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« Roush Dispatch
Happy New Year for Late-night TV
Conan O'Brien by Dana Edelson/NBC Photo
Did absence make our hearts grow fonder of late-night TV's hosts, missing in action for the last two months? I suppose it's possible, though I doubt anyone's preferences were changed by what they saw Wednesday night, when all of the network hosts finally returned to work, all but David Letterman and Craig Ferguson without writers. (If anything grew, it was facial hair, at least on Dave and Conan.)
If you're the sort who for whatever reason prefers affable Jay Leno over cranky Dave, or chooses to stay up late for the delectable derangement that is Conan O’Brien, nothing about Wednesday’s opening night would likely have shaken you from your long-ingrained after-hours habits. The strike beards sported by Dave and Conan in solidarity with the still-striking writers (“and to prove that I still have some testosterone,” joked Conan) were the most noticeable changes on the late-night landscape.
Here’s my report card on late-night’s opening night, keeping in mind that I was staying up unusually late on what had already been a long travel day back from vacation. (I’ll admit right now that I fast-forwarded through every musical act.)
By the way, happy 2008, everyone. Now if only we could put this wretched strike behind us early in this new year.
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: B-
“B” for bland, the show’s (and host’s) usual condition. The populist, popular king of late night delivered a show that looked an awful lot like business as usual. Great news if you’re a fan, not so great if you’re looking for actual inspiration. His monologue, self-written (and vetted by his wife, he sorta joked), was just as scattershot and overlong as ever, but still somewhat heroic given that it returned him to his self-reliant stand-up roots. The audience Q&A that followed was pretty painful, except for the long-time Huckabee fan who prompted a Monica Lewinsky joke. Does it say something about Jay’s audience that he was asked if he’d ever take the show to Branson, Missouri, or retire to Daytona Beach? Admitting he was glad to stay out of the New Year’s Eve fray revealed a bit more complacency than he probably realized.
Best and certainly newsiest guest anywhere on the night: Mike Huckabee, on the eve of the Iowa caucuses. His guitar jam with the band recalled Bill Clinton’s sax riff on Arsenio Hall’s show back in 1992, but otherwise, few original notes were played during the softball interview. Flashing back to an earlier Tonight Show appearance, back when then-Arkansas governor Huckabee was more than 100 pounds heavier, was an eye-opener.
Jay cooking pepper steak with Emeril only made me hungry to be watching something else.
Late Show with David Letterman: B
Hardly Dave’s best night ever, though he milked lots of humor from his new graybeard look. Alternately referring to himself as resembling “a cattle-drive cook” and “a missing hiker,” his opening bit was upstaged by Hillary Clinton’s taped cameo. (“Oh well, all good things come to an end,” she said of his eight-week hiatus.)
Clearly pleased to have his writers back at work, Letterman honored the WGA with plenty of scripted references, highlighted by a top-10 list of writers’ demands read by striking writers from the staffs of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, several Law & Order series, as well as celebrity writers Nora Ephron and Alan Zweibel. Did you notice Paul Shaffer at one point playing off with the “Look for the Union Label” theme? And did you catch Dave’s reference to his showgirls as the “Eugene v. Debs” (a nod to the Socialist labor organizer)? Smart, subtle, rewarding.
Dave had the night’s sole superstar guest on any network: Robin Williams, just back from a USO tour, in top form, ribbing the host over his grizzled appearance (“I just came back from Iraq. Everyone looks like you”). After he left the stage, the show pretty much collapsed. In other words: Rethink that “Know Your Staff” segment until you can make it more interesting than showing baby pictures.
Late Night with Conan O’Brien: B+
This grade would be higher if Conan had been able to score at least one intriguing guest. No matter how many times Bob Saget reached for the water, aping Conan’s earlier attempt to fill time (“You can’t write a moment like that”), he reeked of flop sweat.
Not so the host himself, whose spontaneity fueled by nervous energy kept the show hopping. He can’t take over the Tonight throne soon enough for me.
I howled when he compared his new look to the young Kris Kringle from the animated Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town. I enjoyed his spinning of the wedding ring, at least the first time. (“Trust me. There’s time to do it again,” he warned, and he was right.) His lunatic dancing on the desk, and his pretaped tour of his office, kept me amused.
What I liked most about Conan’s first night back, besides his usual winning absurdism, was how he made time a character on the show. He took advantage of this awkward strike situation to make his show something special.
Jimmy Kimmel Live: D-
On the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s ABC’s miserable misadventure in misanthropy. Dead air would have been preferable to this torpid exercise in self-impressed, name-dropping boredom. Even the musical segment seemed an afterthought: a Kid Rock performance from Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Huh? When Kimmel and Andy Dick ganged up on Helio Castroneves to rib him about his broken engagement, it wasn’t as much funny as mean-spirited. Charm has no place on a show like this, quite clearly.
Hair moment, since each show had to have one: Uncle Frank shaving off Guillermo’s goatee. It was about as funny as it sounds.
As for those flashback “Great Moments for which residual payments are made to our unemployed writers”: Depends on your definition of “great,” although the replay of Andy Dick’s parody of the Audrey Hepburn Gap ad was the only time I laughed in the entire hour.
Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson: C
How audacious for the Scottish cutup to come back without a single guest, instead letting the show’s writers carry the load with an hour of sketch comedy, improvisation and all-around cloying mugging. Describing himself as the “Switzerland” of late night, after his boss negotiated a middle ground so they could get back to work with “diplomatic immunity,” Ferguson is capable of making a visceral connection with the camera and the audience as he rambles on in a style that can be quite disarming when it’s not overdone. I like this guy, but Wednesday, it was just way too much of the same thing, over and over, resulting in an ultimately tiresome hour.
