Relive these late-night losers

The list of late-night talk shows that aimed for Tonight Show-level success, only to crash and burn in a big ball of failure, is legendary. Conan O'Brien leaves the air Friday as the first move in a shuffle of late-night hosts and programs like we haven't seen since Johnny Carson retired and Jay Leno snatched The Tonight Show from David Letterman.

Which reminds us of the late-night shows that never quite made it to classic TV status. Here are a few highlights - READ TO THE END FOR A SPECIAL SURPRISE:

Thicke of the Night (1983) – Developed as a syndicated show to challenge Johnny Carson back when he was still King of Late Night, this 90-minute concoction featured Alan Thicke two years before Growing Pains would make the bland Canadian actor and theme song composer (Diff'rent Strokes, Facts of Life) into a U.S. star. Flamed out spectacularly, but gave early work to Richard Belzer, Arsenio Hall and Gilbert Gottfried.

The Late Show (1987) – Fox tried going after Carson with the woman who was his permanent guest host, heavily surgeried comic Joan Rivers. Unfortunately, they didn’t inform him before announcing the series, sparking a bitter showbiz war Rivers eventually lost. 

The Pat Sajak Show (1989) – CBS’ challenge to Carson featured vanilla-safe Wheel of Fortune host Sajak backed by bandleader and Starsky and Hutch theme song composer Tom Scott. But Sajak found turning over letters a lot easier than turning the king of late-night TV – he was gone in 15 months. See it here.

The Arsenio Hall Show (1989) – Remembered mostly for then-candidate Bill Clinton playing sax with the house band, this show scored big by featuring young, black R&B singers and rappers who couldn't get on the clueless mainstream late-night shows, including M.C. Hammer and Bobby Brown. But then David Letterman moved to CBS and both he and Leno started booking folks like Hammer and Mary J. Blige to get younger viewers.

The Chevy Chase Show (1993) – Chase may have gained stardom in Saturday Night Live’s first season, but he was a wreck in this talk show Fox developed. When you can see the host’s hands shaking during interviews and musical numbers, you know a mistake has been made somewheres; the pain ended mercifully after six weeks.

  The Magic Hour (1998) – Who thought it was a good idea to hand a talk show to a basketball star known for his lack of speaking ability? Earvin "Magic" Johnson's big highlights as a late-night host was hiring Sheila E. to lead his band and Tommy Davidson to be his sidekick. Gone in eight weeks.

BONUS CLIP

Few people remember, but Daily Show star Jon Stewart had a really bad syndicated talk show in the mid '90s. Here's an interview Stewart conducted with O'Brien, back when Conan's show sucked too...

 

Comments

[Miguel]

Chevy Chase might have made an okay talk show host if he had tried it ten years earlier. Sometime during the early 90s he really succumbed to some kind of clueless arrogance. It was really depressing to watch him in anything starting around that time period.

I also saw Pat Sajak's show when it was on. I knew it was doomed when he said he was having Michael Jackson on, not really telling us that his Michael Jackson was some old white guy and not the King of Pop. I don't imagine musical performances by Rosemary Clooney was pulling in the young 'uns either.

[Muckbeast]

Jon Stewart had MULTIPLE failed show. The guy is a hack, and the only reason he is on tv is because he inherited a show Craig Kilborn built from nothing.

-Michael
Muckbeast - Game Design and Online Worlds
http://www.muckbeast.com

[lilkunta]

@3rd post (tfresca)
pls post your source 4 Howie Madel getting better ratings than Ellen. I def dont believe that is true. 1st, id dint even know howie HAD a day show. U sure you rnt confusing him w Tony Danza?

It's pretty awful to paint Hall with the failure brush. A little research into the subject would tell you that Hall's show was taken off the air because of the Chevy Chase deal. Failure is relative. Arsenio gets better ratings than Conan, so does Craig Ferguson for that matter. Howie Mandel's daytime talker had better ratings than Ellen's show but it didn't last nearly as long. Showbiz.

Posted by: tfresca | February 17, 2009 at 07:55 PM

[Mark]

How about Dennis Miller's failure?

[Big Pauly]

I really wouldn't put Arsenio in the same category as some of the others who were colossal failures. Arsenio had a good run for a few years. Probably more than the other shows on the list combined.

[tfresca]

It's pretty awful to paint Hall with the failure brush. A little research into the subject would tell you that Hall's show was taken off the air because of the Chevy Chase deal. Failure is relative. Arsenio gets better ratings than Conan, so does Craig Ferguson for that matter. Howie Mandel's daytime talker had better ratings than Ellen's show but it didn't last nearly as long. Showbiz.

[El Bicho]

"Arsenio's show lasted a good while, but it didn't end by his choice"

If that's your criteria, then include Carson as a loser because his run didn't end by his choice. NBC squeezed him out in favor of Leno.

[Eric Deggans]

Great comment. But I can tell you as a fan, the content of the show began to dive twoard the end of the show's run. And i began to notice all the cool acts I once tuned in to see on his show were turning up elsewhere.

And i say this as a fan who actually attended a taping of the show during my first adult trip to los angeles in the early 1990s...

[Prof Talk Show Fan]

Arsenio wasn't canned because of any Farrakhan. What hurt Hall, was Fox deciding to launch Chevy Chase, and quietly strong arming the Fox affiliates that were carrying Hall in the 10/11:30pm EST timeslot to push him back an hour, and in order to avoid Arsenio's audience from getting upset at the move-and thereby taking it out on Chase, encouraged them to move Hall back starting as early in the summer, before the Chase fall debut. The overwhelming majority of stations that bought the syndicated talk show produced by Paramoun, were affiliates of the Fox network. Ratings declined as they should-after all, Letterman left NBC for CBS so he could be on earlier in the night in order to get higher ratings.
Hall still rated higher than Conan in the cities where they were now (erm, then) opposite each other, but all the tv media harped on was the hit the ratings took, and they created the perception that the show was failing. When Chevy Chase bombed a few months after it premiered, Fox again sabotaged Paramount by sticking it's affiliates with reruns of In Living Color, telling stations they wanted the timeslot clear in case they came up with something else...And this blog entry continues the myth that Hall failed to endure as David, Jay and Conan have.

[Eric Deggans]

Every one of these shows tried challenging the Tonight Show and every one eventually failed due to low ratingsd. Arsenio's show lasted a good while, but it didn't end by his choice -- eventually, Jay Leno and David Letterman took away the stuff that made his show unique and it went away.

I'm a huge fan of that show, but that's what happened...

[Kelvin]

It's hardly fair to lump "The Arsenio Hall Show" in with this list of one-season wonders. `

[Greg Andrew]

It's silly to put Arsenio in with the rest of the group; his show lasted 5+ years, longer than all the other shows you mentioned combined.

Also, I remember Jon Stewart's show getting generally good reviews; most of the others did not.

Chevy and Magic were incredibly bad. Chevy was so bad it was almost good; it was like watching a train wreck.

[John]

Oh man, that bonus clip is nostalgic -- talk about 90's hip

[John]

lI just remembered another one that made me shudder -- ABC's failed attempt: Into the Night with Rick Dees.

And I remember Stewart's show... Actually I remember his stand up routine from his HBO special in 1997 more than the show on MTV.

But I do recall he had the MTV show

[John]

Don't forget Keenan Ivory Waynes short lived (and I do stress short) Late Night show. It was post-In Living Color and I don't even remember how long it lasted, but it was not around long at all.