Jimmy Fallon in his triumphant “Tonight Show” debut looked as if he’d already been hosting the show for a year.
While he always seemed a little jittery during his five years hosting “Late Night,” he was irrepressible yet completely in charge in his new earlier time slot.
Bolstered by first guest Will Smith and a rooftop performance by U2 — and set against the twilight backdrop of a twinkling Manhattan — Fallon opened this newest chapter in NBC’s late-night franchise with the confidence of a seasoned performer.
The enthusiastic studio audience at 30 Rock willed Fallon to succeed, and he nailed his first monologue with a string of solid jokes about the Sochi Olympics.
Fallon also served notice that the clever musical parodies he mastered on his old show will move with him to the earlier time slot.
He teamed with Smith in a very funny skit (“Evolution of Hip-Hop Dancing”) that had his “Tonight Show” audience laughing from the get-go, always a good sign.
While Fallon’s deskside interview with Smith, who returned later in the show, wasn’t anything new — and, let’s face it, no one was tuning in for forced celebrity banter — Fallon’s late-night DNA seemed to alert him that he needed to change the show’s direction.
U2, who had performed that memorable rooftop rendition of “Invisible” earlier in the show, returned to sit on Fallon’s couch as his guests.
Using his boyish charm, Fallon coaxed the usually reticent Bono to “give a speech” about Fallon’s coffee mug. That Bono played along (after it seemed he might balk) made it all the more humorous — a playful way to both poke fun at and embrace the rocker’s prolific public-speaking ability.
I’m not so sure any other late-night host would have dared to go there.
That Bono and his bandmates also agreed to play an acoustic rendition of their Oscar-nominated song, “Ordinary Love,” says a lot about Fallon’s simpatico relationship with big-time rock stars, which can only help “The Tonight Show” book big names and cater to the younger viewers who ultimately cost Jay Leno his job.
Fallon did thank Leno at the top of the show — while also thanking the ghosts of “The Tonight Show” past (Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and Conan O’Brien) — then ended his maiden show with Leno-esque high-five jog through his studio audience.
But Fallon made it clear that he’s fashioned “The Tonight Show” in his own image — so fasten your seat belts for what promises to be a fun, fresh late-night ride.