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Harvey Corman and Tim conway were just halarious, along with the rest of the knucleheads on the carol burnett show. Always thought Johnathan Winters was a very funny man too.
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I have a DVD on the life of Jack Parr, the second host of the Tonight Show, 1957-62. He came after Steve Allen and before Carson. I call it "adult" humor, not because of foul language, of which there was NONE, but because it came before the Baby Boom and the youth culture that took over popular culture by the late 1960s. The pre-Boomer generation of adult comedians/entertainers (Allen, Parr, Carson, Bob Hope, etc.) was typified by intellectual, carefully crafted, thoughtful, and hilarious interaction. Johnathan Winters got his start on the Jack Parr show and he was brilliant.
Leno is pretty good by comparison but he is forced to cater to a far dumber population, which he makes fun of/sheds light on, and an intense commercial focus (by business and through ratings) on youth culture. (Young people are the easiest demographic to separate from their money.) Letterman is good too but he is restricted by the same things: don't be too smart, don't be too serious, don't do anything that might confuse the youth-oriented audience and thus hurt the ratings and spook the advertizers.
Oh, and here's a classic moment:
