Jimmy Fallon Debuts New ‘Tonight Show' in New York

Jimmy Fallon, the new host of the "Tonight show", introduced himself to viewers on Monday like a freshly licensed doctor taking over a retiring gerontologist’s practice.

Mr. Fallon didn’t smirk or make sarcastic asides. He gently and earnestly explained that he is 39, lives in New York City, and has a wife and a new baby. He pointed out his parents in the studio audience and also how the monologue works. He choked up a little when talking about the “Tonight” show legacy. “I just want to do the best I can,” he said. “And take care of the show for a while.”

Even with celebrity cameos (Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Robert De Niro, among many others) and high-profile guests like Will Smith and the band U2, Mr. Fallon’s debut was more sweet than sassy. He was the grateful heir, the eager freshman, the class clown with top grades and a good heart — someone older viewers can embrace without fear of being mocked or overlooked.

And that was interesting, because the most fateful generational shift isn’t between baby boomers who were loyal to Jay Leno, the previous “Tonight” host, and younger viewers who are more comfortable with Mr. Fallon, a “Saturday Night Live” alumnus who incorporated tweets and Internet skits when he took over “Late Night” in 2009. Now it’s “Tonight” vs. tomorrow: this old-fashioned kind of programming is at the mercy of a changing landscape where audiences are balkanized and viewing habits are radically altered.

The “Tonight” show is in good hands, but its longevity rests less on the host than on audiences who increasingly don’t turn on a television to watch television. Mr. Fallon intimated as much when he recalled begging his parents to let him stay up late to watch Johnny Carson. He got a little emotional when he added that he hoped there was “a kid out there asking their parents to stay up to watch me.”

Maybe. But that kid can watch “Tonight” on his iPhone on the school bus the next day. And unlike Mr. Fallon, he isn’t likely to grow up aspiring to host the “Tonight” show anymore than he will get his news from a paper edition of The New York Times.

Paradoxically, a format that hasn’t changed since Mr. Carson codified it (monologue, celebrity, musical guest), is ideally constituted for the cut-and-paste ethos of YouTube and Twitter. Far more than a drama or a reality show, a joke or musical number can be plucked and posted online as a stand-alone. There is no need to DVR anymore: why record the cow when the Internet and social media can give viewers the milk for free?

And that sense of impending change tends to trigger the instinct to preserve, which may be why Mr. Fallon’s first “Tonight” show was so steeped in tradition and solemnity.

After more than 40 years in Los Angeles, the show has moved back to New York, where it originated in 1954. Spike Lee was asked to film the show’s artsy opening credits. Even the title has reverted to the wording that Mr. Carson used. When Mr. Leno took over the show in 1992, he changed it to “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” Mr. Fallon is calling his “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”

The new set is more elegant than Mr. Leno’s, but also quite formal and a little impersonal: a slate blue couch, a handsome honey-colored wood desk and matching walls. The one feature that distinguishes it from a business center at a Four Seasons hotel is the backdrop – a New York skyline made of miniature wooden skyscrapers. (Mr. Fallon also had a four-leaf clover painted on the floor to mark his place for the monologue.)

The changeover was commemorated with a visually stunning novelty: U2 performed a new song, “Invisible,” on the roof of Rockefeller Center, framed by the pink and gold of Manhattan’s skyline at sundown.

Mr. Fallon delivered a fairly classic “Tonight” monologue with predictable jokes about the Olympics. He also introduced a staple of his “Late Night” repertoire, a dance number. He and Mr. Smith donned denim overalls and performed “The Evolution of Hip-Hop Dancing.”

But throughout the show, Mr. Fallon made nice more than he made jokes. It was notable that when he brought up thank-you notes, he wasn’t introducing his popular letter-writing skit. Instead he congratulated Mr. Smith on the good manners of his daughter, Willow, 13, marveling that after he sang one of her songs a few years ago, Willow wrote him a polite thank-you letter on proper stationery.

Mr. Fallon is a charming and gifted comedian who on his first night chose to be subdued and at times even serious. That said as much about the uncertain future of “Tonight” as it did about its new host.