Tonight Starring Steve Allen
'Tonight!' Special Guest: Lena Horne
TV Flash files “'Tonight!' Special Guest: Lena Horne” as a desk essential hour — Tonight Starring Steve Allen (1954–1957) on NBC, season 1954, episode 2, aired 1954-09-28.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S1954E02: listed hour 2 of 3 in the Tonight Starring Steve Allen guide, last listed hour of season 1954. It aired 1954-09-28. The listed hour before it is “'Tonight!' National Premiere: Wally Cox, Bill Kenny, Willie Mays” (S1954E01). Next is “Pat Flaherty, Teddi King” (S1956E125).
Essential hour: “'Tonight!' Special Guest: Lena Horne”. 'Tonight!' Special Guest: Lena Horne — night-two glamour, the manic intellectual franchise already treating a singer as appointment TV.
Viewer FAQ
Where does 'Tonight!' Special Guest: Lena Horne sit in the Tonight Starring Steve Allen guide?
S1954E02 is listed hour 2 of 3 — last listed hour of season 1954, season 1954 episode 2.
When did Tonight Starring Steve Allen S1954E02 air?
'Tonight!' Special Guest: Lena Horne aired 1954-09-28.
Where should I start?
Start with Steve Allen's 1954–57 Tonight: desk bits, street stunts, jazz. This catalog brief is the inventor's cut, not Carson's later bedtime.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Tonight Starring Steve Allen invented late-night: desk, door, man-on-the-street, jazz past midnight. Every later host rearranges Allen's furniture. Watch the 1950s Tonight Show in 2026 to see the manic, intellectual version of the franchise before smoother hosts sanded it into a national bedtime ritual.
The work is furniture: desk, door, man-on-the-street, jazz past midnight. Steve Allen's *Tonight* mixed comedy bits, interviews, musical guests, and remote stunts into a late-night institution beginning September 27, 1954, on NBC. Pat Weaver's experiment evolved from local New York roots into the national *Tonight* franchise. Gene Rayburn announced; Skitch Henderson led the band. Allen left in 1957; Jack Paar and later Johnny Carson defined subsequent eras. Every later host rearranges Allen's furniture. That is…
Open the Tonight Starring Steve Allen package · Season 1954 hub
Filed against
- Steve Allen as Host
Steve Allen invented Tonight Starring Steve Allen — desk, door, man-on-the-street, jazz past midnight, the manic intellectual version of late-night before smoother hosts sanded the franchise into a ritual. Every later host rearranges his…
- Gene Rayburn as Announcer
Gene Rayburn’s announcer weather helped Tonight Starring Steve Allen invent late-night furniture, then Match Game turned the same grin into a blank-the-blank innuendo circus — 1950s catalog desk-and-door, 1970s catalog…
- Skitch Henderson as Bandleader
Skitch Henderson led the band on Tonight Starring Steve Allen — late-night's original furniture, jazz past midnight, desk-and-door invention before smoother hosts sanded the franchise into a ritual. Man-on-the-street mania with a…