I just ordered a batch of DVDs from www.johnnycarson.com. They have some wonderful shows for sale there, and I'm a sucker for Carson at his best or even his near-best. Great stuff. However, whoever wrote up the history stuff on that site is a little fuzzy on details. Here's one paragraph they have posted over there…
"Tonight!" was originally hosted by Steve Allen in 1954. Allen's regular side-kick was Ernie Kovacs. Kovacs became known as "the first commercial television artist". Ernie Kovacs alternated hosting the show with Steve Allen. However, it was Steve Allen who established many of the standards of late night television, introducing the desk and couch and an emphasis on conversations with guests.
Ernie Kovacs was never Steve Allen's sidekick in any sense of the word; they weren't even on the show at the same time. Kovacs did not start hosting The Tonight Show until the last few months of Allen's run. The above makes it sound like they alternated the whole time, whereas Ernie only hosted two nights a week for about seven months. (It's a shame none of those episodes still exist, as they were reputed to be Kovacs at his non-gimmicky best. I've always preferred him without the camera tricks and wacky props.)
The rest of the above "history" is more arguable. Some might suggest that Sid Caesar or even Steve Allen was "the first commercial television artist." And conversation was a very small part of the Steve Allen Tonight Show. It was more like a variety show with the occasional interview, much like Broadway Open House before it. Jack Paar was the guy who first did a late night show that consisted mainly of folks just sitting around and talking.
This is all, I suppose, trivial. But you'd sorta kinda maybe think Johnny Carson's official website could get the lineage of The Tonight Show straight. Makes you wonder about a lot of the "research" we all do on the Internet.