Bishop began his career as part of a standup comedy act with his elder brother,
Maury. He guest-hosted on television’s Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 
and frequently appeared on Steve Allen’s and Jack Paar’s previous versions
of The Tonight Show, both on NBC.

Joey starred in a sit-com titled The Joey Bishop Show, that ran for four seasons,
first  on NBC and later on CBS. He later hosted a talk show also titled The Joe
Bishop Show on ABC (below) as competition to Carson’s Tonight Show. It ran
for two years. His sidekick was then-newcomer Regis Philbin. 
 
   
            From left to right, Regis Philbin, Peter Marshall and Joey Bishop

The Tonight Show is a  late-night talk show that has aired on NBC-TV since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today. The first host of  the show was Steve Allen(above). Allen departed Tonight after NBC ordered him to concentrate all his efforts on his Sunday night variety program,The Steve Allen Show, hoping to combat CBS-TV and The Ed Sullivan Show’s dominance of the Sunday night ratings. Below is a clip from the first Tonight Show that aired on Monday night, September 27, 1954.

From left to right… Milton Berle(Uncle Miltie), Steve Allen, and Bob Hope.

        Steve Allen, December 26, 1921  –  October 30, 2000




Allen was the host of The Tonight Show from 1954 to 1957. He
is known as the innovator of the TV talk show.