So my girlfriend brought up something interesting: every late night show host we can think of sits on the right while the guests sit to the left.
Is there a reason for this?
Ages ago in a film class, I read that onscreen, moving from left to right is positive movement. The hero/winner charges from left to right; the bad guy/loser faces toward the left.
I think this was psychologically connected to us reading from left to right. Moving left is going backwards.
On late night TV, the host is there to make the guest star look good. Hence the guest star is on the left, facing toward the right.
Stage craft 101. We read from left to right, thus the psychological “center” is stage right ; the exclamation point as it were. You’ll notice this in any film or painting of a royal court as well. The king or queen or pope or Indian chief is always depicted on the right.
I meant stage left not right.
Ahh, I remember that very same lesson, actually. Didn’t even occur to me it might apply to stationary objects/people too.
Alright, thanks you too =)
That’s interesting. Are staging conventions switched in cultures where people read from right to left?
Just because we read from left to right, why would that make someone on the left (the guest) be more presentable?
When we look at a page, or a stage or a TV or movie screen, our eyes tend to head first to the left side, as though we were beginning to read. And movement from there toward the right side flows more naturally for us.
Starting on the right side and move toward the left, seems to go against the grain.
So when a person is in a dominant role–Dirty Harry firing his gun–he’s on the left firing toward the right. He’s looking and firing in the “right” direction.
When faced with adversity, the hero is often moving toward the left–the X-Wings flying down the Death Star trench. That’s “backwards” and a tougher go. But when they’re victorious, they fly toward the right, away from the exploding space station. The Rebels vs. the Empire on Hoth are the same way.
So putting the guest star, the focus of the talk show on the right puts the emphasis on that person and not on the host. On talk shows the host is there to make the guest look good.
I’ve read art people who claim that this is one reason why Picasso’s Guernicais so unsettling. Sure, there’s the obvious anguish and pain and suffering at all, but also, subconsciously, it’s going the “wrong” way. The movement flows from right to left, instead of left to right. It makes people uneasy in a subliminal way, increasing the impact of the work.
I’ve also read, though, that some people use this as evidence that it’s simply unfinished - that Picasso meant to make a print of it somehow (I’m not an art person, I don’t know the technical details), and reverse the image before displaying it.
I like the first theory better.
So, in sitcoms, why is the front door usually to the right?
I don’t think it’s “usually”, I think it’s about even.
This archived thread took count, but I’m too lazy to tally it up. I see lots of Lefts and Rights, and some Centers, though.
ETA: Oh, look. Someone has even more time on his hands than Dopers do.
I stand corrected. I guess I just had selective memory.
I can think of two successful chat shows here (Graham Norton and Parkinson) in which the host sits, or sat, on our left. Maybe what happens is simply that a particular chat show becomes very successful, and competitors copy it, down to the layout of the set? Or maybe it’s something to do with us driving on the left? 
On the Australian tv show Rove Live, the host sat on the left. Just sayin.
Guernica was commissioned as a 25-foot wall mural, so that would be a tough thing to print.
Yeah, I’ve watched a few British shows, and it’s startling to me to see the guest on the right. Makes me think they’re the guest host, not just the guest, until it becomes clear that the guy on the left is in charge, so he’s the host.
Given that The Disasters of War (its official name) is from the period when Picasso was working heavily with engraving, I favor the second. And Telperion, bigger prints have been made.
A few months ago for a class on symbolism, I inverted the image. This is what the positive would look like, assuming that he intended to engrave it. Now the explosions are light (which is how they are usually represented), the figures dark and the movement is mostly left to right.
And personally, what I find most disturbing about that picture is how many people have copies of it in their offices. Do they never look at the wall, or do they have the sensibility of a dead hippopotamus? 
Wow, that somehow looks so wrong. I think Picasso knew what he was doing.
Thanks for the input, but I really didn’t intend to hijack a thread with a discussion of the theories - I meant to post it as an example of how right to left flow in a piece of art or on a stage can look “wrong” to Western eyes. 
Here’s an interesting thought to consider: most people are right handed, so it’s easier (and looks better) for the host to shake guest’s hands if they’re on his left, as opposed to reaching across his body to shake their hands were they on the other side, especially since they also have to reach around a desk to do it. It also makes it easier for guests to hand gifts, or the book or whatever else that they’re promoting, to the host if need be.