BROADCAST DATE: December, 1986, FOX.
DESCRIPTION: "THE LATE SHOW STARRING JOAN RIVERS" was a late night talk show and the first series broadcast on the then-fledgling Fox Network. Originally hosted by Joan Rivers, the show was a direct attempt at competing against NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson", and in fact Rivers had been for the previous few years the permanent guest host on Tonight, substituting for Carson. Lynda appeared twice on "THE LATE SHOW STARRING JOAN RIVERS", this was her first time.

	Series Run: Thursday, October 9, 1986 through Friday, May 15, 1987. Broadcast Network: FOX. Time slot: Mondays through Fridays 11:00 P.M. Host: JOAN RIVERS. Announcers: Clint Holmes, Daniel Rosen. Writer: Daniel Rosen. Executive Producers: Edgar Rosenberg, Bill Sammeth. Music: Mark Hudson and the Party Boys Plus The Tramp. Executive In Search Of Production: Howard Bolter. Theme: Mark Hudson, Michael Sembello. Musical Director: Mark Hudson. Musicians: Mark Hudson, Steven Castaneda, Beverly Dahlke-Smith, Lew McCreary.
EPISODE SYNOPSIS: Lynda talks with Joan about her "new" marriage to Washington lawyer Robert Altman, moving from California to Washington and her new life there, her new video "SECRETS TO THE PERFECT MAKE-UP" and some beauty tips.

© 1986 by Fox Squares Productions. All Rights Reserved

			RUNNING TIME:	00:50:00 [60 minutes including commercials].
			VHS:	Not available on commercial video.
			DVD:	Not available on commercial video.
			INFO:	This is the first of LYNDA CARTER's appearances on "THE LATE SHOW STARRING JOAN RIVERS".
			VIDEO:	[1]  "THE LATE SHOW STARRING JOAN RIVERS". Video clip.
			TRIVIA:	[•] Rumor has it in the spring of 1986, a confidential memo between top NBC executives, listing about 10 possible replacements in the event of Carson's retirement the next year, was leaked. When Rivers saw it, she was shocked to see that she was nowhere on the list, despite the fact that she had been The Tonight Show's permanent guest host since 1983. Another rumor is that soon after, when Carson decided to stay beyond 1987, NBC offered him a three-year contract extension, but only offered Rivers a one-year extension as guest host. As a result of all of this, Rivers doubted her future at NBC. FOX was looking for a host for a late night talk show for the network's launch in October 1986 and offered Rivers the job at a massive increase in pay over her NBC salary. She took it. Carson was blindsided by the news when he saw the press conference on television. Moments later, when Rivers called him at home, he refused to take the call.
				[•] Rivers spoke highly of Carson the night he died, January 23, 2005, but she revealed that he never spoke to her again. She also maintained that she handled things the right way by not telling Carson of her plans ahead of time.
				[•] After a moderate start, ratings for the talk show soon sagged, and the behind-the-scenes relations between Rivers and network executives at Fox quickly eroded, and she left the show in 1987. In 1987 and 1988, the show was renamed The Late Show and featured several hosts including Arsenio Hall (who went on to launch his own popular talk show, The Arsenio Hall Show) and Richard Belzer before it was canceled in 1988.

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