When this era ended, the only remaining "late night TV" was skat.

[bloke]

The LAST broadcast of this program marked THE END of "late night" television.
ANY/EVERYthing that followed has been garbage/refuse, and anyone who spent minutes/hours watching ANY of the subsequent programs has WASTED all of that time, in their lives - with this being so patently obvious that there can be no debate.
The studio audience was treated to numbers by this band during every commercial break.
for those who might be interested:
The last trumpet note (for those who don't identify pitches without reference) is a trumpet "double-high A" (G, on the piano keyboard) with a B-flat (A-flat on the piano keyboard) having been played earlier in the arrangement...and "sliding down a half-step from one screaming-high pitch to the adjacent one - during a key change" being somewhat astonishing in its own right.

This - and many other reasons - are why some "old people" roll their eyes when others attempt to impress them with stuff:
We lived through "the best of times".

[matt g]

Yeah, no doubt that we will never see a big band of that caliber playing nightly on broadcast TV again.

I saw Doc playing with the Jacksonville (FL) Symphony back in the mid 1990s. While “past his prime” he was still killing high notes and had a huge sound along with fantastic overall showmanship. I’d heard Maynard live in the same time frame, and Doc’s overall sound was better to my ears. Both were awesome to see, nonetheless.

I wonder what the impact was from having that show on network television in the context of music in the public schools. My high school jazz band, which was well known in the state while I was in high school, had a very thick book with lots of music from the Tonight Show Band. Great standards with good updates from the arranger, who I believe was the saxophone player in the band.

[bloke]

...Great standards with good updates from the arranger, who I believe was the saxophone player in the band.

Thomas Penn "Tommy" Newsom

[the elephant]

Great band, great chart, great show. And I thought that Bill Clinton's tenor solo was pretty darned good.

[bloke]

"Arsenio Hall Show"...one of the post-Carson/wasteland shows...

...and O......K.......

[DonO.]

Maynard Ferguson was all about range. Tone wasn’t as important. He used a very shallow cup cheater mouthpiece to be able to what he did. Any tone quality came from his amazing breath support. I met him once. He had a chest like a barrel. Huge lung power I’m sure. Doc was a better all-around player- no slouch on the high notes, but great tone everywhere up and down the horn. I’m sure he made Getzen a ton of dough endorsing his Doc Severensen signature model! Of course, back then, all the really serious trumpet players player Vincent Bach. That was way back when they made high-end trumpets, and nothing else.

[Tim Jackson]

Well, I did sort of like Max Weinberg. not the show, I just thought he had a good groove on the drums. no doubt the variety shows during the 40s-70s showing all sorts of bands with horns had an impact on interest in playing musical instruments. It seems to me most kids coming into college these days predominate exposure to instrumental music is the halftime show at Friday night's football game. They're talking about corp and not even asking about a jazz band. Nowadays folks don't even see guitars & drums on TV. Just solo vocal artists and girl bands/boy bands - no instruments - just vocal teams Spice Girls, Back Street Boys, whatever. Not sure if Star Seach ever had a band. Who Wants to Be a Star! How about Who Wants To Be A Saxophonist! hahaha Sadly, we are at the tail end of an incredible area! Playing a musical instrument is about as obscure and as far out of the mainstream as it gets!
I have even noticed over the years the decline of "the excitement of a live band" folks used to go nuts for live music - now it's all about the show. I have a great pop event band - all good players with monster horn players. But it is the shakin' and crowd interaction that gets us booked. When I do a convention with my steel drum trio (steel drum - great double here on the Gulf Coast) I load in with a steel drum, hula hoops, and a limbo pole. I tell folks in the elevator "I'm a musical clown". Not complaining... I make good money and make folks happy! It is what it is! If I get too depressed, I just take some of the money and go buy a new tuba!

[Tim Jackson]

Another thing... back to Doc and the band - every night, every tune, FIRST TAKE live recorded shows. No going back!

[bloke]

Ferguson's tone (during the period of his career with which more - who remember him - are familiar) came from putting his bell all the way into the microphone, and affecting a semi-controlled "squeal".
Decades before, he was a fine jazz trumpet player, but he could no longer make a living doing that - and he wasn't particularly handsome...
...so he hired some young guys to play behind him and did a 1970's so-called "jazz-rock" shtick. (By the time I heard the Kenton Band, Ferguson had left it 18 years earlier.) Even as early as 1975 (the last time I heard him live) he had totally "lost" it...ok, sure..."in my opinion". (I was at interlochen, got up from my seat at Kresge, and went back to my dorm room.) The shtick that Ferguson was trying to do, Bill Chase (who I also heard live) actually did it right.

[Three Valves]

Maynard was a great showman and put a lot of talent out in front of people. Guys like Bill Chase and Wayne Bergeron did tours with Maynard. And yes, you can absolutely hear how awesome they were/are even when lost in the mix. When I heard Maynard, it was a young Frank Green (~30 years old) playing lead. Very impressive.

[Three Valves]

I accidentally saw Maynard during a band competition in the late 70s, I never saw Doc except on TV.

Fallon & Co ain’t bad, I just can’t stay up that late!!

[Jperry1466]

Agree 100%. I got to see part of the Tonight Show Band in 1966 at a high school jazz band competition in Texas. I believe Skitch Henderson was still the director, but 6 of the band came out to be judges and clinicians: Doc Severinsen, Tommy Newsome, Urbie Green, Bob Haggart, Bobby Rosengarden, and Derek Smith. After we performed, being a bass player, I went to the Bob Haggart clinic and got to see him perform "Big Noise" up close and then with Rosengarden later that night when they performed at a jam session. It was unforgettable, and little did I know at 14 years old I was watching a who's who of the jazz world. We will never again see another band like that on TV, and for sure won't see programming with the class of Johnny Carson.

[bloke]

I actually saw Bob (Haggart) and all of the original Bob Crosby Bobcats perform once out in California in a large hotel lobby.
Maybe one of them was a replacement, but I think it was all of the original guys from the smaller group. Even Nappy Lamare was on board…
… as well as Bob Crosby.

[bloke]

an early Carson-era show (just after Carson had been doing a daytime game show called “Who Do You Trust?”) when the bandleader was Skitch Henderson.

I was either seven or eight years old, my brother was either 19 or 20, and was talking a lot about how cool the band was - and how cool Skitch Henderson was.

A bonafide (rather than “factory improvised”, as are the Selmer Bundy baritone saxophones with a “low A”) “low A” baritone saxophone was a very new thing, as Selmer, PARIS had come out with it in the late 50s - only a very few years before this broadcast. This has become standard – even with the budget models, and is an obvious add-on - as this offers a “concert C” at the bottom of the range of the instrument.

(During that time, both Carson and Henderson were smoking on camera.)

[Doc]

When the two Tonight Show Orchestra albums came out (mid 80's), I picked them up at the local record store. After they were made digital, I bought the digital tracks, and they still get regular play.

Johnny Carson WAS late night television. When he left the air, it was never the same. Sitting on edge during commercials hoping to hear the band when they came back on or hoping for a band feature was the definition of anticipation. I also saw one of Roger Bobo's appearances. Life was good.

[Tim Jackson]

Early video with Skitch (Thanks Bloke) I just wonder what it was like to take a big deep breath on the bandstand and end up with part of that cigar cloud from Skitch. The recording is mixed so well you can hear the brushwork on the drums. Nice.