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May 24, 2013

Will Fallon be another Conan or another Magic Johnson? - VIDEOS

by Bob Sassone, posted Feb 18th 2009 12:33PM

Jimmy FallonWould you say that Arsenio Hall's show was a bomb? Yeah, neither would I.

But The St. Peterburg Times lumps Hall's show into a group that includes Magic Johnson, Chevy Chase, Pat Sajak, and Alan Thicke. They all hosted late night talk shows that never quite made it. And when I say never quite I made it, I mean they were gone in the blink of an eye. But Hall's show lasted about 6 seasons, and if I remember correctly was quite popular with younger viewers and gave Carson, Leno and Letterman some good competition in that demographic. I also don't agree with another statement, that Jon Stewart's talk show "sucked." I kinda liked it.

So will Jimmy Fallon's show be another short-lived show that couldn't compete? Or is it a different time now? A lot of people thought that another Jimmy, Kimmel, wouldn't last that long either. But it looks like he's here for the long haul.

When I think of Chase's show...wow, I still cringe a little bit. For the record, Sajak really wasn't that bad. I remember they tried to change the show at one point by having him wear sweaters (it's so casual!) and that was lame, but he's a good interviewer and a funny guy. After the jump, one of his CBS shows, with Bo Diddly, Betty White, William Shatner, and Valerie Harper.

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9 Comments

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eric f

you aren't helping Jimmy's case. Every time you use that stupid picture of him it makes me like him less.

February 19 2009 at 11:36 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kip

Arsenio Hall's show was awesome. It was on for 5 years. How the heck os that short lived? The band was frenetic and he did a great job for the youth vote. Remember at the time Dave was also appealing to the youth as well. Arsenio was also the only place you could see hip hop acts and new music. BTW, didn't a certain governor from Arkansas place sax on his show as well. Far from irrelevant.

Everyone who he competed against assimilated components into their show. He was on, I believe UPN in the NYC tri state, which never had the coverage to compete with lead ins to begin with.

February 19 2009 at 9:35 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cincinnati Mike

Arsenio certainly gave Johnny a run for the youth viewer. But the Dave-Jay war really sucked the air from the room. I think part of the reason Jay eventually came out on top is that he first killed Arsenio. Remember, Jay at first had that crazy bitch producer that everyone was afraid of...who would blackball anyone who didn't agree to appear on Jay first before appearing on Dave or Arsenio. Dave could combat that, but weaker, late-run Arsenio couldn't.

February 18 2009 at 2:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tracey

FYI: the best thing to come out of the Chevy Chase talk show was a Doritos commercial.

February 18 2009 at 1:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tracey

Jon Stewart's talk show was a bit underwhelming, but there was one moment that always stuck with me: his interview of William Shatner. I had always known that Shatner was Jewish, but Stewart's interview was really the only time that Shatner really came across that way to me. Stewart was doing the secular-Jew-bonding thing and it was quite striking; didn't work so well when he tried the same thing with Joe Lieberman.

As for Arsenio... the show was hugely popular at one time, but as I recall, it crashed and burned towards the end and became a joke, with Arsenio constantly name checking and talking about himself. Perhaps the people who wrote the article were thinking of the later Arsenio days rather than the earlier ones.

February 18 2009 at 1:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Arclight

No, you are remembering it wrong.

Jon Stewart's show really did suck.

February 18 2009 at 1:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
CJ

If I remember correctly, Hall decided to quit as he never intended to do a long term commitment to the project.

February 18 2009 at 1:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to CJ's comment
Matthew Golem

Arsenio was cancelled.

He claimed that booking guests like Louis Farrakhan turned off affiliates and advertisers, but I seem to recall the debut of the Chevy Chase show on FOX gobbled up most of his affiliate stations, and cut into his ratings.

February 18 2009 at 10:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Fred

Hall's show was actually pretty important in pop culture for a brief while. It's arguable that his appearance on the show helped Bill Clinton win the presidency.

February 18 2009 at 12:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

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