Content deleted Content added
Llogan79425 (talk | contribs) |
|||
Line 22:
==History==
===1988–1994: Bob Costas===
{{quote box|quote=''To be a good guest on Later, you had to have a body of work. And I pat myself on the back here, but it also goes to the producers and researchers: show business people and athletes stay up at odd hours and they watched the show in disproportionate numbers so a lot of people who didn't do TV back then—and there was still a lot of people who didn't do a lot of TV then—did Later. [[Paul McCartney]] did and he hadn't done any US television in 10 years, [[Robert Duvall]] who hates interviews did a three-parter, [[Paul Simon]] did, as did [[Carole King]] who hardly ever does any television and is very shy, [[Elie Wiesel]] did, [[Martin Scorsese]] did Later and then showed it to his [[Tisch School of the Arts|film class]] at [[New York University|NYU]]... <br>Even the athletes we had—[[Hank Aaron]], [[Kareem Abdul-Jabbar|Kareem]], [[Jim Brown]], [[John Wooden]], [[Mickey Mantle]]—were people with significant life stories, we didn't go after the hot athletes of the moment... <br>Of course, there were times when on Monday you'd have a show for the [[time capsule]] and then on Tuesday, just because you had to have a show, you had someone who was in a sitcom or had a movie coming out that week. We did well over 600 shows, and I wouldn't want the bottom 100 of them to be re-released, but I think most of them held up pretty well.''|source=Costas in 2017 on his time hosting ''Later''.<ref name="simmons-costas-on-later-october-2017">{{cite news|last=Simmons|first=Bill|url=https://soundcloud.com/the-bill-simmons-podcast/bob-costas-on-learning-from-letterman-the-olympics-future-and-the-best-baseball-storylines-ep-272|title=Bob Costas on Letterman, the Future of the Olympics (Ep. 272) (25:40)|agency=The Bill Simmons Podcast|date=13 October 2017|access-date=18 October 2017}}</ref>|width=28%|align=right}}
In the summer of [[1988 in American television|1988]], NBC decided to again start producing original programming in the 1:30 a.m. Monday-Thursday slot following an almost 5-year period—ever since ''[[NBC News Overnight]]'' went off the air in late fall 1983—during which the time slot had been vacant and local affiliates either [[sign-off|signed off for the night]] or programmed the airtime themselves. NBC sportscaster [[Bob Costas]] was brought in as the host.<ref>{{cite news |last=Barnhart|first=Aaron|date=June 3, 2021|title=Later, Later: After 33 Years, NBC's 1:30 A.M. Talk Show Franchise Is History|url=https://www.primetimer.com/barnhart/later|work=Primetimer|location= |access-date=}}</ref> Created and produced by [[Dick Ebersol]], the new program was something of a break from the typical American late night TV talk show format of the era; featuring Costas and a single guest having an intense conversation for the entire half hour—without a house band, opening monologue, studio audience or guest musical performances, close to what [[Tom Snyder]] had done on ''[[The Tomorrow Show|Tomorrow]]'' in a similar timeslot during the 1970s and would again do on ''[[The Late Late Show (CBS TV series)|The Late Late Show]]'' in the mid-1990s.
By the time he
''Later'' was taped in [[New York City]] at [[GE Building]]'s famous [[Studio 8H]], and occasionally in [[Los Angeles]]. Costas interviewed a single guest for 45 minutes to an hour in real time before turning the material over to editors, who condensed it down to 22 minutes plus commercials.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmyB934SsDI |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131007162848/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmyB934SsDI |archive-date=2013-10-07 |url-status=dead|title=YouTube |publisher=YouTube |access-date=2013-09-16}}</ref> On several occasions, an interview with a particularly noteworthy guest (examples include [[Paul McCartney]], [[David Crosby]], [[Bob Seger]], [[Don Rickles]], [[Jerry Lewis]], [[David Letterman]], [[Garry Shandling]], [[Gene Siskel|Siskel]] & [[Roger Ebert|Ebert]], [[Mel Brooks]], [[Roger Corman]], [[Robert Duvall]] and [[Martin Scorsese]]) was shown over multiple nights. These in-depth discussions won Costas much praise for his interviewing skills. Costas resided in [[St. Louis]] all through his run on ''Later'', flying to New York City once per week to shoot a week worth of shows, recording all four in a single day.
| |||