shitty ratings because he was a terrible lead in for the news which in turn was a terrible lead in for the tonight show.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 Well, Conan was on at 11:30 for a couple of months or so before Jay even messed up the 10pm time slot for NBC.... and Conan's ratings were bad even without 10pm Jay to blame it on. Some people really like Conan, but Jay has a wider appeal and provides better ratings and more ad revenue since the number of viewers translates into what the network can charge for ad time. Leno is competitive with Letterman at 11:30, Conan wasn't. The network was more than fair with Conan.

[thegov08]

The guy was on nbc for 17 years, they were planning to make him the new main man for NBC, it was 5 years in the making. Then after 7 months (most of the time where he had jay leno terrible as a lead in) they tell him to move the tonight show back half an hour or get out. If they were happy with jay leno, then why did they fire him from the tonight show in the first place?? it was obvious that they were looking at conan to be their main man for the long term and they didn't treat him like that.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 Conan got paid very well for being on NBC. Even though Conan didn't have many viewers at 12:30, NBC wanted to keep him so when he went crying to NBC that he wanted a better time. NBC asked Jay if he was willing to leave in a few years in order for Conan to do the Tonight Show. Jay reluctantly agreed, but Jay was not "fired" from the Tonight show. In fact, NBC gave Jay the 10pm time to start later on. Meanwhile, Conan was a ratings disaster at 11:30 even BEFORE The Leno Show started.

[thegov08]

@NewDirection4us its funny how you twist the facts to support your argument. conan didn't go crying to nbc, he was getting interest from FOX and NBC saw conan as the future of NBC so they signed for the tonight show and TOLD jay leno that he had to leave in 5 years. its not like they gave leno a choice. If leno got to choose he would be host of the tonight show till the day he dies. Conan got very good ratings at 12:30 by the way, and was pretty much first in that timeslot for a long time.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 Rather than lose Leno they offered him a half hour show at 11:30 which would be followed by Conan at midnight. But no matter what they did with leno at 10pm it still didn't change the fact that they had a problem with Conan at 11:30. He had to be replaced or moved back later.  He said no and quit, and took NBC for $40M in the process.

[thegov08]

@NewDirection4us i'm not saying i feel sorry for him, because he did get 40mil. But he wasn't given a proper chance at 11:30. that's all i'm saying. 7 months (with most of that time leno being a terrible being a lead in and stealing the best West Coast guests from conan) is not enough espeically because nbc would haven known from the start that conan was a long term investment more than an immediate win for them.

[thegov08]

@NewDirection4us And also, they knew that the young people loved conan and and didn't like leno at all, so picking conan for the tonight show wasn't an experiment. it was a long term investment. Then after 7 months they axed him. And he was axed out of nowhere, its not like they told him 'you need to raise your ratings over the next few months or we'll fire you' it just pretty much came out of nowhere.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 Yeah, "young people loved Conan"... he had the 12 to 16 year olds demographic nailed down good, unfortunately, there's more to ratings than to appeal to kids. Advertisers want the 20 to 40 yr. old demographic, which spend money.... and Leno and Letterman appeal more to the middle aged people than the childish humor of Conan. And where do you get the idea that Conan was fired? He wasn't fired, he quit. And it didn't come "out of nowhere". His ratings had been bad for 7 months.

[thegov08]

@NewDirection4us hahah 12 to 16?? College kids and 20somethings love conan. How many Conan internet movements have started since he got axed? that's why i said picking conan to be the tonight show host was a long term investment for NBC. they knew he would not have anything near leno's ratings to start off but that in the long term he would be able to build a good audience when his younger fans got older. Your just letting your conan hate screw up your logic while im trying to be objective.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 Unfortunately for Conan, no network can afford to put up with his poor ratings at any time before midnight while he "builds and audiance base" which could take years, if ever. Your theory is flawed. As the younger audience got older, their taste would mature and unless Conan's brand of comedy also matured then they would change the channel to someone else. TV is no training ground. You either deliver the goods or you get dumped. Conan failed to deliver an audience at 11:30.

