People: May 12, 1986

Their faces are most familiar to insomniacs and night owls, but even early birds are likely to recognize 36 years’ worth of late-night television when Johnny Carson, 60, Jack Paar, 68, Steve Allen, 64, and Jerry Lester, 74, appear together next week in a three-hour special celebrating NBC’s 60th anniversary. The three Tonight show hosts plus Lester (who had a pre-Tonight variety show called Broadway Open House in 1950-51) had never gathered before. “We started the most imitated show in television, the talk format,” boasted a misty-eyed Paar (1957-62). Allen (1954-56) was less sentimental. “We never thought anything we were doing was a big deal at all,” he recalled. “We were only concerned with the question, My God, what are we going to do tomorrow night?”