I’ve heard recently that, on the last episode of Arsenio Hall’s talk show, Louis Farrakhan was one of Hall’s guests. The story is that Farrakhan made some particularly disparaging remarks against Jews on the air, and that these remarks angered a high-level Jewish executive at FOX. This FOX executive then supposedly cancelled Hall’s talk show summarily, and that was that.
Arsenio’s career was mud for a few years after that, it seems to me.
So, is any of this true? Going back in my memory, it seems that Hall’s talk show went (and career) from being extremely popular to nonexistant in a very short time (< 3 months), but I might just be remembering wrong. And then Hall quit making movies & TV (it seemed) until appeared on CBS’ Martial Law in 1998 (?).
So what happened to Arsenio Hall and his talk show?
No. His ratings had been dropping for a while. His interview of Calypso Louie might not have been popular with a lot of people, but he was already on the way out.
I remember that when Ansenio’s show was cancelled he blamed Jay Leno and this made quite a story. TV Guide wanted them to appear together in a photo and Hall refused. And it made quite a story in TV Guide. This is the story that I remember. And it’s why I’m fascinated to watch Arsenio appear on Jay’s show now. This page mentions the feud, but you need to search for “Leno” to find it.
OK … so what kept Hall from making movies and TV? He just seemed to disappear in a cloud of smoke. Minor starts do that sometimes, but people as big as Hall was rarely do.
Come to think of it, Mr. T kind of disappeared for a long time, too … but he was sick for a few years, IIRC.
He was really only in a couple of movies before he had the show: Coming to America and Amazon Women on the Moon. And he was in a couple afterwards as well.
I don’t know of a juicy story but it wouldn’t surprise me if someone had been looking for a reason to cancel the show. It was terrible.
He probably stopped doing showbiz stuff for awhile to allow his ego to recover. Didn’t Chevy Chase disappear for a time after his talk show was shitcanned after 5-6 weeks?
I recall Hall blaming the show’s cancellation on not enough black people demonstrating their racial unity by watching it. It didn’t seem to occur to him that they, and a lot of the rest of us, would have watched him if he’d been any good.
It doesn’t matter how the end happened; it was inevitable by then anyway.
Entertainment Weekly had a cover of Arsenio with the headline, “I’m gonna kick Jay Leno’s A$$” when Jay first took over the Tonight Show. Guess that didn’t quite work out, huh? But I think it was really all in good fun and he and Jay have always been friends.
I thought the Arsenio Hall Show was GREAT, it really was different from the other late night talk shows at the time–a refreshing change from Johnny Carson, for sure!
He did alot of interesting things: many times instead of even a monologue, he opened the show with the musical guest rather than putting them on last, he had many surprise walk-on guests (Remember when Madonna’s father showed up during an interview with her, and Magic Johnson showed up alot), and he once had an entire show where Prince performed the whole hour, no interviewing or other guests. He had theme weeks, surprise guests and co-hosts…the thing that was great about him was they always tried to make the show fresh, not follow the same formula.
Right on, HelloKitty. People here are poo-pooing his show after the fact of its demise. It’s now an easy target. Just like people who 15 years ago were '80s poster
I don’t know about you all are from, but Arsenio’s show was a ratings juggernaut in the New Orleans & Baton Rouge areas when I was in college.
Well, while I agree that his show had a few novelty strengths (as Hello and Borde mentioned), the first hint that the guy had limited talent was in his joke telling:
He’d tell a story with a nice buildup, then he’d tell the punchline 1.
Reaction: It gets a chuckle.
Alright. Next joke:
Buildup. Setup. Punchline 2.
Reaction: Laughs.
Got it. Next joke:
Buidup. Setup. Punchline 3.
Reaction: A little chuckle from 2 people.
Right. That was a bomb. Okay, panic.
Punchline 2.
Reaction: Laugh.
Next:
Buildup. Setup. Punchline 4.
Reaction: Kind of a laugh
Panic.
Punchline 2.
He kept going back to the joke that worked in order to try and win back the audience! Especially if he did it with a funny voice. Like a one trick pony trying desperately to win the affection of many by doing the one thing that at one time, made people say “Oh, isn’t that CUUUTE?”, Arse (I love calling him by that shortened name) tried to milk the one laugh he got for as long as he could… longer, even. It was pathetic!
So, no, I don’t buy any sort of conspiracy theory behind his cancellation. Sure as heck not something that could be considered offensive in an industry where cash is king. Making offense would have at least generated a response, because bad publicity is STILL publicity and would’ve generated ratings. But he didn’t. IIRC, I think he even tried to do it by bringing in Andrew Dice Clay (remember him?).
I won’t claim that this is the reason for the demise of Arsenio Hall’s TV show, but when Jay Leno first became host of the Tonight Show, he let his manager, the late Helen Kushnick, run things. And when Ms. Kushnick was in charge, she and Jay played hardball against the competition.
If you’re going to have a successfull talk show, you need to attract the hottest guests. And by many accounts, Kushnick and Leno threatened to blackball numerous stars, if they appeared on competing talk shows.
For what it’s worth, Arsenio isn’t the only talk show host who complained about Leno’s tactics. Dennis Miller, who had a short-lived talk show of his own, also asserted that guests he tried to book regularly told him, “Sorry, Dennis, I’d LIKE to do your show, but if I do, I’ll never get on Tonight again… and I NEED Tonight, when I’m plugging a new movie.” When their ratings began to decline, Arsenio and Miller both blamed Leno for sabotaging their shows and preventing them from attracting quality guests.
Now, I thought Miller’s talk show was a mess, and he’d probably have been cancelled quickly, even without Leno’s “help.” And while Arsenio’s show WAS very popular among younger audiences for a while (he was smart enough to book musical acts you’d never have seen with Johnny Carson), his ratings were starting to decline even before Leno replaced Carson.
For quite some time, Arsenio and Miller remained hostile and bitter toward Leno, who HAD been a close friend of both comics. But today, all appears to be forgiven.
There was an episode of Politically Incorrect where Bill Maher (sp?) and Arsenio really (verbally) tore into each other about the real reason the show was cancelled…I unfortunately missed it, but it musta been a doozy as reports of it made it into the evening news broadcasts.
Anyone know where I could get/read a copy of the transcript of that episode of Politically Incorrect? Or did anyone see it and can summarize?
Well, considering his show was distributed by Paramount, not Fox, I think this is urban legend.
The station I work for was an Arsenio affiliate (used to run it at midnight after Nightline) - great ratings for the first year or so, but tanked afterwards…young audiences are always looking for something new. Are you listening, Carson Daly?
Phouchg
Lovable Rogue
IIRC, Arsenio tucked into Bill claiming that AH’s show was more profitable than PI. Bill reminded Arsenio that his show was cancelled. Aresnio then said that he quit the show. That and he’s gotten offers from paramount to bring it back.