a.k.a.
THE JACK PAAR SHOW
July 29, 1957 - March 30, 1962
NBC Late Night Talk Show
Host:
Jack Paar
Announcers:
Hugh Downs
Art James
Orchestra:
Jose Melis
Regulars:
Cliff Arquette (aka Charley Weaver)
Pat Harrington, Jr. (as Guido Panzini)
Peggy Cass
Alexander King
Dody Goodman
Betty Johnson
Elsa Maxwell
Tedi Thurman (the weather girl)
Hans Conried
Joey Bishop
Florence Henderson
Buddy Hackett
Betty White
Genevieve
Hermione Gingold
Renée Taylor
Jack Paar took over The Tonight Show six months
after Steve Allen had left. Whereas Allen had
depended on a frenetic pace and sketch comedy,
Paar was at his best interviewing. He was incisive,
witty, and highly emotional. There were still
sketches, and Paar would sometimes go into the
audience for interviews. "It's All Relative" was
a periodic spot in which a relative of a famous
person would appear and the other guests would try
to figure out who he was related to; "What Is It?"
was a feature in which Paar would produce some
strange-looking object and then explain what it
was used for; there was a routine where baby
pictures were shown to the audience and Paar
would come up with funny captions for them; and
Jose Melis had a "telephone game" in which he
improvised melodies based on the last four
digits of an audience member's phone number.
Besides the fun and games, the show had a serious
side. At one point Paar went on an extended crusade
against the Batista dictatorship in Cuba, lauding
Castro's revolution; later he tried to arrange a
swap of tractors for prisoners from the Bay of Pigs
invasion; several telecasts originated from the
Berlin Wall; and presidential candidates Kennedy
and Nixon were both guests, on separate occasions.
Paar's emotional outbursts were a major attraction of
the show, and the cause of many of the controversies
surrounding him. When he had first taken over as host,
The Tonight Show was still being done live. Not too
long after, it began taping early in the evening that
it would be aired. It was NBC's ability to edit the
tapes before air time that precipitated Paar's famous
tearful walkout on the February 11, 1960, program.
A "water closet" joke he had told the night before
was considered in bad taste by the NBC censors and
had been removed. Paar didn't think the joke was
offensive and he left the show for a month. He later
had a feud with Ed Sullivan over the fees paid
guest stars, Paar's $320 versus Sullivan's
several thousand dollars.
Click HERE for Jack Paar's obituary.
Click on the image above to purchase this great DVD collection!
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Scroll down for links and TV Guide covers when available.
By TVparty
Jack Paar
From The Museum of Broadcast Communications
Jack Paar: A TV pioneer turns 80
By jacksonville.com
Jack Paar on the Web
By Eagle Vision Inc.
The Jack Paar Tonight Show
From TV.com
Late-Night Talk Shows: 1957-1962
By About.com
My Jay Leno's Tonight Show Page
My Johnny Carson's Tonight Show Page
These links were last tested March 2004.
Check out these classic TV Guide covers...
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