That's what they called Jack Paar, who died this morning after a long, lingering illness. I'm just barely too young to recall his version of The Tonight Show and thanks to the lunkhead at NBC who threw out all but a few tapes, I've never had the chance to see more than a few clips. But I do recall the hour-long Friday night program that Paar then did for three years as The Jack Paar Show. It had many wonderful moments and when I heard Paar speak about ten years ago, he remarked that most people confused the two, recalling moments from the latter (probably, better) show as having occurred on The Tonight Show. On both programs, he trotted out fascinating conversationalists, most from a short list of "regulars" that included Oscar Levant, Alexander King, Peter Ustinov, Hans Conreid, Jonathan Winters and Bea Lillie. He also showcased many new comedians and occasionally welcomed a Richard Nixon or Bobby Kennedy to his guest chair.
Before The Tonight Show, Paar was the All-American Fill-In. He hosted quiz shows, panel shows, morning shows, everything. He was the guy they hired when they didn't know whom else to hire. It was an industry joke that every summer, he would turn up as the star of some low-budget summer replacement series, then disappear again at the first sign of Autumn. When NBC tapped him for Tonight, it was almost out of desperation. When Steve Allen gave up The Tonight Show, everyone expected the job to go to Ernie Kovacs, who'd been hosting the show almost as often as Allen. Instead, NBC tried a Godawful mess called Tonight: America After Dark hosted by a tag-team of newspaper columnists. When it flopped, the network tried to get Kovacs back but he was off doing movies, so they went to Paar…but not to host a talk or variety show. The idea then was to fill the 105 minute time slot with three game shows, all hosted by one guy. When it became apparent they couldn't pull the game show idea together in time, they let Paar do a talk show.
That was pretty much how Paar's entire career went: Accidents, mistakes, things being done out of desperation. Somehow, it usually worked.
The Tonight Show under Steve Allen had not been a talk show as we now know them. It had interviews but it also had sketches, stunts, games, lots of music, a stock company of comedy players and even (for a time) a real newscast. Paar usually did a monologue, then either a prepared comedy piece or some sort of demonstration of new products. The rest of the show was conversation with the occasional music number or stand-up act. Both Allen and Paar ignored other antecedents and claimed their version was "the first talk show," leading to a life-long argument that now is sadly moot. Obviously, it all depends on your definition but there's no question that between them, the two shows set the template for all that followed.
Paar was emotional. He engaged in on-air feuds, mostly with newspaper reporters. He cried occasionally on camera. He would sometimes chuck the monologue, sit on the edge of his desk and talk from the heart to America about what was bothering him. And once he even walked off his own show over a silly censorship squabble…an incident which too often is all that people recall of his show.
Paar left television for the most part in '65, then returned in 1975 to do one week a month for ABC late night. The new show didn't work, in part because it was the old show: Paar remained more or less stuck in 1959, trotting out his old regulars (those who'd survived) and telling stories about having Adlai Stevenson on his old show. In later years when he surfaced for the occasional interview, he still hadn't advanced much. He criticized "current talk shows" for eschewing witty guests for dizzy starlets…an odd criticism from one who gave so much air time to a woman named Dody Goodman whose mouth never once connected with her medulla oblongata. He also devoted a lot of TV hours to chatting with Genevieve (a French starlet who didn't speak English well), Reiko (a Japanese lady who didn't speak English well) and the Gabor sisters. I suspect that, like a lot of old TV shows, the Paar Tonight Show is legendary in part because the shows aren't available to be seen and fairly evaluated.
Still, there were more than enough wonderful things to earn Paar his place in television history. It's right there between Steve Allen and Johnny Carson, which puts him in fine company.