Jay Leno’s Last “Tonight Show”

Friday night, Jay Leno will say goodbye to The Tonight Show he hosted for the past 17 years - which is only a temporary good-bye, considering he'll emerge from hibernation on NBC this fall at 10 p.m. for a daily prime-time show.

In an interview about leaving The Tonight Show, Leno, 59, said,

"Will I miss it? Yes, terribly. It's the most wonderful job ever in show business."

On the eve of his last episode, Billy Crystal, who was Leno’s first “Tonight” guest 17 years ago, returned to the show to salute him with a musical medley.

Conan O'Brien will serve as Leno's final guest. The show will also feature musical guest James Taylor.

Starting Monday, Conan O’Brien will take over The Tonight Show at a newly built studio at nearby Universal City.

Mr. Leno ended by asking viewers to “please give Conan as much support as you’ve given me throughout the years.”

After 17 years as the host of “The Tonight Show,” Mr. Leno’s final show on Friday night, his 3,775th, was much like many of the others, filled with monologue jokes and some of his signature comedy pieces. He presented highlights of many of those pieces during his last week, but saved perhaps the most popular, “Jaywalking,” for the finale.

The segment consists of Mr. Leno asking basic questions of people in the street, who come up with mind-boggling answers.

Among those in the final collection: a woman asked to identify the French emperor whose name is also a pastry answered, “Crème brûlée?” Another woman was asked what the initials D.C. mean after Washington. Her answer: “Da Capital.”

The last night’s audience greeted Mr. Leno with what was most likely the most sustained ovation of his career, and he had to insist they sit before he could begin. He talked about changes he and the show had gone through, noting that when he started his hair was “black and the president was white.”

Jay Leno Hospitalized
Jay Leno checked into a hospital with an undisclosed illness Thursday and canceled the taping of the ``Tonight'' show, but was doing well and planned to return next week, his publicist and NBC said. Leno left his office at NBC's studios about midday and checked himself into a hospital for observation, said his publicist, Dick Guttman.

He would not identify what ailed Leno, but characterized it as ``mild'' and said the comedian continued to work Thursday, making phone calls and writing jokes. ``Jay Leno is doing just fine,'' read a statement from NBC spokeswoman Tracy St. Pierre. ``He was kidding around with the hospital staff and running his monologue jokes by the doctors and the nurses. He's expected back to work on Monday.'' A woman who answered the news and communications line at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, which is near the Burbank studio where Leno tapes ``Tonight,'' said they had no patient by the name of Jay Leno, and referred inquiries to NBC.Scheduled guests on Thursday's show were Ryan Reynolds, Jules Sylvester and the swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Instead, NBC planned to air a rerun. It was an unusual lapse for the famously intrepid performer, who routinely fills off-days from his TV show with live appearances on the comedy circuit. Leno, who turns 59 on Tuesday, will leave the ``Tonight'' show May 29 after 17 years.

But he will continue on NBC, with a Monday-through-Friday program at 10 p.m., starting in the fall. The top-rated late-night host's move to prime time created a stir in the industry, taking the time slot usually reserved by broadcast networks for dramas such as ``ER.''
And Leno has continued to make news, scoring a coup by booking President Barack Obama as a guest and performing free comedy concerts in the recession-wracked Detroit area.

Jay Leno is best known as the man who replaced Johnny Carson at the helm of The Tonight Show in 1992. Leno was born James Douglas Muir Leno to parents of Italian and Scottish heritage (Leno is particularly fond of discussing the Italian part) in New Rochelle, NY, but was raised in Andover, MA. During the year in which he was establishing his standup career, Leno was performing 300 nights throughout North America.

He made his television debut on the Merv Griffin Show and his acting debut in Silver Bears (1977). That year he appeared in the cast of the short-lived Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. Show, a musical variety summer replacement series. By the early '80s, Leno had left behind any notion of becoming an actor because his comedy career was in high gear. His subsequent film appearances have been as himself or as a parody of himself (The Flintstones, 1994). Leno made his first appearance on The Tonight Show on March 2, 1977. Though he can be sharp and is an astute political commentator, there is something nice and comforting about the soft-eyed, lantern-jawed funnyman that appeals to vast middle-American audiences, the same sort who regularly tuned in to Carson. It is small wonder that Leno became Carson's sole guest host by 1987.

Leno hosted his first show as Carson's successor on May 25, 1992, with comedian Billy Crystal as his first guest. There was much furor surrounding the selection of Leno as many believed fellow late night gab-meister David Letterman would inherit the throne. Since taking the Tonight Show's reigns, Leno has attempted to inject the show with a slightly hipper edge by featuring more radical musical acts and affecting a more casual look. It's a tough balancing act, for he must do so without alienating his older, more conservative fan base. Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide