Peter Lassally (born in 1933 in Hamburg, Germany) is a former
Carson ProductionsCarson Productions is a television production company established by Johnny Carson in the early 1980s to primarily produce The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1980 to 1992 and Late Night with David Letterman from 1982 to 1993....
executive who served as the executive producer of
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny CarsonThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992....
,
Late Night with David LettermanLate Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to The Late Show on CBS. Late Night with Conan O'Brien then filled the time slot...
, and the
Late Show with David LettermanLate Show with David Letterman is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and bandleader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra,...
. As of 2009, he is the executive producer of
The Late Late Show with Craig FergusonThe Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish American comedian Craig Ferguson. Ferguson is the third regular host of the CBS Late Late Show franchise. The show follows "Late Show with David Letterman" in the CBS late-night lineup.The program is the...
.
Lassally was born into a Jewish family in Hamburg Germany. They fled to the Netherlands in 1938 before the outbreak of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1943, Lassally and his mother and sister were interned at the Westerbork Nazi concentration camp and then Theresienstadt in
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
.
Peter Lassally (born in 1933 in Hamburg, Germany) is a former
Carson ProductionsCarson Productions is a television production company established by Johnny Carson in the early 1980s to primarily produce The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1980 to 1992 and Late Night with David Letterman from 1982 to 1993....
executive who served as the executive producer of
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny CarsonThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992....
,
Late Night with David LettermanLate Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to The Late Show on CBS. Late Night with Conan O'Brien then filled the time slot...
, and the
Late Show with David LettermanLate Show with David Letterman is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and bandleader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra,...
. As of 2009, he is the executive producer of
The Late Late Show with Craig FergusonThe Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish American comedian Craig Ferguson. Ferguson is the third regular host of the CBS Late Late Show franchise. The show follows "Late Show with David Letterman" in the CBS late-night lineup.The program is the...
.
Early life
Lassally was born into a Jewish family in Hamburg Germany. They fled to the Netherlands in 1938 before the outbreak of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1943, Lassally and his mother and sister were interned at the Westerbork Nazi concentration camp and then Theresienstadt in
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. In 1947, the family immigrated to
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
. Lassally graduated from
Newtown High SchoolNewtown High School is a public school in Newtown, Connecticut. As of 2007, the school serves about 1,740 9-12 grade students. Newtown High is accredited, and was awarded the Blue Ribbon Award for Schools of Excellence in 2000.- Academics :...
. In 1951, he became a
pageAn NBC page is a person usually in his or her early twenties working in various departments of the NBC television network during a one-year period as a training ground for careers in television broadcasting and entertainment...
at the
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
network studio.
Career in television
Lassally worked on radio shows including "Monitor," "Nightline" and "The Nation's Future." In the 1950s, he became producer for
Arthur GodfreyArthur Morton Leo Godfrey was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname, The Old Redhead...
's television show. In the 1960s, Lassally took over as an executive producer of
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. After Carson retired in 1992, Lassally became the executive producer of
David LettermanDavid Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman...
's show. In 2004, 72-year-old Lassally was asked by the
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
network to produce for
Craig FergusonCraig Ferguson is a Scottish-American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, director and actor. He is the present host of CBS's The Late Late Show, a role that earned him an Emmy nomination in 2006....
's talk show.
As a longtime producer and confidant of successful talk show personalities, Lassally has been referred to as "the
host whispererA horse whisperer is a horse trainer who adopts a sympathetic view of the motives, needs, and desires of the horse, based on natural horsemanship and modern equine psychology...
."