The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon<\/a>\u201d together and they both cited early career theater training as the thing that\u2019s been most useful to them in pulling together a show that they think of as almost \u2018televised vaudeville\u2019 night after night.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cWe are constantly working on several bits at once with different writers,\u201d Hanson told IndieWire. \u201cThe challenges of the low-budget\/understaffed downtown theater world helped me hone my skills as a creative problem solver. Considering the available resources becomes a necessary part of the design process and, for me, a rewarding puzzle to solve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe both started on \u2018Late Night with Jimmy Fallon\u2019 with the freelancer mindset that we wouldn\u2019t stay put\u2026 But here we are,\u201d Wolensky added. \u201cWe are very lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Production](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Image-from-iOS29.jpg\")
Behind the scenes of \u2018The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon\u2019Courtesy of Kelly Hanson and Heather Wolensky<\/p>\n
Luck always has something to do with it, but so does extensive preparation. \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d has a whole games department that has 4-5 highly produced segments in development at any one time, doing testing on and off camera to find the right 7-minute of version of something that is easy to explain and grasp, as well as visually striking.<\/p>\n
Hanson cited the \u201cHuman Claw Machine\u201d as a game build that she and her team were able to throw a lot of love and detail into. What initially started as a Jimmy Fallon riff in a creative meeting necessitated a giant-sized pit of toys and a wire rig to safely move the contestants around as they attempt to be \u201chuman claw machines\u201d and haul up the prizes while scrambling through the air.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time we did it, figuring out the spatial relations to allow their bodies to become giant \u2018claws\u2019 in our tiny upstage space was a special challenge,\u201d Hanson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In addition to determining exactly how many stuffed animals you need to fill a 6\u00d712 foot tank on a quick turnaround, and how big a trough to make so that the game can last for over a minute, Hanson activated a special consultant to make sure the game was \u201cA Minecraft Movie\u201d specific. \u201cI texted my 11-year-old son, who is a Minecraft fanatic, and he sent me a list of items we should include in the tank,\u201d Hanson said. \u201cHe also suggested that we include a pig head crown as a tribute to Technoblade, a beloved young YouTuber who had died of cancer a few years ago.\u00a0We got approval from the show, and his tribute was widely noticed online! It was so heartwarming and a really lovely collaboration with my son.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Collaboration is the name for all of the games that \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d production design team takes on, as well as sketches and desk bits. A \u201cJORTS\u201d music video required all the props to be designed and hand-drawn as 2D objects that interact with 3D people. Sometimes, however, the show\u2019s art team has to improvise. Hanson and Wolensky will get a heads-up at 10:30 on the day of, if there\u2019s a timely sketch that requires their attention. Even with a prop warehouse standing by at the ready (for 3D objects, at least), that\u2019s not a lot of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a giant warehouse in Long Island and a truck that runs every day.\u00a0 Sometimes, though, that is just simply not fast enough. Our prop teams are masterful in finding things in a pinch \u2014 whether it\u2019s a giant live fish or a freestanding toilet,\u201d Wolensky said. \u201cYou name it and they have probably put it in the back of a taxi.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Black](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/NUP_206906_0030087.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Over the years, the show has made its studio more responsive, replacing the printed cityscape backdrop behind Fallon\u2019s desk with an LED wall \u2014\u00a0a bit of risk with studio space at a premium, as LED walls usually need a lot of space to work well on camera. But the production team figured out a way to make it work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now have a video surface that allows us to change the backdrop for desk games and sketches, \u00a0giving us a different look for popular desk bits like \u2018Hey Robot\u2019 and \u2018Go On, Git.\u2019\u00a0Encouraged by this success, we followed by adding video behind Higgins, our announcer, as well as on our \u201cheader\u201d surfaces throughout the studio. These additions, in combination with our new and improved 13\u2019x24\u2019 mobile upstage video wall, have set us up with a dynamic space that can be transformed quickly,\u201d Hanson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s ultimately Hanson and Wolensky and their team that do the transforming. \u201cOur art department of six is comprised of incredible people, and between us, we are able to seamlessly flow and keep up with the day-to-day, while supporting each other. Each person on the team is essential.\u00a0And then of course, last but not least, [our] scenics, props, crew, and vendors who are always ready to jump in feet first.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t scared of any challenge, big or small.\u00a0 They make this job truly the best around,\u201d Wolensky said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s something infectiously fun, for both a creative team and for an audience, about the rush of putting…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[171,1029,1030,10507,10508,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-9478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-jimmy-fallon","10":"tag-nbc","11":"tag-the-tonight-show-starring-jimmy-fallon","12":"tag-top-of-the-line","13":"tag-tv","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114735757768859067","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Atmosphere](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BUC_3444.jpg\")
<\/a> ![\"'What](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Untitled-design-21.jpg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n