How Arsenio Hall Shook Up Late Night

There’s a scene in “Pretty Woman” in which Julia Roberts, as Vivian, a sex worker hired by a “corporate raider” played by Richard Gere, attends a polo match dressed in a demure polka-dot sundress and a boater hat. She almost blends in—until a player makes an impressive shot and she starts pumping her fist, chanting, “Woof! Woof! Woof!” Moviegoers in 1990 would have clocked the reference: Vivian was tuned in to “The Arsenio Hall Show.” Its host, the eponymous Black comedian, would make his entrance as a rowdy section of his audience called the “dog pound” barked on cue.