With the recent announcement by CBS that “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” would end next spring and the recent suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” by ABC my attention turned to the “Tonight Show” that started it all.

The man credited with coming up with the idea that became the “Tonight Show” was Pat Weaver who at the time was the President of NBC. A creative man, he established many operating practices that became standard for network television. Besides “Tonight Show” he is also credited with creating “Today” in 1952.

The “Tonight Show” is the longest running entertainment show in the United States. Its current format was shaped by its first hosts Steve Allen and Jack Parr. The format of The Tonight Show can be traced to a nightly 40-minute local program in New York, hosted by Allen and originally titled The Knickerbocker Beer Show. It soon was retitled “The Steve Allen Show.” The show premiered in 1953 on WNBT-TV now WNBC, the local NBC owned station in New York City. Beginning in September 1954, it was renamed “Tonight” and began its run on the full NBC network.

Allen introduced the format of an opening monolog, celebrity interviews, audience participation best exemplified by Johnny Carson’s “stump the band segments,” Comedy skits, guest performers, and performances by the house band that during Allen’s tenure was led by Skitch Henderson and featured the singing of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. Allen even had a regular audience member named Miss Miller who would continue as a member of the audience during the tenures of Jack Parr and Carson until the show moved to California. She became such an integral part of the program during those years that she was forced to join AFTRA the performers union.

It was on the Allen show that on a Friday night in 1956 I was introduced to the improvisational comedy of Professor Irwin Corey. Dressed like a crazy professor he would launch into observations about anything under the sun, seldom actually making any sense. He was famous for using aphorisms like “You can get more with a kind word and a gun than with just a kind word.” At age 11 I became a fan.

Allen left the show in 1957 to concentrate on his primetime show and was replaced by Jack Parr who in the early 1940s was the morning host on Buffalo radio station WBEN. During his years on the show while retaining the name The Tonight Show it was now marketed as the “Jack Parr Show” a practice that would continue. Music was provided by a combo directed by Jose Melis an Army buddy of Parr and his announcer was future TV icon Hugh Downs.

In February 1960, Parr walked off the show after NBC censors edited out a segment from the previous day’s program that was a joke about a WC or what the British call a small room with a flush toilet being confused for a “wayside chapel.” I missed his walking off the show, but I watched, as did much of America, his return on March 7, 1960. I still remember his coming on stage at the show opening and saying, “As I was saying before I was interrupted…..” adding that on leaving he had said “There must be a better way to make a living. Well, I’ve looked and there isn’t.” Parr left Tonight in March 1962 and began doing a prime time show on Friday nights.

After a short break the Carson era began, and it would run for 30 years. My first memories of Johnny were when he hosted the ABC afternoon quiz/comedy show “Who Do you Trust.” Carson brought along his “Who Do you Trust” announcer Ed McMahon and Skitch Henderson returned to lead the Tonight Show Orchestra until 1966 When Doc Severinsen took over.

Carson didn’t have the edgy personality that Parr did, but his low key approach struck a chord with viewers. For me Carson was the sort of guy you wanted at 11:30 after a hard day because he assured us that things weren’t so bad and that there were still things to laugh at. His jokes spared neither party nor the left or right and even now no one seems to know his politics.

Carson’s last show was on Friday evening, May 22, 1992. It was the end of an era for me. I occasionally watched Jay Leno but never watched Conan O’Brien or Jimmy Fallon. I made other choices.

In my opinion the real reason for the cancellation of Colbert and the recent suspension of Kimmel is the changing face of television and not the threat of government censorship. Viewers now have a wide variety of programming to choose from with hundreds of channels on cable and satellite services and on a rapidly increasing number of streaming services. Like me, viewers made other choices.

Both shows tended to preach a liberal anti-Trump gospel in a nation that is more center right politically. In Kimmel’s case his insensitive and inaccurate remarks about the death of Charlie Kirk was the final straw for affiliates, ABC, and Disney. In the end their views turned off enough conservative viewers who took advantage of the wide range of choices. Rating went down bringing advertising revenue down. When Colbert’s show was canceled, it was said to be losing $40 million to $50 million a year.

Late night TV has changed and will never be the same.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com