Everyone is crazy about WandaVision, including, apparently, Jimmy Fallon. He is so obsessed that he even introduced himself in the TV show about a sad Marvel superhero who introduces herself in other TV shows. Children, feel free to use this sentence in the English class when your teacher asks you to explain what “meta” means.
In a new sketch called “FallonVision”, which debuts here on Vulture before its broadcast tonight on Fallon’s late night show, the host jumps through time and repeats several of The Tonight Show. Elizabeth Olsen, the star of WandaVision and a gas on The Tonight Show tonight it is present throughout the journey in the role of the actress guest who always acts decade-appropriate. ‘Water?’ she worries in the fifties, before taking a sip and adding: ‘It’s a weird way of pronouncing’ rum punch ‘.’ In the ’70s, she smoked a cigarette (not necessarily of the nicotine variety) on live TV.
Just like in the Disney + series, it eventually becomes clear that Fallon is radiating himself through classic television as a way to escape from his sadness about what will happen in 2021 in real life. WandaVision character may be the one responsible for it all. [Wink.]
Director Chris Tartaro, who filmed and edited Fallon on both very pre-recorded sketches during his tenure. Late night and The Tonight Show, less than an hour after taking the sketch’s last shot, jumped over the phone to explain how it all came together. Look at the sketch first, because spoilers are below.
After the idea was conceived and combed by Fallon and his writers’ room, the first step was to confirm that Olsen, who had already been booked as a Wednesday guest, was a game to take part in the tribute. She was, though she had to improvise a bit as wigs and other props could not be sent to her fast enough. (Olsen is currently shooting in London Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.) “She took her Sunday to do it with her team, and they did not have costumes, and they only used what they had,” says Tartaro. (Please study each item that Olsen wears in the sketch for possible clues about the Doctor Strange Movie.)
The sets of all the previous incarnations of The Tonight Show, including backdrops from the ’50s,’ 70s, ’90s and’ 00s, was built in smaller incarnations that enabled Fallon to film all of his retro segments in one production night. What the host he channeled was specifically the Steve 1950s in the fifties, but Tartaro says the others were a mix.
“In the ’70s, I think he was a combination of Tom Snyder, Dick Cavett and Johnny Carson,” says Tartaro, while Fallon’s 90s talk show channeled pieces by David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien. (Followed of course by a tribute to Fallon’s own former concert series on NBCs Late night in the early 2010s.)
As for the fantastic button at the end of the sketch – the unveiling of Kathryn Hahn – the section was shot yesterday. And yes, she sang “It Was Kathryn Hahn All Along” herself, because of course she did.
“She was immediately very wild and spot-on, which … I can not say enough nice things about her,” says Tartaro. He can not, nor can the Internet.