Word: halls
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Complacency would be a mistake, however: Hall's popularity may signal a geologic shift in late-night TV. The rise and fall of potential rivals to Carson -- from Alan Thicke to Joan Rivers -- has become an industry joke. But Hall is the first to catch on, and he has done it by reaching out to a new group of viewers. It is not Carson's audience, Hall likes to point out, but Carson's audience's children. "The Tonight show is an institution," says Steve Allen, who started it all back in 1954. "But with each tick of the clock...
...Hall has a new-generation approach to stardom as well: try to do it all. At 30, he is not only the headliner but also the executive producer of his show. He hires the staff, okays the guests and even wrote the theme music. (He has a substantial share of the show's profits.) He has recorded a comedy-music album, Large and In Charge, scheduled for release later this month. On it he performs in the persona of an alter ego, a fat rapper named Chunky A, whom Hall played as a "guest" on his show last...
With his all-gums smile, flattop hairdo and exuberant, affable manner, Hall seems like an overgrown kid surveying a roomful of candy. His conversation is frank, unaffected, headlong. "When I'm on the air, I'm happy," he says, relaxing in his mirrored office on the Paramount lot, a muted TV set overhead tuned in to MTV. He is dressed in his typical off-hours duds: baseball cap, Reebok T shirt and unlaced sneakers. "I was born to do this. When I'm in the spotlight, I'm gone. I love it more than anything in the world. When everyone...
...show, for both good and ill, reflects that boyish, MTV-inspired energy. To his credit, Hall has shaken some of the dust off the stodgy talk-show format. His set has no desk; instead, Hall interviews guests on a modish chair-and-sofa ensemble, leaning forward intently. There is no Ed McMahon- style sidekick; Hall prefers to trade quips with the crowd or play around with the band in recurring bits like the "poetry moments," featuring various sidemen reading silly verse. Musically, the show has brought on a host of rock performers -- Kool Moe Dee, Living Colour, Winger -- who rarely...
...Hall's one concession to talk-show tradition is to perform an opening monologue. His topical jokes are lame compared with Carson's or Jay Leno's, but he exposes himself in a way those cool satirists never do. Talking about Ralph Abernathy's book, in which the former civil rights leader made allegations about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s sexual escapades, Hall barely disguised his anger. "He's just jealous," said Hall. "Probably hasn't been with three women in his life . . . Martin's still my hero. Right...