Being a talk show dilettante, I tried to look in on all the late night shows tonight. I ended up logging most of my time on CBS; guess there’s something to that whole “having writers” thing. Lots of energy on both Dave’s and Craig’s shows, with gestures of support for the WGA weaved among the comedy. I had forgotten how infectiously fun Ferguson can be; he may love his craft more than any chat show host in history.
As for what I saw of the other shows: Jimmy Kimmel was openly frustrated and couldn’t bring himself to make time-killing funny. Jay Leno seemed a little looser without the cue cards, and I have to admit, in spite of my usual disdain for the man, I laughed at a two-fer of cheap, off-color jokes that bely his supposedly blue-haired demographic.
Conan, bearded like Dave, got off to a good start, doing an extended version of his his preening-and-dancing routine. But without a prepared comedy bit to fall back on, his endless supply of manic energy started to verge on creepy.
Ordinarily, I’d rank the late night hosts with Letterman on top, followed by Conan, Ferguson, and Kimmel, with Leno dead last. But tonight I’ll go with Letterman, Ferguson, Leno (ugh), Conan and Kimmel. I really hope this strike ends soon, but as far as late night is concerned, I think I can keep my tuner glued to CBS and not feel I’m missing anything.
Dave was pretty good. I only caught few minutes of Leno. I fell asleep before Craig.
I am looking forward to TDS & Colbert Report returning. These are my regulars. I have no use for Leno and I had gotten tired of Letterman, but then I have watched him on and off since he started his Late Night show on NBC in the early 80s. I liked him better then when he was zanier and I guess it helped I was a lot younger.
Whoops! That explains why I didn’t see it there when I checked this morning.
What really torques me is that I knew this - and I’ve already forgotten it a couple times this week!
I’m sorry to see that there will be picketers outside the studios Monday, though. The info I have is that the company made them come back to work to keep from firing their entire staffs, so the picketers will only be making the nonunion workers and studio audience uncomfortable, since they film far from the corporate offices. But then, a strike is supposed to make people uncomfortable, so I guess it’s nearly unavoidable.
I kept asking myself during Letterman, for this he needed writers? He seemed completely flummoxed by the simplest routines. His interaction with the audience felt like a parody of bad audience interaction, but I don’t think he was doing it all deliberately.
Leno’s monologue, apparently written solely by himself, was no different from his regular monologues. I’m not sure if he can keep this up but it was a good start.
Kimmel asks questions of the guests that the other hosts would not. He seems to have more fun with the guests .Leno and Letterman seem to have a self imposed filter to not ask a question that would make a guest a little uncomfortable.
Two months off left them a little stale. They will have to get their groove back .
i thought Letterman was awesome all night long. He looks great with the beard.
Conan basically did YouTube material. The message to the network brass seemed to be “resolve this strike or you’ll get me spinning my wedding ring for an hour.” I’m just waiting for the threatened “dance party” episode where he will let the band go and just dance with the guests for an hour.
I remember in the mid-1980’s I was working second shift, and would get off at midnight, come home and unwind with a beer and David Letterman. Seemed pretty funny then, but I’ve hardly seen it in twenty years, and can hardly imagine how they’ve kept the show going so long. Are they doing the same kind of schtick?
Strange considering Letterman’s reputation for making many guest uncomfortable. Maybe he has softened since the heart attack? I don’t watch him much for years.
No, the show changed a lot when he moved to CBS and the 11:30pm EST slot. It lost much of its old craziness. Though still far more than the tonight show.
You’re a dilettante that watched all four shows in one night? Wow! I don’t think this word means what you think it means. I’m really a dilettante, so I’m just reading this thread instead of actually watching any of the shows.
I was in an Ambien haze, but I looked it up when I used it…I think barely watching them in all of 2007 and then flipping through them live to give a half-assed critique of each one counts as dilettantish.
Although after last night I think I will tivo Dave and Craig for a while.
Yeah, I’ve seen those articles. I think it’s got to come down to the technical wording of the contracts. Leno doesn’t read just what other people give him; he’s an active writer of some of his own material. The roles of host/writer/management overlap and conflict. A court would probably be needed to sort things out.
Whether the WGA will press internal charges is another matter. It seems to me that it would be terrible public relations. Punishing a world-famous stand-up comedian for using his own jokes may be technically justified by the terms of the contact (I emphasize “may be” since I don’t really know for sure) but it wouldn’t sit well with audiences. The WGA is in the right on its issues now, but the public is already blaming them rather than the networks for the loss of their favorite shows. Telling Leno he can’t do his own jokes would hurt them far more than Leno.
I can’t see how this is anything but a disappointment for the Writers’ Guild. Leno, who already had higher numbers, ended up improving upon them more than Letterman. And as far as Leno violating the strike, he’s seriously not allowed to even think of jokes? If one pops into his head in the middle of the night, as he said in his monologue, he’s then forbidden to use it? He seemed pretty confident in his opening monologue that he was following the rules - he even said it.
Now, after watching Leno, Letterman, O’Brian, and Ferguson, I have to say Leno’s show overall was the one that impressed me most. His monologue was fine, Huckabee even did ok (which surprised me), the cooking segment was fun to watch (especially the brandy!)…by all indications, if he hadn’t mentioned the strike a couple times, it would be like a regular show. Letterman was not on game tonight, and he just looked awful…O’Brian was absolutely wretched - does he clap his hands that much in his openers, usually? It was very distracting. His walk around the office bit was awful, too. And Ferguson…well, he’s just in a different genre, really. He was doing what he always does.
I have to say I didn’t even think about Kimmel. Heh.
