Trivia / The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

• Corpsing:
  • Before reading one of the "Headlines" (a "for sale" ad selling "fudge-packing machines"), Leno cracked a smile, and Kevin asked what was so funny. Leno asked if the audience was sure they wanted this one, and when they cheered, he proclaimed that he was just going to read it, and wasn't going to comment or smirk. But then he glanced at it again and smirked. Cue Kevin: "You're smirkin' already! You're smirkin' before you even say it!"
  • In another "Headlines" segment, Jay proclaimed that this next one was "the single stupidest" product he'd ever seen; it was a catalog entry for "Toilet Golf" (a kit containing a green rug, mini clubs and golf balls for "practicing your putting on the potty"). Jay helplessly laughed himself silly for nearly a minute. After his laughter had subsided, he remarked, "I love that one. That one's going on the wall."
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Even Jay Leno's era is not exempt from this; none of his episodes or specials have come to DVD, and the only legally-available options were a few Headlines and Jaywalking compilations on iTunes, which have since been removed from the service. His Tonight Show YouTube channel is also gone, so you can't even watch clips from his era on a legit YT channel.
• The Pete Best: Branford Marsalis was the bandleader before Kevin Eubanks.
• Recycled Set: For his first two years, Leno continued to use Carson's old set, albeit updated. In 1994, he moved into the set he'd keep for the next 15 years. When he returned in 2010, he kept his "Jay Leno Show" set, again slightly altered.
• Old Shame: The May 20, 1993 episode, which was a special live episode from the Cheers pub with the show's cast to commemorate the series' finale that aired earlier that night. Having been there the whole day celebrating, the cast was completely wasted and unable to properly participate in the show at any capacity, and Leno can be seen growing visibly frustrated with them as the hour drags on. Leno called the show a "mistake" afterwards and Cheers star Ted Danson subsequently appeared as a guest a week later to apologize for the special being such a mess. It was quickly buried in the archives and never acknowledged by either party again, aside from Leno citing it as the worst episode he ever did and the reason why he never did another live show.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally, Leno's post-Tonight project was to have been an American Top Gear. Leno actually turned down this idea when it was initially proposed to him, realizing that what made Top Gear work was its non-commercial carriage on The BBC, while an NBC version would be filled with Product Placement and Executive Meddling. There was also some concern from BBC America that an American version would cannibalize ratings of the original on BBC America, where it's very popular. An American version did eventually premiere on the History Channel, while Leno would eventually host a very similar program, Jay Leno's Garage, on CNBC.
  • The Tonight Show Starring David Letterman could well have been the case, but Letterman assumed he'd be the successor, as did Carson. Leno (or his manager, Helen Kushnick; nobody's actually really sure) actively but quietly campaigned to get the job from the people that actually made the decision. As a last-ditch offer to Letterman, NBC proposed giving him Tonight starting in May of 1994, booting Leno of the host chair after two years, a deal that Letterman was sorely tempted to accept until he was talked out of it. After all was said and done Letterman jumped to CBS in the fall of 1993. The later Tonight shenanigans involving Leno and Conan O'Brien make that all Hilarious in Hindsight.

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