Tonight Live With Steve Vizard
This live Australian comedy chat show was broadcast on the
Seven Network in Australia five nights a week from February 1990
to November 1993, usually commencing at 10.30 pm every week night.
Presented by Australian comedian (and ex-lawyer) Steve Vizard,
the show's format was an eclectic mix of a traditional Tonight
Show, such as The Late Show With David Letterman (to which
it owed a large debt) with more off beat elements, such as
broadcasting a rehearsal of the show, a rained out show, a
parallel Tonight show, using the floor manager and cameramen as on
air talent, using the studio audience to replace high profile
guests etc.
The show consistently won the late night ratings around
Australia and won several awards including Variety Club Awards,
Television Society Awards and Logie Awards - including a Gold
Logie for Steve Vizard as Most Popular Person on Australian
Television in 1991.
As with the US Letterman show, Tonight Live established
an “on-air family” which included the floor manager, Merv
Ford, and camera operator Jack Degenkamp ("the world’s
oldest cameraman") who gave tips on clog dancing and
delivered a Christmas message on the last show of the year.
Following the Dave Letterman formula even further, the show
featured its own in house band, led by renowned jazz pianist and
composer Paul Grabowsky. Each show also featured a short news
update, which made a star of newsreader Jennifer Keyte (who Vizard
called "the newsreader with the mostest").
Over 2,000 guests were interviewed on the show during its run,
including Bob Hope, Mel Gibson, Chevy Chase, Duran
Duran, Cilla Black, Steve Allen,
Tom Jones, Tiny Tim, Kylie
Minogue, Audrey
Hepburn, Alice Cooper, BB
King, Kirk Douglas, Olivia
Newton John,
Phil Collins, Peter
Allen, Michael Aspel, Whoopi Goldberg, John
Thaw, Quincy Jones, Priscilla Presley, Robert Downey Jnr, Mickey
Rooney, Martin Sheen, MC
Hammer, ZZ Top, Jeremy Irons, Jeffrey
Archer, Edward de Bono, Jackie Collins, Sir Harry Secombe, Burt
Reynolds, Billy Joel, Bette
Midler, Ben Elton, Phyllis Diller,
Alexei Sayle, Oliver Reed, Robin Williams and various Prime
Ministers and politicians.
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