[thegov08]

@NewDirection4us And although this does not having anything to do with what we're arguing, its recognised that conan is a lot funnier and a much better interviewer than jay leno. leno is despised by all comics and anyone that knows anything about comedy knows he sucks. He appeals to middle america, the same people who make two and a half men the top rated show in the US.

[thegov08]

@NewDirection4us leno was top rated talk show host in late night for about 15 yeras and they decided to replace him with conan. OBVIOUSLY they didn't expect Conan to come in immediatley and be a ratings smash and grow an audience in a matter of months. If they wanted the top rated show RIGHT NOW, why would they have fired leno?? it was obviously a long term investment, knowing that young viewers that like conan will grow older and would make his show be a hit eventually.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 Well first off, they didn't fire Leno from the Tonight Show. They made a deal with him to surrender the Tonight Show in several years to crybaby Conan who wanted it when Jay retired. Jay reluctantly agreed, mainly to keep the network happy plus he was making big bucks so it was no big deal at the time. I will admit that NBC screwed up by allowing Conan to pressure them the way he did to get the Tonight Show. Leno agreed and left voluntarily, although reluctantly. He wasn't fired.

[thegov08]

@NewDirection4us WRONG. leno was told to leave. he has said in interviews that he pushed out and he was angry about it. show me evidence that conan was pressuring leno to leave. there is none. conan had offers from FOX and nbc wanted to keep him so they offered him the tonight show.i'msure that if they had made it clear that they were going to make leno his lead in, give the best west coast guests to leno, and only give him a couple of months to build an audience, conan would have left nbc.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 You make no sense. Why would NBC tell Leno to leave in order to replace him with a guy who was unproven at 11:30? Conan was a disaster from the start. Conan trailed way behind letterman in the ratings, pulling in about half the audiance that Leno had before he left TONIGHT. And that was without Leno at the 10pm time slot. Face it, Conan was a ratings disaster at 11:30 and that can't be blamed on Leno who was not a factor early on. Letterman trounced Conan at 11:30.

[thegov08]

@NewDirection4us see the leno-oprah interview where leno said he was hurt to be pushed out when he was leading the ratings. Leno has the reputation as somebody who will do anything to get what he wants. I really recommend you read 'late shift' to see how much of an asshole leno is. don't know why you think conan is the crybaby.

I'm not going to say my same points again and again about how conan was screwed over, I'm getting tired of it. its like arguing with a parrot.

[jayrobson88]

@NewDirection4us You are so goddam wrong dude, why dont you check your facts. Conan was way ahead till the Palin scandal with Letterman. Then came the sex scandal. Then came Jay's crappy lead in. And on top of all that Conan did tone himself down a shitload and the show was kinda crappy, but he deserved time to make it less crappy. He wasnt doing terribly by any means, he was just only slightly behind Letterman. Dont forget that the reason the affiliates were upset was cos of Jays ratings not Cs

[NewDirection4us]

@jayrobson88 The ratings don't lie, dude! Conan got decent ratings at the very beginning as people tuned in to see what he was all about. His ratings then went down and he never came back up to the ratings that letterman was getting. Yes, the affiliates were mad about their 11pm news show loss in revenue due to Leno at 10pm but that was corrected by taking him off at 10pm. Sure Conan was unhappy to again have to play 2nd fiddle to Leno but Conan was a ratings loser at 11:30. Coco had to go.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 They did expect Conan to do better or else they wouldn't have agreed to let him take over the Tonight Show and let Leno go. He sucked at 11:30. His childish humor did not find an audience at 11:30. leno at 10pm was a problem, but so was Conan at 11;30. NBC tried to solve the problem by offering Conan a deal to do the show a little later but Conan chose to quit, especially since NBC was willing to fork out $40 million to get rid of him and solve the problem that HE created.

[thegov08]

@NewDirection4us childish humour?? oh yeah 12 year olds stayed up till 12:30 every night to watch him on Late Night....you dont' want this to be a debate about how funny they both are because it is a known fact that Conan is a lot funnier than leno. And dont tell me the fact that leno had better ratings means he's funnier. All comedians hate leno, and i recommend you read the book 'late shift' to see how much of a scumbag leno is.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 Maybe people don't want too much "funny" at 11:30. Letterman is probably not as funny as Conan but he is the guy that people wanted to see at 11:30, not the masterbating bear or some other childish Conan skit. Conan should have known his place, and not tried to ease Jay out. of the Tonight Show before he was ready to go. Jay lacks the guts to blame Conan where the blame lies and instead blames NBC because they are a faceless entity. Conan and jay are two of a kind, both ingrates.

