Word: tv
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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...
...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 is barking...
...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 get exposure on mainstream TV. And in contrast to the carefully stage-managed routines on the Tonight show, Hall's manic energy sends a signal that just about anything can happen at his nightly party. "There used to be a feeling that late at night people wanted to be put to sleep by a talk...
...press's fixation on race nettles Hall even more. Though he takes pride in giving exposure to many black performers ("I have a commitment to correcting the wrongs of TV history"), Hall insists he is doing a show for everybody, black and white. "I'm out to bring the ghetto to the suburbs and the suburbs to the ghetto. I want ((rapper)) Tone-Loc and Major Ferguson, Fergie's dad, on the same couch. Most white people have never been to a party at a black person's house. I hope they say, 'This one looks nice -- maybe...
...Arsenio eats, sleeps and breathes the show," says Cheryl Bonacci, vice president of Arsenio Hall Communications, which was formed last year to handle his TV and record affairs. "When he's not doing that, he's sitting in his house writing songs. Things like going out just aren't important to him right now." Hall usually arrives at the office around 11, conducts personal business and prepares for the late-afternoon taping. After the show, he reviews the tape with producer Brown, who worked with him on The Late Show. Most nights he watches the show again at home...