Background
The talk show was a direct attempt at competing against NBC's seminal The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and in fact Rivers had been for the previous few years the permanent guest host on Tonight, substituting for Carson.
Many in 1986, including top executives at NBC, thought it was possible that Johnny Carson would retire after reaching his 25th anniversary on October 1, 1987 as it was such a logical cut-off point.
In spring 1986, a confidential memo between top NBC executives listing about 10 possible replacements in the event of Carson's retirement the next year was leaked. When Rivers saw it, she was shocked to see that she was nowhere on the list despite the fact that she had been The Tonight Show's permanent guest host since 1983.
Another rumor is that soon after, when Carson decided to stay beyond 1987, NBC offered him a three-year contract extension – but only offered Rivers a one-year extension as guest host.
Read more about this topic: The Late Show (1986 TV Series)
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)