https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/appreciate-jay-leno-late-night/

His swift recovery is a good excuse to revisit his late-night days. Many wish he was still making us laugh five nights a week.

Leno got his feet wet by filling in for Carson on “The Tonight Show” before officially taking over in 1992. Once Leno assumed the throne, he never looked back. He kept “The Tonight Show” at the top of the ratings heap, year in, year out.

His secret? He didn’t alienate red or blue state viewers.

His monologues, delivered with a panache forged from years behind the mic, hit both sides of the aisle. He reserved the sharpest blows for the current Commander in Chief, no matter the party affiliation. The focus stayed on the comedy, not petty partisan points.

That was the Carson model, and Leno stuck to the script.

Media critics never took to Leno. He wasn’t as hip or edgy as his late-night frenemy, David Letterman, even though Leno regularly beat his CBS rival.

Leno’s gentle approach also won him few converts. News outlets preferred harder-edged talents like Louis C.K. or Dave Chappelle, at least before the woke revolution consumed comedy.

Leno left the late-night arena twice, both times seemingly under duress. NBC tried replacing him with Conan O’Brien, a comedian with a quirkier subset of fans, in 2009. Leno moved to the 10 p.m. hour, a disastrous double switch the Peacock network eventually reversed.

O’Brien took the brunt of the fallout, eventually moving to TBS to lick his wounds and revive his career.

NBC pushed Leno out for good in 2014, installing the younger Jimmy Fallon to age-proof the franchise. Fallon proved a snug fit, bringing musical chops and a knack for impressions with him.

And, most importantly, Fallon kept his ratings lead on Letterman’s replacement, Stephen Colbert.

That didn’t last.

The Trump era gave late-night comedians the signal to embrace their liberal impulses. That, plus Trump Derangement coarsing through Team Democrat, gave Colbert the edge over Fallon’s milquetoast manner.

The “Saturday Night Live” alum is now a regular third or fourth-place finisher in the late-night wars. Fallon’s Colbert-lite approach, ignoring jokes that paint Democrats in an unflattering light, is proving disastrous to the “Tonight Show” mantle.

Bet NBC is missing Leno now.

Seen today, Leno’s reign is even more remarkable. He didn’t embrace fads or anger from his “Tonight Show” perch. He stayed mostly the same, relying on his stand-up experience to power the show.

He avoided the cutesy characters that marked the Carson era. No Aunt Blabby or Carnac the Magnificent. His best bit, Jaywalking, turned a dumbed-down generation into a punch line.

Would Leno change his apolitical ways if he had lasted to 2022? The pressure to do so would be intense. Are there any late-night writers brave enough to tweak President Joe Biden or Rep. Nancy Pelosi?

Could Leno coax them to try?

Leno would likely have played along for a while but slowly looked for an exit ramp. His comic principles wouldn’t mesh with today’s clapter mantra. Leno told his fair share of lousy jokes over the years, but they all had good intentions.

For Leno, peddling partisan gags wouldn’t have been worth the fat paychecks. He’s content to host “Jay Leno’s Garage” and perform stand-up as if he didn’t have millions in the bank already.

Colbert and co. have no such qualms, apparently.

Leno’s motto remained simple then and now. Write joke. Tell joke. Collect check. Simple. Direct. And with a hearty respect for the customer.

That, more than any other element of Leno’s legacy, is missed the most today.

We never appreciated it because it simultaneously sucked and blowed.

Ack. I just noticed I replied to one of TMC’s clickbait threads. I need to boil my iPad.

Jay Leno for whatever reason gets a lot of criticism. For one thing, he followed Johnny Carson, who was by far the greatest talk show host of all time and that's really saying something because there were lots of great talk show hosts (Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Dick Cavett for example). Absolutely no one was going to follow Carson and be as good as Carson was. The whole Conan O'Brien thing with Leno, whatever that was. What it was that under O'Brien, the ratings fell to the floor and the network wanted Leno back and handled it the worst way possible. Fortunately for O'Brien, he did/does have a cult following and went to TBS, but TBS was a long fall from NBC. Not a big Conan fan but will watch him if there is a guest I like (usually Bill Burr) and Conan isnt bad. He is friendly, not a pretentious jerk, asks good questions, let's the guest talk, good pacing. He is much better than Letterman (see below) or the current crop now.

For whatever reason, Carson wanted David Letterman to succeed him, but the network thought otherwise and chose Leno over Letterman and Letterman went over to CBS. I have heard that other comedians dislike Leno, they never thought he was funny, he was a joke stealer, he wasnt original and was just corporate comedy. I personally thought he was fine and more or less kept most of the facets of the previous Carson show. I found Leno to be a very good interviewer, Leno to me was the most similar to Carson in this regard, letting the guest shine, not interrupting the guest, asking good questions and making the guest feel comfortable. Leno also continued the Carson tradition of being on "average people“ with a crazy story or talent, or a very elderly person. Leno's show was not groundbreaking, he just continued the Carson formula and put his stamp on it.

I have also read, and my parents actually went to a Leno stand up show and everyone (except jealous people in his business) have all said that he is a very nice and humble person who loved people and his audience. This is much different than Carson or Letterman. Carson and Letterman are not bad because of this, but Carson on his own time liked being alone and doing his own thing and rarely, rarely interacted with other celebrities or go to their parties (and when he did, would get drunk to make himself more comfortable with others but also made him much more insufferable). You couldnt take Carson anywhere and Carson never wanted to go except for a few friends in private (like Michael Landon).

For me, I couldnt stand David Letterman and would only watch him (he was more tolerable in the old days at NBC) if there was just someone I just wanted to see badly. Letterman to me was a jerk, and not funny. He to me was jerk funny if that makes sense. Paul Shaffer....ugh, dont get me started on him. Letterman the jerk and his unfunny jerk sidekick. One thing that would annoy me about Shaffer is when a guest band would play a number and his stupid band had to join in. If I was a member of the guest band, I would have hate this, but a lot of these groups were up and comers, and would not have objected publically.

I will say this about Letterman, like Carson, he was apolitical on the stage. Like I said, couldnt stand the guy but I have never seen him say anything about the President or politics. Now we have Kimmel and Colbert (and would much rather be tortured with cattle prods that watch five minutes of Colbert) who are always, always talking politics, especially during the Trump era. It was like Trump gave these two years of material. Colbert is the most pretentious bunghole of the crop. That kid who does the Tonight Show now, I dont know what he does, but he has never seemed right for the job, like a boy doing a man's job. I dont think Carson would be happy or impressed (or would laugh at the state of affairs of his medium).