[thegov08]

@NewDirection4us If you actually watched conan's tonight show you would know that part of the reason for his ratings drop was because he didn't use the masturbating bear and some of his more controversial but funnier skits. Conan tried to tone himself down to draw the 11:30 audience and that made him not near as funny as he was on late night. again, this was just a couple of months in to the show, nbc could have told him to go back to his own style instead of just firing him after a few months.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 I saw some of Conan doing TONIGHT. You're right, he did tone it down. But NBC still had a problem. They felt that Conan was such a ratings loser at 11:30 that there was nothing he could do to pull it out. More bad behavior would not improve his rating. NBC wanted leno back at 11;30 so bad that they paid Conan and staff $45 million for them to go. Nobody got hurt.

[thegov08]

@NewDirection4us I know Conan wasn't screwed over financially by NBC. I'm just saying NBC promised him the tonight show and then screwed him over by giving jay leno a show AFTER conan had signed on and they also gave leno the best west coast guests. Jay leno's ratings were pretty bad when he first started, conan's ratings were also bad on late night before he really came into his own after a year or two. he just needed the chance to get comfortable and build an audience at 11:30. it takes time.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 I guess guests, especially the big name guests, would rather go on in prime time with Leno than after 11:30 with Conan. Mosts guests are plugging something and an earlier time would assure more viewers for whatever the guest is promoting (usually a book or a movie). Conan will likely get another show some day if he wants it. I wouldn't want to be tied down to the routine of doing a nightly TV show if I had $30 million.

[thegov08]

@NewDirection4us nbc like the assholes they are gave leno the show AFTER conan signed on. see thats the kind of shit that i hate nbc for. they hand the keys over to conan and then backstab him by keeping leno as a lead in.

Anyway i respect your opinion but i disagree. we could go back and forth for another few weeks but honestly i got better things to do. I just really hope conan comes back on FOX and owns Leno at 11:30. doubt it though because middle america have a lame sense of humour.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 In fairness to NBC they may have thought that he would do better at 10pm than he did. I still don't believe that Leno was the cause of Conan's downfall at the Tonight Show. As I said before, Conan had bad ratings for at least a couple of months even before the network brought in Jay at 10pm. They're probably thought Leno would help the affiliates news ratings and Conan's ratings but that didn't work out. Conan probably wont be back anytime soon as long as his $30 million holds out!

[jayrobson88]

@NewDirection4us Conan is getting a new show in a couple of months fool, most likely at Fox. 30 mill is like a years salary for Conan and he doesn't do the show for the money, he likes to do a show each night.

[NewDirection4us]

@jayrobson88 Conan could have kept his show but they wanted to move it back to midnight, which would still have been a half hour earlier than what he had before he replaced Leno at 11:30. Conan quit, walked away. Let him go head to head with Leno and Letterman at 11:30. That's fine. Bet he is third place after a month!

[jayrobson88]

@thegov08 why bother arguing with this douche dude, if you dont know Conan is the shit then chances are he's over 50.

[NewDirection4us]

@jayrobson88 You mean over 16.

[jayrobson88]

@NewDirection4us No. I dont. And neither do Conan's millions of fans, critics that love hi m and anyone with half a brain that watches him. His largest constituence of audience is college age kids. If you don't get his sense of humor then you're a nerdy loser or a lame-ass. What are you fighting for anyway, for Leno, you think Leno's funny? Not a cornball, family friendly old irrelevant comedian?

