Steve Martin’s Tonight Show Diary

July 4, 2020

Watch this, then we’ll get real nerdy.

Yep, guess what? We’re checking those dates.

8th December 1984 – there was no Tonight Show that night. Must have been a Saturday, and anyway, Joan Rivers was guest hosting that week.

2nd April 1985 – nope, he wasn’t on. Jeff Daniels and Colleen Camp were on.

12th November 1985 – again, nope. Garry Shandling was hosting, not Jay Leno, and the main guest was Teresa Ganzel.

2nd October 1986 – no Steve, instead it was Sikel & Ebert and Pete Barbutti.

24th September 1987 – again no Steve, unless he was disguised as one of Denise Parker, JoAnne Astrow, or Isabella Rossellini.

5th December 1987 – there was no show.

10th April 1988 – there wasn’t a single new Tonight Show in the whole month of April in 1988.

Now, I know this was just a bit, but it would have been a lovely attention to detail if the dates were genuine.

<

>

Proctology: A Bottom Examination

For a long time now I’ve been wanting to write an old-fashioned programme guide. One you can hold in your hand and thumb through, make notes on, spill coffee on. So I did. Proctology: A Bottom Examination is my deep dive into Bottom, the hit BBC Two sitcom starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. That’s…

Re-Casting Keanu

Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him eight years older than Clive Dunn was when he was first cast in Dad’s Army. But don’t panic, Clive Dunn was always playing much older characters than his own age. Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him seven years older than Stephanie Cole was when she was first…