[VIDEO] The above vid is from Arsenio Hall's first edition of his program from 1989.
When the 1st incarnation of The Arsenio Hall Show aired I wasn't exactly in the target audience of the show. As a matter of fact, one time Arsenio was doing his monologue and something he said caused a loud noise. I knew he said something, but the noise and the reaction of the audience had me rolling. When I got started laughing my mother immediately kicked me out of the room. He probably used a profane term although I was too young to understand what he was talking about.
Well it's old news that Arsenio Hall is back on TV with a 2nd incarnation of his program. He offered something different for late night audiences that wasn't seen. Another part of this was that one target demographic of his program were from urban areas who may not have been covered by the mainstream late night programs of the day or even now.
I remember years ago listening to his radio program, Mancow Muller made hay about other late night programs who have sought to replicate Arsenio Hall's success. Most have failed for varying reasons and Mancow noted that when people watch late night programming they want to wind down and programs that seek to replicate Arsenio's format were more late night parties than anything else.
Then again, I wondered why Hall succeeded for as long as it did where others have failed. There was once a show named Vibe - named for Vibe magazine - that only lasted two seasons of only 28 episodes. Keenan Ivory Wayans had his own late night talk program for a year. Even Magic Johnson made his own disastrous attempt with The Magic Hour. Also BET made two attempts to replicate the format and it crashed and burned - the final attempt with comedienne Mo'Nique.
Arsenio probably succeeded in the first place because he was something different. Not sure if that explains why others have failed after his program got cancelled after five seasons in 1994. But Mancow was probably right in stating that Hall's program offered something different.
To be honest I haven't had much of a chance to watch the new show which was recently renewed for another season. It seems different than the original although granted it's been close to 25 years since the 1st incarnation premiered. So it's probably something I should put on this list for late-night programming.
In fact since Jay Leno gave up his job at host of The Tonight Show to Jimmy Fallon I've been watching more late night programming. I gave Fallon a try when he first started and then I followed Seth Meyers the new host of Late Night although that program seemed to have gone off to a rocky start. Further more for the first time in years I watched David Letterman who has always been a long time favorite of mine. Of course I often could be found watching Conan O'Brien's eponymous program on TBS.
What can be said about the late night talk landscape, is there's certainly something for everyone!
BTW, I forgot there was another attempt at Hall's format that aired for two seasons on TBS called Lopez Tonight hosted by comedian George Lopez. I was about to call it much more successful but in the listing I have earlier in this posting it probably could rank up there with Vibe & The Mo'Nique Show.
