Tonight Show

Barbara Walters, Peter Jennings and Diane Sawyer all made their best pitch but were turned down. Johnny Carson, the man who changed forever the world of late-night talk, wasn't talking. The network news powerhouses had separately attempted to secure interviews with Carson to get him to speak about his life and his place as one of the most influential figures in TV history. But from his 1992 retirement after 30 years on"The Tonight Show"until his death in 2005 at age 79, Carson steadfastly refused to cooperate with almost all interviews, books or films that would have called on him to reflect on his past or his show, which simultaneously reflected and influenced the nation's conversation about itself.

Barbara Walters, Peter Jennings and Diane Sawyer all made their best pitch but were turned down. Johnny Carson, the man who changed forever the world of late-night talk, wasn't talking. The network news powerhouses had separately attempted to secure interviews with Carson to get him to speak about his life and his place as one of the most influential figures in TV history. But from his 1992 retirement after 30 years on"The Tonight Show"until his death in 2005 at age 79, Carson steadfastly refused to cooperate with almost all interviews, books or films that would have called on him to reflect on his past or his show, which simultaneously reflected and influenced the nation's conversation about itself.

Jeff Sotzing remembers a Christmas party more than 30 years ago when he and his Uncle Johnny had a fateful chat. "I had actually run into Johnny at a Christmas get-together and told him I was going to school studying videotape editing in Pasadena," Sotzing recalled. "A few months later, he called and said this guy had just left the show and it would be a great place to work for the summer, learn all about the show and meet all the people. It wasn't just any summer job.

Former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who dropped out of the race after presenting an energetic challenge to Mitt Romney from the party's right flank, jousted over gay marriage and contemporary culture with Jay Leno on Tuesday, the day after he endorsed his former rival (see videos below). Before they ever so gently crossed political swords, though, Santorum presented Leno with a gift, the sartorial symbol of his unexpectedly long-lived campaign: an American-made sweater vest from Bemidji Woolen Mills, a Minnesota company.

IT WAS 1987, AND HERE he was at last. Arsenio Hall, a relatively unknown comedian with an impossibly toothy grin and mischievous big brown eyes, was sitting behind Johnny Carson's desk in Studio 1 at NBC in Burbank. He was interviewing Cher. Hall had dreamed of this moment ever since he was a kid in Cleveland. When he was 22, he had thrown his meager belongings into a Pinto and headed for Los Angeles, hoping, as most young comedians do, to eventually land a five-minute stand-up gig on "The Tonight Show."

Dick Cheney jokes, George Bush jokes, Cheerios jokes and a "new bit" entitled "How Boring Is Alan Greenspan?": Jay Leno is back on late-night, looking happier and more self-confident than he has in months. (It takes a confident man to introduce the word "boring," not to mention Alan Greenspan, five minutes into an opening monologue.) And why not? As he has made clear through recent self-pitying interviews and the foot-dragging "The Jay Leno Show," he never wanted to leave "The Tonight Show" in the first place.

In a career studded with historic firsts, President Obama is preparing for yet another: hitting the late-night comedy circuit to pitch his economic recovery plan. It's hardly a laughing matter, with the country in its worst economic shape in decades. And it certainly doesn't approach the import of Obama's election as the nation's first black president.

After days of being portrayed as the bad guy, Jay Leno came out swinging on his show Monday and provided a detailed chronology of NBC's bumbling behind-the-scenes maneuvers that sparked the talk-show host tug-of-war engulfing the network. In an unusual departure from his typical banter, Leno described how NBC several years ago concocted a plan to push him out while he was still No. 1. He said he was skeptical that NBC's solution of a prime-time show would work. It "didn't seem like a good idea at the time," he said, though he ultimately went along.

The Early Show Beyoncé. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Julianne Moore; Chuck Nice serves as guest host; Steve Ward. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA Good Morning America State of the Union reaction; author Henry Louis Gates Jr. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Good Day L.A. (N) 7 a.m. KTTV Live With Regis and Kelly Jeff Probst; Julianne Moore. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View Tim Hasselbeck. (N) 10 a.m. KABC The Doctors The accuracy of at-home tests for urinary tract infections and male fertility.

In a preview of Rick Santorum's first appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (see video below), the former Pennsylvania senator, who could be prickly in debates, seemed relaxed and able to joke about some of the topics that cemented his reputation as the most conservative candidate in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. Leno prodded Santorum, who wore his trademark sweater vest, about the timing of his endorsement of Mitt Romney, which came at the end of a long email to supporters Monday.

David Letterman and Craig Ferguson have signed contracts with CBS that will keep their shows, "Late Show" and "The Late Late Show," respectively, on the air through 2014. Letterman is set to become the longest-serving late-night TV host in history, surpassing Johnny Carson's 30-year run on "The Tonight Show. " What sets Letterman's run apart from Carson's is that it is divided into two distinct sections: his original "Late Night With David Letterman" run on NBC, which lasted from 1982 until 1993, and his CBS run, which began in late 1993 and is still going.

Making his first turn on NBC's "Tonight Show" this election cycle, Mitt Romney mostly played the straight man Tuesday — but allowed himself a jab at his rival Rick Santorum for losing his cool over the weekend. Santorum created a kerfuffle by scolding New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny in Wisconsin on Sunday after the journalist asked him to clarify his remark during a speech that Romney was "the worst Republican in the country" to run against President Obama. The former Pennsylvania senator lashed out with a curse word — telling the reporter to "quit distorting my words.

President Obama got a taste of Los Angeles traffic Tuesday on his way to NBC's studios in Burbank, where he taped an interview with Jay Leno before jetting to San Francisco to raise more money for his reelection campaign. Obama's motorcade slowed to a crawl on Highway 101 just past Ventura Boulevard, setting the president about 10 minutes behind schedule. A few dozen supporters greeted him as he rolled through the studio gates. It was Obama's second appearance on "The Tonight Show" as president.

Charles Napier Character actor usually played the heavy Charles Napier, 75, a prolific character actor whose granite jaw and toothy grin earned him tough-guy roles in movies like "Rambo: First Blood Part II," died Wednesday at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, his longtime friend Dennis Wilson told the Bakersfield Californian. The cause was not given. Besides playing the scheming intelligence officer facing Sylvester Stallone in the 1985 "Rambo" sequel, Napier is also remembered as Good Ole Boys frontman Tucker McElroy in the 1980 musical comedy film "The Blues Brothers," the judge in 1993's "Philadelphia" and Lt. Bill Boyle in 1991's "Silence of the Lambs.

Tom Garvin, a jazz pianist and composer-arranger who was best known as an exceptional accompanist, died July 31 at an assisted living facility in Encino. He was 67. The cause was cancer, which diagnosed three years ago, said Tom Mitchell, a close friend. A fixture on the Los Angeles jazz scene, Garvin was "one of our town's better jazz pianists," The Times said in 1990. His specialty was accompaniment, and he did it "with a flair not often engendered by other pianists," John Gilbert wrote in 2003 in the online magazine jazzreview.com . Photos: Notable deaths of 2011: Music The many artists Garvin performed with include noted jazz vocalists Carmen McRae, Peggy Lee, Lou Rawls and Diane Schuur.

The title — "Conan O'Brien Can't Stop" — is as much a diagnosis as an ironic understatement in this hyperbolic fugue-documentary that follows the fast and furious comic blur as he burns through some very dark times. Rodman Flender may be the director, but O'Brien is setting the agenda and the breakneck pace. The film unfolds during the legally imposed TV blackout designed to keep O'Brien mostly gagged for about six months in 2010 after his brief gig as host of "The Tonight Show" publicly imploded.