In 1963, Crane moved to New York City to host Night Line, a 1:00 a.m. talk show on WABC-TV, the American Broadcasting Company's flagship station.
The first American TV appearance of The Rolling Stones was on Crane's program in June 1964 when only New Yorkers could see it.
The program debuted nationwide with a trial run (telecast nightly for a week) in August 1964 starting at 11:15 p.m. on the ABC schedule and titled The Les Crane Show.
It was the first network program to compete with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

ABC network officials used kinescopes of two episodes from the August 1964 trial run to pitch the show to affiliates that had not yet signed up to carry the program.
One episode featured the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald debating Oswald's guilt with noted attorney Melvin Belli, Crane and audience members.
The other featured Norman Mailer and Richard Burton.
Burton encouraged Crane to recite the "gravedigger speech" from Hamlet, and Crane did.

More affiliates signed up for a November relaunch of The Les Crane Show, and Look ran a prominent feature story with captioned still photographs from the August episodes.
One image shows Shelley Winters debating a controversial issue with Jackie Robinson, May Craig and William F. Buckley.

While some critics found Crane's late-night series innovative (indeed, two and a half years later The Phil Donahue Show would follow a similar format to much greater success on a local station in Dayton, Ohio during its daytime schedule), it never gained much of an audience.

In late June 1965, following Crane's three-month absence from television, The Les Crane Show was retitled ABC's Nightlife, sometimes advertised in newspapers as Nightlife, and it returned to the late-night schedule of the ABC network.
Network executives removed most of the controversy and emphasized light entertainment.
Producer Nick Vanoff started forbidding guests from broaching controversial topics.
After the summer 1965 run ended, network executives relocated the show from New York to Los Angeles, and the fall season began there.
The Paley Center for Media has available for viewing the first 15 minutes of one of the last episodes before executives finally cancelled ABC's Nightlife in early November 1965.
Crane can be seen and heard delivering his monologue, joking about words that could be censored and bantering with his sidekick Nipsey Russell.

The two kinescopes that ABC used to pitch The Les Crane Show to its affiliates in 1964 constitute most of the surviving video and audio of Crane's show.
 The UCLA Film and Television Archive has a digitized collection of clips from the Les Crane Show early episodes in August 1964.
It was assembled using 16 millimeter editing equipment, probably so network executives could use the collection of clips, in addition to the two entire episodes, to pitch the show to affiliates around the United States who had not yet signed up to carry the show.

An archive of source material on Malcolm X has only the audio of the civil rights leader's December 1964 appearance with Crane.
Audio of Bob Dylan's February 17, 1965 appearance is circulated online, and transcribed.
 Videotape of that broadcast was erased but still photographs and portions in silent 8mm film survive.

The National Archives has a transcript of the August 1964 Oswald/Belli episode in its documents related to the JFK assassination that were declassified and released publicly in 1993 and 1994.
Crane's daughter Caprice Crane has said she believes her father saved until he died a kinescope of this entire episode.

The collection culled from various episodes (preserved digitally at UCLA Film and Television Archive) includes a short clip from the episode with Shelley Winters, Jackie Robinson, May Craig and William F. Buckley.
Several people seem to be ridiculing Winters, and the studio audience cheers efforts to keep her quiet, but not enough of the kinescope was saved for viewers to understand exactly why.
A transcript of the rest of this episode does not exist, and what the participants said during the remainder is unkn
In 1963, Crane moved to New York City to host Night Line, a 1:00 a.m. talk show on WABC-TV, the American Broadcasting Company's flagship station. The first American TV appearance of The Rolling Stones was on Crane's program in June 1964 when only New Yorkers could see it. The program debuted nationwide with a trial run (telecast nightly for a week) in August 1964 starting at 11:15 p.m. on the ABC schedule and titled The Les Crane Show. It was the first network program to compete with The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
ABC network officials used kinescopes of two episodes from the August 1964 trial run to pitch the show to affiliates that had not yet signed up to carry the program. One episode featured the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald debating Oswald's guilt with noted attorney Melvin Belli, Crane and audience members. The other featured Norman Mailer and Richard Burton. Burton encouraged Crane to recite the "gravedigger speech" from Hamlet, and Crane did.
More affiliates signed up for a November relaunch of The Les Crane Show, and Look ran a prominent feature story with captioned still photographs from the August episodes. One image shows Shelley Winters debating a controversial issue with Jackie Robinson, May Craig and William F. Buckley.
While some critics found Crane's late-night series innovative (indeed, two and a half years later The Phil Donahue Show would follow a similar format to much greater success on a local station in Dayton, Ohio during its daytime schedule), it never gained much of an audience.
In late June 1965, following Crane's three-month absence from television, The Les Crane Show was retitled ABC's Nightlife, sometimes advertised in newspapers as Nightlife, and it returned to the late-night schedule of the ABC network. Network executives removed most of the controversy and emphasized light entertainment. Producer Nick Vanoff started forbidding guests from broaching controversial topics. After the summer 1965 run ended, network executives relocated the show from New York to Los Angeles, and the fall season began there. The Paley Center for Media has available for viewing the first 15 minutes of one of the last episodes before executives finally cancelled ABC's Nightlife in early November 1965. Crane can be seen and heard delivering his monologue, joking about words that could be censored and bantering with his sidekick Nipsey Russell.
The two kinescopes that ABC used to pitch The Les Crane Show to its affiliates in 1964 constitute most of the surviving video and audio of Crane's show.  The UCLA Film and Television Archive has a digitized collection of clips from the Les Crane Show early episodes in August 1964. It was assembled using 16 millimeter editing equipment, probably so network executives could use the collection of clips, in addition to the two entire episodes, to pitch the show to affiliates around the United States who had not yet signed up to carry the show.
An archive of source material on Malcolm X has only the audio of the civil rights leader's December 1964 appearance with Crane. Audio of Bob Dylan's February 17, 1965 appearance is circulated online, and transcribed.  Videotape of that broadcast was erased but still photographs and portions in silent 8mm film survive.
The National Archives has a transcript of the August 1964 Oswald/Belli episode in its documents related to the JFK assassination that were declassified and released publicly in 1993 and 1994. Crane's daughter Caprice Crane has said she believes her father saved until he died a kinescope of this entire episode.
The collection culled from various episodes (preserved digitally at UCLA Film and Television Archive) includes a short clip from the episode with Shelley Winters, Jackie Robinson, May Craig and William F. Buckley. Several people seem to be ridiculing Winters, and the studio audience cheers efforts to keep her quiet, but not enough of the kinescope was saved for viewers to understand exactly why. A transcript of the rest of this episode does not exist, and what the participants said during the remainder is unkn
Les Crane