It’s pretty amazing the range of likes and dislikes here. I thought the Trump/African presidents bit was the highlight of the week. Jon could have done that, but with only half the impact. Trevor has been playing to his strengths as a mixed-race immigrant all week. Not every bit has worked, but it’s hard for me to see how the week could have gone better.
Ryan Adams didn’t do anything for me, but he has the number 7 album on the charts and has been all over the music news. That’s a great “get” in tv terms.
I thought it was a brilliant piece of work by whomever mined the clips. Funny bit. Who knows, maybe some people will even see The Donald differently after viewing it (I know, not likely).
AFAIK, he pioneered the specific variety show format later carried on by people like Johnny Carson and David Letterman. Sullivan was an entertainment reporter before he was an entertainer, and he actually talked to people between acts. Occasionally even with some amount of gravitas, as when Joshua Logan came on to talk about his time in a mental hospital. So, pretty much everyone doing a moderately intelligent late night show now.
You’re right, though, that “The Ed Sullivan Show” was an entity unto itself, and not a franchise like “The Tonight Show With (whoever)” has grown into.
No question that Sullivan was a pioneer. Technically, Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater beat him to the air by two weeks in June 1948, and so did local shows. NBC’s Hour Glass appears to have been first, in 1946-47, though probably more people will read this thread than ever saw it. In the early days, half the shows on television were cheap but time-filling variety shows. All of them had more or less the same format. The host talked to the stars because that ate up more time. The host was usually a performer and Sullivan’s role was unusual on television, but all variety shows grew out of vaudeville through radio and he didn’t do anything that hadn’t been done for decades.
He most definitely did not start the “specific variety show format later carried on by people like Johnny Carson and David Letterman.” Probably every city had a local show with local hosts filling time, often for hours. Betty White’s is probably best known today.
The late night format was most influenced by a morning show, starring Ernie Kovacs.
You can see the direct line between this and the Steve Allen Tonight Show, which started in 1953.
Sullivan is hugely important overall, but he created nothing new I can think of.
I have been thoroughly edu-ma-cated. I am a young’un and, not having poked into this much previously, apparently got what the oldsters told me all garbled. Thanks!
I’m getting annoyed by the over-enthusiastic audience. They cheer and scream at even the lamest jokes. It seems they’re trying to make him seem funnier than he really is. Who are these people?
I like the show so far. The only advice I would echo is to tone down laughing at his own jokes so much. I can’t even say why it bothers me, but it does just a titch.
I actually thought Rogen was the best interview yet - and pretty good. Great to see Jessica. That entire show was pretty strong, IMO. Persuaded my wife and me both to comment that Noah appeared to have the chops (and the writers) to make this work.
I was amazed at how well Chris Christie came off. I don’t know if it was Trevor being nice or what - I assume Jon would have grilled him on Bridgegate - but he managed to capture the Trump “not politics as usual” feel without any of the visceral disgust.
I wouldn’t vote for him, but I don’t find Chris Christie to be the worst guy out there. There have been worse people who have been President in the last 75 years. Or I’m wrong, since we don’t know for sure what he’d be like.
I haven’t seen last night yet, but I want to repeat how great I think Trevor Noah is doing. It’s so easy to be critical, I think some folks miss how well he is doing. Give him 1-2 years and he may be almost as good as John Oliver or Stewart.
Believe me, I haven’t. Like I said, I found Stewart nearly intolerable by the end. The dry humor of his earlier stuff (if I recall correctly) and of Colbert was much more to my taste–and when Noah engages in dry humor, as in the skit with Williams on Monday, I’m much happier.
