A lot of things will be different for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (NBC, midnight), making its celebrated debut this evening.
It moves from Burbank back to New York for the first time in more than 40 years. Having Lorne Michaels produce will give a sense of sophistication and absurdity that is familiar to audiences of “Saturday Night Live” and “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” (and Conan O’Brien before him).
But in many ways it will simply be a time shift, bringing “Late Night” across the hall to a different studio, and bringing most of the same writers, the terrific house band in the Roots, and Fallon’s interest in music and games. (By starting this week at midnight because of the Olympics, it’s almost a way to slowly lure all the 12:30 a.m. viewers down to 11:30 as well).
Fallon is aware of the history and heritage of “The Tonight Show,” so he’s bringing back something else that Jay Leno didn’t have during his tenure — the word “starring” in the title. (The show for decades has been “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”).
Fallon, talking to reporters in California last month said it came to him while looking for the old logos for the show. “It was ‘The Tonight Show Starring..’ It was always ‘Starring Jack Paar,’ ‘Starring Steve Allen,’ ‘Starring Johnny Carson,'” he said.
“Then when Jay took it over, no one talked about it, but all of a sudden it was ‘with. And it’s fine that it’s ‘with,'” Fallon said.
But something was missing. “‘Starring’ makes it more like, ‘Hey, this is, like, where [we are]: we’re all in the business’” he said. “It’s show business. It’s glamorous. It’s Hollywood. It’s kind of fun. I like ‘starring.'”
“’Starring’ is a vastly more exciting word than ‘with,'” said his producer Josh Lieb.
“It’s an homage, a little tip of the cap a little bit to the origins of the show,” Fallon said. “I thought it would be perfect.”