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 His ratings were bad, yet they let him stay for 7 months which is far more than they give other failed hosts of shows. How long do the continue to go along with Conan and his disaster ratings before they make a change? It is a business, you know. If Conan had great ratings the solution would have been easy. Just dump Leno at 10pm and keep the affiliates happy. But Leno was the bigger star, the bigger asset to NBC, more profitable than Conan, so they didn't want to lose him.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 His ratings were bad, yet they let him stay for 7 months which is far more than they give other failed hosts of shows. How long do the continue to go along with Conan and his disaster ratings before they make a change? It is a business, you know. If Conan had great ratings the solution would have been easy. Just dump Leno at 10pm and keep the affiliates happy. But Leno was the bigger star, the bigger asset to NBC, more profitable than Conan, so they didn't want to lose him.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 His ratings were bad, yet they let him stay for 7 months which is far more than they give other failed hosts of shows. How long do the continue to go along with Conan and his disaster ratings before they make a change? It is a business, you know. If Conan had great ratings the solution would have been easy. Just dump Leno at 10pm and keep the affiliates happy. But Leno was the bigger star, the bigger asset to NBC, more profitable than Conan, so they didn't want to lose him.

[NewDirection4us]

@thegov08 Conan had bad ratings long before jay entered the scene at 10pm. You can't blame Conan's poor ratings on Jay, at least not early on. Jay at 10pm only made matters worse. But the bottom line is that if more people had wanted to watch Conan at 11:30 then they would have tuned in to NBC after the news even with jay on at 10pm. Conan got way more than he deserved in the shake up. He played "victim" in all of it and smiled all the way to the bank.

[jayrobson88]

@NewDirection4us Just cos he had half of Leno's viewers does not mean he was a ratings disaster. Leno started with less than half of Leno's viewers. Letterman had half of Lenos viewers. Conan was just scraping behind Dave, and was way ahead before Dave's plain scandal, Dave's intern scandal and, as you said, Jay's 10pm disaster

[ovywan08]

that cocksucking scumbug couldve at least thanked johnny on his first show instead of introducing some shit band.....

[ovywan08]

u can, however, blame jay for providing lame "piss poor" comedy and stealing bits from others

[Ryaaan]

mjm, because Jay blackballed the legendary Johnny Carson. He bit the hand that fed him, and you really expect him to get an honorable mention on the last show?

[dkizzy84]

@ovywan08 Jay's agent Helen would not let him say anything nice about Johnny. She was the executive producer at the time. I agree with you but now you can see why it didn't happen, even though it should have.

[NewDirection4us]

Thank Johnny for what? Johnny didn't recommend him as the host to follow Johnny. Johnny wanted Letterman. NBC went with Jay in spite of Johnny's wishes.

[ovywan08]

and with good reason johnny wanted dave to take over.... all that scumbag jay leno knows how to do is hide behind closets and deliver white bread humor that appeals to rednecks and hicks residing in middle america

[NewDirection4us]

But Johnny didn't own the show. The decision of who would host was up to NBC and at the time Jay was considered the better talent by NBC. Lettermen had the right to leave NBC as he did and Conan has the right to leave as well. These guys are overpaid millionaires and it goes to their heads. They forget that they are just employees with a contract to perform. They don't run the show or the network. BTW, Johnny was from the midwest middle America.

[devildog061077]

....are you saying all people from the midwest are rednecks??? not all rednecks reside in middle america and vice versa, but the guy has a point just watch the show, Johnnys humor was intelligent, Leno steals good material or uses his own and when he does it shows.

[yukonjack84]

I guess it was good moving seeing that Jay beat Dave for the last 15 years.

[valois89]

They're playing Monk's Criss-Cross! Never thought they'd play this tune on a TV show.

[rioslive]

can you post the entire first episode please

[michaelbeckham]

A young Debbie Vickers there, still with the band.

[darthba11er]

No, since this is the very first Tonight Show with Jay Leno as the host, he wanted to showcase his new band. And since Branford Marsalis is a Jazz musician, he brought it that night.

♫ ♪ ♫

[Superphilipp]

There is music like this on a regular late night talk show? I got American TV all wrong.

[gwidener7]

Yes. The music was awesome at the beginning of the Jay era.  But alas, this is 17 years old. Not so good anymore...Branford moved on.

[nightfly776]

Can you upload the opening credits? Loved the original theme arrangement, even if the curtain montage was a bit hokey.