Former Ford dealer checks out historic cars at Ford headquarters
Bill McCubin, 102, of Madison, Indiana, tours the Ford Heritage Fleet at Ford HQ. McCubbin was previously a dealer in southeastern Indiana and began selling Ford in 1961.
- Tonight’s show starring Jimmy Fallon will be tape-taped special episodes of Detroit in a partnership with Ford Motor Co.
- This episode was recorded at the Detroit Opera House on September 14th, featuring guests with Detroit roots.
- Fallon and Ford have been in a long-standing relationship, and the hosts often feature Ford’s vehicles and services on his shows.
In its fifth year, Ford Motor Co. is collaborating with the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon to do an episode this time in Motor City.
Tonight’s show will be visiting Detroit for the first time on September 14th, paying for a special one-night episode, tape-only, tape-only at the historic Detroit Opera House. The episode will air on NBC the following night, September 16th, on Peacock.
Fallon will be the first network show to have come to Detroit since 2006, with ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live featuring a week-long episode from Detroit’s Gem Theatre until the Super Bowl at Fordfield.
Ford, a long-standing partnership with NBCuniversal, is now in its fifth year of collaboration with tonight’s show. This time, Ford will be working with the show to highlight the lineup of guests with Deep Detroit roots.
Ford and its charity, Ford Charity, have supported the Detroit Opera House, particularly the Opera House’s mission to expand the arts into new audiences and communities, according to a news release.
Ford and Fallon have a deep bond
According to the Ford Authority, Fallon is a well-known Ford fan and owns a Ford vehicle. It’s common for comedians to promote a variety of Ford cars and services, even with paid ads. In August he went on a test drive with Ford CEO Jim Farley in a Mustang supercar.
Earlier this year, Ford sponsored Fallon’s Kentucky Derby Puppy Predictor. Fallon’s Ford-sponsored segment included a cartoon effort to interview dogs who participated in tonight’s show.
Fallon and Ford have long been linked to creative promotions for automakers. In 2014, Fallon held a contest to choose who to sell the Ford 150 King Ranch. In the “Fingers” of the “4×4 Competition,” 10 Ford salespeople across the country placed one hand on the Ford F150 at USS Intrepid on the Hudson River in New York.
Over the years, Fallon has tapered test drives, test drives and test drives with Farley, like Farlon’s 2023 electric go-kart race and Formula 1 driver Sergio (Cecco) Perez. Farley was the segment advisor.
In August 2022, Fallon stopped by the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, to build an all-electric F-150 Lightning truck with Farley and factory workers.
In March, Fallon played Ford Mobile Services Technicians in a segment of tapes that mixed comedy and ads, wearing a fake mustache and Ford uniform. He paid service calls at the couple’s home and told them how Ford Mobile Services could give people time to read books, read the garden, take up mixed martial arts, fight Sasquatch, and more.
Other celebrity partners in Ford
Ford has also been associated with other celebrities. Breaking Bad and Malcolm actor Brian Cranston, for example, works closely with Ford philanthropy. The Oscar-nominated star volunteered to join Detroit to kick off Ford Building, the new charity program. The program’s purpose is to unite Ford’s nationwide network of dealers and employees to provide more efficient relief during disasters. Ford is partnering with four charities in the new program.
According to Ad Age, Cranston’s famous voice – the deep grooved baritone – won a contract in October 2018 as the voice of the Ford Commercial at the launch of the “Build Ford Proud” campaign. He has also expressed a Ford Philanthropy promotional video.
Before that, he revealed that over the years he had purchased several cab pickups for the crew of the F-150 and donated to charities for use after the hurricane to rescue people in flooded areas.
As for his personal cars, Cranston has been driving an all-electric Mustang Mach-E for the past few years.
Tonight’s show starring Jimmy Fallon will be nominated for the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards in the comedy, drama, or variety series category of the digital exclusive series The Tonight Show: Commercial Break: The Tonight Show.
The show is executive produced by Lorne Michaels, who produced Saturday Night Live and produced by Chris Miller and Gerald Bradford. Tonight’s show tape, usually in front of a live studio audience at Studio 6B, located at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York.
Jamie L. Larrow is a senior Autos writer covering Ford Motor Company for the Detroit Free Press. Please contact Jamie at jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jarouan. Sign up for our car newsletter. Become a subscriber.
Contact pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.
