Jay Leno

I thought we'd end the week with a story about a guy whose fame and fortune didn't go to his head.

Before Jay Leno became host of the Tonight Show, he used to travel around the country visiting local NBC affiliates and making appearances on newscasts. He'd meet the staff, knock out some promos, and do just about everything we asked.

Our weatherman was in the middle of his cast at the almanac graphic, running down the highs and lows of the previous day. Leno walks into the shot and says, "Excuse me, aren't you supposed to be predicting the weather? So why are you telling people what happened yesterday?" Everyone just lost it.

Back in the day the network used to have these junkets in which a reporter and photog would fly to LA and spend a week in Hollywood. They'd line up actors from all sorts of shows for you to interview. You didn't even need b-roll, as they'd send you home with clips of every actor.

On one such trip we were very excited when we saw Leno was on the list. We were to meet him on the set of the Tonight Show early that afternoon. That morning his publicist called and said, "Jay won't be able to meet you on the set."

I was really disappointed. Until the publicist said, "Could you possibly help us out and meet him at his home?"

An hour later we're tooling through Beverly Hills and down Leno's driveway, where he was tinkering with his car collection. The guy has this massive garage with some of the most beautiful vintage cars I've ever seen. He comes out, greets us, asks us if we need something to drink, and asks what we need. Then he proudly gives us a tour of his car collection.

So we do an interview by the pool (a spectacular house, by the way) and then Leno says, "So, what else do you need? How about some promos?"

He comes up with an idea on the spot in which he is the mechanic fixing my car. "I'll pull one of them into the sun for you," he says. "Which one did you like the best?"

I mentioned I liked the blue convertible, but it's buried back in the garage behind a bunch of other cars. "Okay, I'll get it," he says. "You'll have to move a whole bunch of cars," I said. "The one near the door is fine." But Leno insisted on bringing out the blue convertible. He spent fifteen minutes jockeying cars around the garage until he got the blue one out.

The promo we did was a classic. I'm standing up in front of the convertible. The hood is up, and Leno is dressed in mechanic overalls and bent down so you only see the top of his head and you don't know it's him. I ask, "So what's wrong with it?" Then he stands up and goes on this long spiel about our newscast, and how viewers will get "better performance" if they watch it.

We were there about ninety minutes. We never did meet Mrs. Leno, as we were told she was terribly camera shy. But we left with a great memory of a guy who rolled out the red carpet when he had no reason to.

It's that kind of class that is rarely seen in our business today. If you watch Leno's last show tonight, just keep in mind that he's a guy who made it to the top by being nice.

It can happen to you as well.