Last episode of this series aired tonight. I especially enjoyed the first few episodes learning about the beginnings of The Tonight Show.

One issue. I'm struggling to understand why the hell The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson wasn't talked about more over the course of the series? There was just one mention tonight for a few seconds and it was about the show ending. Then they went on and on about James Corden taking over and dramatically "changing the way people watch late night."

Maybe you thought the puppets were weird and the gay robot was lame -- but the man was on CBS for 10 years. He was leading Conan, Fallon, and Kimmel in the ratings at times. CNN had roughly 5 hours to discuss the evolution and the constant deconstruction of the format. Not taking a few minutes to talk about Craig is insulting to their viewers.

I missed this series! I hope can catch it on demand somewhere.

I can't disagree with anything you said. I wasn't a huge Craig Ferguson viewer, but every time I watched it, it was something different and interesting and weird. Skipping over him to fawn over James Corden (Peter Rabbit 2 now in theaters across America) and his soy car songs is a gross oversight.

There's a lot of old NBC Letterman up on YouTube if you want to poke around. I recommend the one where he sporadically pops in during a rerun to talk about how bad it was. I hope most of the series focused on him.

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I loved Carson and Letterman, I don't know if I would have liked them now. I wish I'd have caught more of Ferguson, he's funny and seems decent. I'm sad, almost despondent about Jimmy Kimmel.

Craig Ferguson is my personal fav late night host.

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Carson
Letterman
(big gap)
Conan
Ferguson
(even bigger gap)
Kimmel
(death)
Leno
Corden
Colbert
Fallon

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Ferguson, silliness aside, was the best interviewer of all of them (other than the legendary Tom Snyder). Hell, the man won a Peabody for interviewing Desmond Tutu. His serious monologues about Johnny Carson's death and Brittany Spears' addiction were amazing, I happened to catch both of those live.

Edit to add a link to his Spears monologue: https://youtu.be/7ZVWIELHQQY

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Jimmy Kimmel is such a disappointment. Fake everything from head to toe.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Yeah he had a rare personality that was under appreciated for too long.

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i watched cnn's documentaries about the 80s. fairly good.

couldn't take their political partisanship anymore and wouldn't watch anything they produce.

Thanks for the update

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I agree with you about Ferguson, and I also think more time could've been spent on Tom Snyder as well (I haven't seen the final episode).

I really enjoyed the 1st episode..seeing Ernie Kovacs do a version of Carnac the Magnificent decades before Carson, or seeing the direct lineage between Steve Allen and David Letterman. Well executed series with some obvious flaws.

Early Letterman was priceless.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Paul Schaffers's finest moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaZJZvsFigA

I thought he was good on the football show, ben stein's money, and the man show. I didn't watch any of them regularly but when I'd catch them or have it on it was fine. I thought he'd be great on his own show, fuck was I wrong. I couldn't tell you the last time I watched any of the late night shows. I don't care what any of the celebrities are doing and I don't think the hosts are funny. It sucks. I'd say it's because of my age but my parents used to watch them at my age. It just seems different and not as good.

It was a great series. I'm sure they'll be running reruns you can DVR or you can catch it on CNN Go.

When I get the itch, I do sometimes poke around old Ferguson stuff, as well as Letterman and Cavett, and some Carson.

I must have missed the Carson monologue! I know I've never seen it on YouTube.

The morning show was great and the early late nights were awesome.

Were their any highlights of Thicke of the Night?

I really liked Ferguson. Interviews by him or of him are awfully good. Wish I had caught more of his show but it was past my peak late night television viewing age. I don't believe Ive watched a late night show in years, I'm too old and tired. Letterman was a constant companion during the summers of my youth as I would watch until the house cooled down enough for me to fall asleep.

I'm too young to remember Snyder but knew him as the host before Ferguson and Kilborn. A quick Wikipedia search tells me he had a show on NBC after Carson -- I guess Charles Manson was on once

Wikipedia also tells me Letterman idolized him too and hired him over at CBS. These are things I didn't know that I wish was covered in the CNN series.

I did enjoy learning about the Steve Allen - Letterman - Conan connection, in terms of the appeal to younger audiences. That's who Ferguson was for me. Again, there's plenty of people that didn't care for Ferguson, and that's cool, but I find it really insulting not to spend just a few minutes talking about an 11:30 show which had cursing puppets, a gay robot skeleton, and no band that somehow lasted 10 years on a network station.

A high school friend met him at a wedding here in AZ maybe 10 years ago. She said he was very nice and chill guy. I agree though, he's gotten really cringey.

Yep, Letterman was beset with guilt that he replaced Snyder at NBC, so he hired him at CBS. Then CBS, which was finally getting serious around 1998-99 after their post-NFL dark age, ushered him out the door for Craig Kilborn.

I remember catching The Late Late Show a few times when I was a kid. It's a corollary to the M*A*S*H/Taxi themes: when smooth jazz played and the talk show wasn't a comedy anymore, you knew it was really time to go to bed.

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Fallon last seems right.

Arsenio was awesome. And I remember watching Joan a few late nights as well.

Everybody always forgets Carson Daly too.

I watched a few of those shows as well as his predecessor Costas. A lot more Costas as that was during the too damn hot to sleep summer time viewing hours.

About the only thre I like from that list is Carson,Ferguson and Conan.

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

I completely forgot about Arsenio. That was probably only on for about 5 years or so but I was at the perfect age for it. He always had really good guests. I remember being a little disappointed with him on celebrity apprentice I can't remember why.

What I remember best about Carson Daly is that he replaced reruns of SCTV and I was very upset about it.

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Out of curiosity, does anyone on this board still watch late night talk shows? It seems like a format that has run its course.

Yeah I don’t remember Carson Daly for anything except arguing with Fred Durst over who got head from Christina Aguilera first.

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Nope, it's dead. It doesn't exist to be watched in late night, it exists to be written about by television critics for Slate and NPR and to have little bite-sized videos get shared the next morning. Does anyone watch The Amber Ruffin Show who doesn't have a byline?

EDIT: this is even more true for Saturday Night Live

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