David Dastmalchian provides a refreshing, avant garde take on the late night talk show host role as Jack Delroy, the host of the popular (but not quite as much as “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson”) program “Night Owls”. It’s Halloween night 1977, and this episode of “Night Owls” changes television forever. That’s what we’re […]
CNN’s new six-part docuseries “The Story of Late Night” begins this Sunday May 2nd at 9pm. I’ve screened the first episode (titled “Inventing Late Night”), which breezes through the ‘50s and most of the ‘60s at a fairly rapid pace. This isn’t the most thorough look at the origins of network programming at 11:30pm. And […]
Over the past few weeks I’ve watched some old episodes of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” on AntennaTV. They air weeknights at 10pm. Carson’s 30-year reign ended six years before I was born, so this is the first time I’m getting to experience what it was like for my parents’ and grandparents’ generation to […]
When the folks at “Live” were looking for someone to take over for Regis Philbin after his departure in 2011… (notice I use the words “take over” and “departure”, not “replace” and “retirement”)… a number of people auditioned. The frontrunners included Anderson Cooper, Neil Patrick Harris, Seth Meyers and Jerry O’Connell. Ultimately, Michael Strahan got […]
I’m proud to have some first-hand, late night network talk show experience. I’ll never forget my two appearances on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”, including getting to learn a little bit of what goes on behind the scenes at these shows. I got to watch Jay rehearse his monologue (in his trademark denim on […]