The Midnight Special is a  musical variety series that aired during the 1970s
and early 1980s on NBC-TV. It was created and produced by Burt Sugarman. It
debuted as a special on August 19, 1972, then began its run as a  regular series
on February 2, 1973, with its last show airing on May 1, 1981. The ninety-minute
program followed the Friday night edition of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny
Carson.

The show mostly featured guest hosts, except for a period from July 1975 through
March 1976 when Helen Reddy was the regular host. Wolfman Jack served as the announcer. The theme song, a traditional folk song called "Midnight Special", was performed by Johnny Rivers. The Midnight Special was noted for featuring musical
acts performing live, rather then lip-synching to prerecorded music.

    
                 Helen Reddy hosting The midnight Special

  
                    The Wolfman on The midnight Special

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.

The Amazing Kreskin, above, had his name legally changed from
George Joseph Kresge. He had a syndicated TV series from 1971
to 1975 (The Amazing World of Kreskin) and appeared on the
Tonight Show with Johnny Carson 61 times from 1970 to 1980.
Kreskin is active today performing live and appears regularly 
on television in New York City.

Kreskin is seen here, on the right, with Johnny Carson and  
Ed McMahon on The Tonight Show. 

        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.