“Hey, hey, hey hey!” The upbeat jazzy tune introduction of the now Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, swings with chord progressions of Big Apple hymn.
Jimmy Fallon has been known to be a fine comic character for time. Although now holding the coveted spot of The Tonight Show host, once hosted by Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, and the legendary Johnny Carson, its fair to say he has some big shoes to fill.
Jimmy Fallon was born and raised in Albany, New York, until he decided to make the bold yet intuitively correct choice of dropping out 15 credits short of a Computer Science degree from St.Mary’s of the Snow in 1995. As a teenager, he developed an obsession with NBC’s Saturday Night Live, but do not be fooled- the “clean” parts that his parents taped for him is all the exposure he got- that did not stop him from putting on after-dinner recitals of the scripts. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone where he is now. According to an extended interview with the New York Times, he states, “This was my ultimate goal. If I ever cut into a birthday cake and made a wish, I would wish to be on SNL. If I threw a coin into a fountain, I would wish to be on SNL. If I saw a shooting star, I would wish to be on SNL. ” The year is 1995 and Fallon is taking on one big city to the next, conquering Los Angeles one stand up gig at a time.
What most could consider a pipeline dream, Fallon went for with a crooked smile. And when he landed a second audition at 23, his only job was to crack one on the hardened faces of SNL creator, Lorne Michaels and head writer, Tina Fey. In a Vanity Fair interview in 2014, she states “He’s one of two people I’ve ever seen who was completely ready to be on the show. Kristen Wiig is the other one…. And Jimmy was ready—like, if there had been a show to do that night.” He became a fan favorite by episode four, milking his specialty of celebrity impressions and original characters, from Nick Burns the IT nerd, and later hosting the hilarious “Weekend Update” with co-host Tina Fey.
Finally, after six infectious years of SNL, Fallon moved down a few flights of stairs in New York City’s Rockefeller center, from Studios 8H to 6B to take the reigns of The Tonight Show Starring… Since then, he has brought celebrity guests into upbeat interviews nightly on NBC at 10:35c. He is admired since 2009 as “the nice guy of late night television“, and how he brings out the best in his guests- from the Obamas, to Trump, to Clinton. Literally.
