Silly Thinking

A moment to remember a pioneering talk show host.



Jack Paar passed away today at 85 years old.

Paar was Johnny Carson's predecessor on the NBC "Tonight Show" and for a generation he was one of the biggest TV stars.

Jack Paar was a one of a kind talent. He started in the army doing USO shows and ended up in Hollywood in the late 40's and signed a contract at 20th Century Fox where he appeared in a string of forgetable movies co-starring with the likes of Ginger Rodgers and Marilyn Monroe.

He re-surfaced in New York hosting a morning talk-news show on CBS that competed with "Today" and was the lead into "Captain Kangaroo". He was fired from that gig and replaced by Dick Van Dyke who was canned a few months later and replaced by Walter Cronkite who was fired and... you get the idea. Everyone who worked at CBS in the morning moved onto to bigger and better things in those days.

Finally when Steve Allen left his pioneering "Tonight" show in the late 50's NBC gave Paar a try.
Jack Paar approached the show with a different style than Allen. Much more personal and topical. Paar wore his heart on his sleeve and told stories about his family. He was not registered with any political party but had a great relationship with a young senator from Massachusettes named Kennedy and for the first time a Presidential candidate went on an entertainment program and kibitzed with the host during the campaign and quietly changed the face of politics in the U.S.
Unhappy NBC executives held thier collective breath when Jack Paar moved his show to Cuba for a week after the revolution and got the first interview with the new President of the country. A guy named Fidel.
Richard Nixon went on with Paar and played a song he wrote on the piano. "The Tonight Show" band did an arrangement of "this little ricky ticky song" and suprised the usually stiff Tricky Dick who seemed at ease for the one and only time on TV.
When President Kennedy was assisnated the country was still in shock weeks later. Jack Paar convinced the Attorny General, Bobby Kennedy, to come on "The Tonight Show" and both men told warm and funny stories about the slain President. It was a wake for the entire country. A signal that it was alright to laugh and remember the President as he was and move on from the public murder.
Five year later in 1968 when Bobby was assisnated Jack no longer worked at NBC but they asked him to come back and during those hours and days after the unimaginable happened, there was Jack Paar on an empty set sitting on a stool reminiscing about his friend who was murdered in Los Angeles and giving comfort to a country who thought the world was coming apart.

In the early sixties Jack went to Europe and came back and showed clips of his home movies of his trip abroad. While in Germany he went to a little club and saw a rock and roll band and shot some blurry pictures of them performing. Jack said they would be big one day that the reaction from the crowd was enormous. It is not very well known but Jack Paar showed us The Beatles for the first time on American TV.

Jack Paar introduced the country to the humor of Woody Allen who he hired to write jokes for his monolog and gave the kid his first network stand up spot.
He also liked an inventive comic playing the clubs in New York and gave him his first shot on the network. The guy became a staple on "The Tonight Show" and later on Paar's prime time program.
It got so unperdicatble one night Jack brought the young comic out in a cage and let him improv the show from there. It was hilarious.
Jonathan Winters is now an American treasure and gave TV it's funniest moments ever.

NBC censored Paar on "The Tonight Show" without his knowledge. They bleeped a joke about a water closet, a toliet, because they found it in bad taste. Paar was furious and walked off "The Tonight Show" the next night with an impassioned speech about free speech and expression. For months NBC tried to get him back and finally he relented and returned.
The network ate crow and Paar won.

Jack Paar changed TV into a warmer more personal place. His legacy continues. When David Letterman got his shot on NBC in the 12:30 spot after Carson he hired Hal Gurney to direct his show. Gurney was Jack Paar's director and Letterman watched the Paar programs for inspiration.
Johnny would not have been Johnny without the road map Jack Paar drew for "The Tonight Show" and today when you watch everyone from Ellen Degenerous to Jimmy Kimmel to Dave and Conan (who has a framed photo of Paar on his set) do TV they are doing a program that reflects their taste and style but a larger shadow looms of Jack Paar. An entertainer who was not a good comic, couldn't sing or dance, and certainly was horrible at juggling, but changed the face of TV, politics, and self expression, by simply bieng honest.
We have never seen anyone like him since and we probably never will.
I kid you not.