Just a quick note that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has halted production due to the suicide of a staffer, Bill Clarey. The show will return with new episodes in 2006. Link
I’m sorry I won’t be getting any more Daily Shows this year, but I’m really sorry for what they’re going through. That’s terrible.
I thought something was odd, because there was a voice over during one of the other programs tonight saying that they’d have a new show tonight, but when it came on, it was a rerun.
Is this out of respect for the staffer, or was this a key player in the day to day production?
Damn that’s sad. Fucking comedy. I can’t imagine it’s out of anything but respect, as I’m sure they’d be able to pull something together in a day or two.
It’s a classy thing to do.
As I read it, they’re only airing a repeat tonight. We’ll have new episodes tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Sad, though. So young, and so nicely connected. Suicide blows.
I hope this doesn’t sound as much like a heartless asshole as I fear it might, but… whatever happened to The Show Must Go On? Other shows have dealt with deaths, even suicides, of far more major players than this. (Hell, Bea Lillie is famous for having done a musical comedy show for RAF pilots a few hours after learning that her only child had been killed in action, Bud Abbott performed live the day his son drowned, etc.). It sounds as if there’s something that’s not being mentioned yet.
I think a major difference is that we’re not just talking about a performance here.
Troupers are used to working from material and conveying emotion that may not reflect how they’re actually feeling.
It’s one thing to work from material that’s prepared in advance – it’s another thing to show up for work, find out that someone you see every day has killed themselves, and then roll up your sleeves and write humourous material.
The article says he was intern and receptionist. So he is a key player.
No one else knows how to put toner in the printers and photocopiers.
[sub] I’m going to hell.[/sub]
Twain once wrote a piece (one of his regular magazine articles) in which he responded to complaints by folks who thought he’d stopped being funny, where he listed all the bad things that happened to him during the previous year (one of which was the death of his favorite daughter), and said basically that being able to write anything at all was a miracle.
Comedy Central just ran an ad for Howard Stern’s guest appearance on TDS tomorrow night. By this time of night, I would expect that they would have pulled that ad if there was going to be no Daily Show tomorrow.
I get the feeling the Daily Show is more like a close knit family than a TV show.
Just because “old school rules” say do it one way that doesn’t mean it is the right way. It’s not like the Daily Show has a sold out house where everyone paid 100 bucks to get in. At the end of the day what is really gained by going on and pretending to be happy?
I think not going on shows a high level of respect. Like Dewey Finn said above, “It’s a classy thing to do”.
Lest we not forget, Weird Al Yankovic went on to perform after learning his parents had died from carbon minoxide poisoining in their house. I think it was that same night.
I’d like to point out that all the other troupers mentioned who “went on with the show” had personal tragedies. Only one person had to pull it together, not the whole staff of the show.
Twain once wrote a piece (one of his regular magazine articles) in which he responded to complaints by folks who thought he’d stopped being funny, where he listed all the bad things that happened to him during the previous year (one of which was the death of his favorite daughter), and said basically that being able to write anything at all was a miracle.
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Where do you find that? I would like to read it…
That “show must go on” motto, in my mind, applies to performing an already scripted piece - putting on the play.
It doesn’t apply to writing new material while you’re thinking about this guy you liked killing himself.
Did anyone else assume, after finding the rerun, that they took it off because Howard Stern was too much of asshole to be broadcast even on cable?
From the article it sounds like they were going to shut down anyway, so this sped that up by a week.
It’s very sad. Suicide sucks.
I guess this bears repeating:
Only Monday night’s episode was affected. There will be new shows tonight, tomorrow, and Thursday.
Then they have two weeks’ scheduled holiday.