Documenting perhaps the first, definitely not the last, nervous breakdown on live TV, Doug Wright's
Good Night, Oscar goes behind the scenes of an episode of
The Tonight Show from 1958. Moving from its usual New York home to Hollywood for a week, the show is hoping for a ratings smash, and host Jack Paar (Ben Rappaport) wants to open with one of his own favourite regular guests, who always gets a big audience reaction: Actor and musician Oscar Levant (Sean Hayes,) who's become as well known for his near-the-knuckle witticisms and acerbic comments as he has for his virtuoso piano-playing, where he specialises in the works of his old friend George Gershwin. Oscar is often fashionably late, but with this episode coming from the headquarters Jack has the network head himself, Bob Sarnoff (Richard Katz) pressuring him to find a last-minute replacement.
