A Well-Documented Look Back at ‘Paar’

Jack Paar was, by almost any evaluation, one of the architects of contemporary television. His stint on late-night television from 1957 to 1962 laid the framework, the attitude and the shtick for virtually every night-owl talk show on the air today.

“Jack Paar: As I Was Saying . . .” is a two-hour “American Masters” documentary chronicling, in exhaustive detail, his career as he rose from small-town radio announcer to controversial Army disc jockey to less-than-successful movie actor to the top of the television heap as the host of “The Tonight Show” (later renamed “The Jack Paar Show”).

The title comes from a dramatic incident--a major media event at the time--that took place in 1960, when Paar walked off the set in the middle of the show to protest NBC’s editing of a joke in which he used the term “water closet.” A few weeks later, he returned, starting his monologue with the phrase, “As I was saying. . . .”

The documentary includes fascinating footage of the kaleidoscopic array of personalities--from Richard Nixon to Jonathan Winters--who appeared on Paar’s late-night show and the prime-time series he hosted on NBC from 1962 to 1965, “The Jack Paar Program.”

Among the many highlights, some unseen for 30 years, are a wacky duet between Judy Garland and Robert Goulet, comedy segments from Winters, Godfrey Cambridge and Bill Cosby, and Robert Kennedy in his first appearance after the assassination of his brother, President John F. Kennedy.

Paar’s lesser-known earlier career is also touched on in some detail, including some footage from his brief movie career, notably a few scenes from “Love Nest,” a 1951 comedy in which he co-starred with Marilyn Monroe. Insights and recollections are provided by members of Paar’s original production team, including announcer Hugh Downs and writer Paul Keyes.

Appropriately, the most insightful overview is offered in running commentary from Paar himself. As was always the case, he continues to be his own most fascinating topic, although there are moments when it becomes a bit too self-serving. (For example, his minimizing of the earlier role Steve Allen played in developing the late-night talk-show format is, to put it kindly, ingenuous.)

But there’s no arguing with the fact that Paar’s self-centeredness--amply apparent in much of the vintage footage--endeared him to his audiences in the ‘50s and ‘60s, perhaps because it positioned him as a kind of bad-boy surrogate for his audiences, asking their questions and having their reactions. (Stretch the Paar self-focus to the limit and something not unlike Howard Stern emerges.)

The show was produced, with meticulous concern for detail, by Michael Macari Jr. and Bruce Colgate.

* “Jack Paar: As I Was Saying . . .” airs at 9 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28.