{"id":12223,"date":"2026-07-21T04:41:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=12223"},"modified":"2026-07-21T04:41:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:41:25","slug":"late-night-producer-for-letterman-carson-was-93","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=12223","title":{"rendered":"Late-Night Producer For Letterman &#038; Carson Was 93"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/peter-lassally\/\" id=\"auto-tag_peter-lassally\" data-tag=\"peter-lassally\">Peter Lassally<\/a>, the late-night whisperer who produced <em><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/the-tonight-show\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-tonight-show\" data-tag=\"the-tonight-show\">The Tonight Show<\/a> Starring Johnny Carson<\/em> and <em>Late Show with David Letterman<\/em>, died July 19. He was 93.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tLassally was a pivotal figure in the entertainment business, particularly in late-night, where he also produced <em>The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson<\/em>, retiring when he was 82 and the Scottish comedian was passing the baton to James Corden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe producer, whom former CBS Entertainment boss Nina Tassler called the \u201cstrong, silent type,\u201d also had a remarkable early life. Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1932 to a Jewish family after the rise of the Nazis in Germany, his family fled to the Netherlands, where his sister went to school with Anne Frank. During World War II, Lassally, his mother and his sister were imprisoned in the Westerbork transit camp and later in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. After surviving the Holocaust, the family immigrated to New York in 1947.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tHe got his start as an NBC page and an usher at Radio City Music Hall, alongside his friend Regis Philbin. He then worked in radio before working for hugely popular entertainer Arthur Godfrey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<strong>RELATED: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2020\/07\/regis-philbin-dies-longtime-television-host-was-88-1202995075\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1202995075\"><strong>Regis Philbin Dies: Longtime Television Talk Show And Game Host Was 88<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tLassally joined <em>The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson<\/em> in 1972 and rose to become executive producer. When Carson retired in 1992, he went to work for David Letterman, initially on NBC\u2019s <em>Late<\/em> <em>Night<\/em> <em>with David Letterman<\/em>. Lassally is considered to have played a key role in Letterman moving to CBS with <em>Late Show <\/em>and also championed Ferguson to become the host of <em>The Late Late Show.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tHe was a confidant for many comics including Garry Shandling and Jon Stewart, who had a holding deal with Letterman\u2019s company. Lassally wanted him to replace Tom Synder after Letterman, but the job went to Craig Kilborn and Stewart took over Kilborn\u2019s spot on <em>The Daily Show.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cOne of Peter\u2019s real strengths is getting the host to understand how to listen, how to ask the questions that an audience might want to hear, and to listen to the answer and to not be thinking ahead with the joke,\u201d Shandling told NPR in 2012.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cOne of the qualities that I have that get me through showbusiness is I respect talent, I\u2019m in awe of talent,\u201d Lassally told the Television Academy in a 2014 interview. \u201cIf you are really talented, I will put up with your craziness, because if you\u2019re that talented you\u2019re not a normal person, there\u2019s something wacky about you. It helped me through at least 50 years of showbusiness in that I was willing to put up with craziness if I respected you, and I\u2019ve worked for some great broadcasters starting with Godfrey and then Johnny Carson and David Letterman and Tom Synder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tIn a 2009 interview for the TV Academy Foundation, he said: \u201cThe most important thing for a talk show host is to listen. If they don\u2019t listen they\u2019re going to miss great opportunities. Try to make the guest look good, not necessarily make yourself look good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tWatch some of that sit-down below.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tLassally was nominated for 13 Emmys across his career and won two, in 1992 for <em>The Tonight Show<\/em> and 1994 for <em>Late Show.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tHe is survived by children from his marriage to Alice Lassally including his daughter Andrea Gibbin and son Tom Lassally, who works at 3 Arts, and his grandchildren Walker Gibbin, Eloise Gibbin, Annabel Lassally and Owen Lassally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe family said in a statement:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cFor Peter, family represented something profoundly meaningful. Having survived the Holocaust and rebuilt his life in America, he never took for granted the opportunity to create the kind of loving, secure family that war had threatened to destroy,\u201d the family said in a statement. \u201cWatching his children build lives of their own and seeing his grandchildren grow into adulthood brought him immense joy. He delighted in family gatherings, thoughtful conversations, and the simple pleasure of being together. Those closest to him knew that no professional accomplishment ever meant more to him than the people around his own table.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cPeter built a life defined not by the horrors he endured as a child, but by resilience, generosity, curiosity, and optimism. Friends often remarked on his wit, humility, and remarkable ability to make others feel at ease. His life stood as a testament to both survival and reinvention\u2014an immigrant who escaped unimaginable persecution and went on to influence one of America\u2019s most beloved cultural institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tWatch Lassally talk about meeting Carson for the first time here:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Peter Lassally Interview Part 1 of 2 - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gRohlnuxDzM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Lassally, the late-night whisperer who produced The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Show with David Letterman, died July 19. He was 93. Lassally was a pivotal figure in the entertainment business, particularly in late-night, where he also produced The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, retiring when he was 82 and the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Peter-Lassally.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}