Behind the Curtain: An Insider's View of Jay Leno's Tonight Show

Take a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most memorable shows on late-night television-The Tonight Show. The show has spent sixty years on the air, delighting viewers with celebrity guest interviews, comedy sketches, and humorous monologues. Jay Leno served as host for twenty years, and Dave Berg [...]
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Take a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most memorable shows on late-night television-The Tonight Show. The show has spent sixty years on the air, delighting viewers with celebrity guest interviews, comedy sketches, and humorous monologues. Jay Leno served as host for twenty years, and Dave Berg acted as his co-producer for most of that time. With Jay Leno's retirement, Berg thought it only fitting to share his insider's perspective on America's oldest and most successful late-night program. Through personality-revealing anecdotes about guests, The Show Behind the Curtain serves as an introduction to the backstage antics and controversies of Leno's program. The Tonight Show has played host to television and movie stars, professional athletes, political leaders, and comedians. With each guest, Berg, Leno, and other producers came together to create an entertaining and becoming segment. Whether it was discouraging guests from telling bad jokes or encouraging them to portray themselves as three-dimensional individuals with lives outside of notoriety, Berg's role was crucial to the longevity and success of the show. Called "the best booker in the business" by Bill O'Reilly, Berg possessed a unique ability to garner relationships with The Tonight Show's many guests. The witty and engaging anecdotes in this collection feature such personalities as John Kerry, Russell Crowe, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Willie Nelson, Teri Hatcher, and Dennis Rodman. This is a book that could only be written by a privileged insider. Berg reveals an industry view into the booking and preparation for a guest appearance, reflecting on how some guests are difficult and unprepared and how others are spontaneous and hilarious. He details the five-year-long series of bookings and appearances of Barack Obama-the first sitting president to appear on late-night television-and the fearful scheduling of Dennis Rodman, who was perpetually late. In this compilation, Berg shares the secrets, insights, and blunders of late-night television.