His hair moment: Wearing a fake beard as a shepherd too attached to his “Dolly” on the Scottish moors in the opening sketch. He also joked that he had grown a strike beard several times over the hiatus. Thankfully, we were spared pictures.
His best moment: Promising that D-list celebs “are still welcome here,” even if his amnesty during the strike may open his doors to bigger names unwilling to cross picket lines elsewhere. “This show will be the same crap as always,” “It will be garbage” and “We will not improve this show” were among his pledges.
Somehow, it wasn’t that hard to take him at his word.
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Jan 3, 2008 1:17 PM
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I actually enjoyed Letterman. I was curious and watched Leno's monologue while Tivo-ing Letterman so I could watch him beginning at 11 [and without commercials finish about the same time the show ends!]. I don't usually watch Leno. I think he's a really nice guy, but is CERTAINLY NOT Johnny Carson and I've tried a few times to watch since I liked Carson, but never can get through more than about 5 minutes of his show. Last night was no different....with or without writers, he's about the same.
I enjoyed Letterman last night. It was nice to have something NEW to watch. So I'm glad he worked out a deal and will be back on a permanent basis. I usually enjoy Craig, but last night, having no guests, I was very disappointed that he just took the whole show himself. He's funny, but an hour of just him was too much of him. He should have saved the "skits" for later in the week and gone back to his "usual" format.
I'll continue watching CBS latenight...and not try NBC again--especially with them crossing a picket line. With as much money as Leno makes, why couldn't they do something like Dave's group did to appease the writers??
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Jan 3, 2008 1:32 PM
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Matt, glad to see that you have returned! Hope you had a nice holiday and happy new year. I didn't stay up for any of the late night shows (I will do so for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's return though) and now I wish Conan was on earlier because it sounded like he was the best of the bunch.
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Jan 3, 2008 1:33 PM
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I believe that the reason Leno and Conan have not been able to negotiate a deal is that NBC owns their shows, not them. Letterman's Worldwide Pants Production Co. owns both his show and Craig Ferguson's show, so they had a lot more leeway in being able to negotiate a deal. I think Leno would really like to, but it's NBC that's blocking it. No question, Leno seems like a nice guy, but I'm with Matt -- I MUCH prefer Letterman.
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Jan 3, 2008 1:51 PM
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I thought Leno's monologue was great, very funny and entertaining. But it was a little disconcerting to me that he looked over at Kevin so often and addressed alot of his jokes to him instead of the audience.
Conan's dancing on the desk was funny, but after that I got bored and turned the tv off.
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Jan 3, 2008 1:53 PM
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I've always felt Dave was better - funnier, more creative, and a much better interviewer - and therefore the King of Late Night.
Having said that, I've always been surprised that Leno has consistently better numbers, but have learned to chalk it up to personal taste. Dave's not going to go broke anytime soon, so there's no need for me to grieve his not winning the 'late night wars'. Last night was a typical Dave show, I thought. He spends as much time being self-deprecating as he does anything else, and he doesn't take himself too seriously, but he can tackle any subject with credibility, which can't be said for most late night talk show hosts. Watching Dave talk to Bill Clinton, for example, makes you realize that he's far more tuned in to what's happening on the planet than most who share the time slot.
I never saw Leno as the successor to Carson, and more enjoyed him as a guest on Letterman's early NBC shows. To me, Leno in a motorcycle jacket - and with a bit of a chip on his shoulder - was more entertaining than his current corporate image.
As for the others -
Haven't managed to warm up to Ferguson's style yet.
Yes, Conan is frenetic, but it's too much of the same tune on most nights. Freneticism needs to be a little more fresh than his to seem real. His seems forced and worn.
...and I wouldn't watch Kimmel if the government passed legislation forcing me to do so.
As for the next king of late night, I see John Stewart as Letterman's natural successor.
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Jan 3, 2008 2:34 PM
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I don't usually watch any of the late-night shows, but last night I watched Leno and Letterman (which I'd taped). I found Leno's monologue funny, and found that Huckabee has a good sense of humor and a quick wit (though I'm not going to vote for him). I was bored with Letterman and didn't think Robin Williams was a quick or funny as usual. Maybe he was tired from his USO tour. I thought his humor was forced and over-al not that clever.
Based on last night's shows, if I were to be a regular watcher I'd watch Leno. Maybe Letterman's writers were out of practice after being on strike for so long.
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Jan 3, 2008 4:05 PM
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I used to think Letterman's act was to be a dork. But, it's not an act. He really is a dork. Paul Shaffer fits in well with Dave. Leno and Kevin Eubanks are funny and entertaining. Dave and Shaffer are just lame.
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Jan 3, 2008 4:26 PM
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I wanted to see both Jay and Dave, so I watched Jay and recorded Dave. After a short while I turned off the unfunny Jay and just watched Dave. Dave was great, except for the "know your staff" segment. I'll be watching Dave again tonight. I'm so happy to have late night tv back, and can't wait for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to return.
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Jan 3, 2008 5:04 PM
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Agree with most of your opinions Matt, especially the Kimmel show. I think he's often funny, but he came off so sour about the strikers and rude to the guests. And the show was the most padded. Conan and Dave are always strong, though I worry about Conan non NBC guests (guessing we'll see lots of Al Roker for the next few weeks). Craig was fun, but we'll see how the show develops when he finally is able to land bigger guests. Leno had a soft monologue and interviews, and the Q and A session suffered from weak questions. But at least he wasn't mean like Kimmel!
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Jan 3, 2008 5:27 PM
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I certainly disagree with your rating for Leno. I thought his material was pretty damn good compared to Letterman who had writers. Give me a break, if you don't like the guy fine, but don't knock a good performance based on that.
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Jan 3, 2008 5:49 PM
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Watched both Leno and Letterman last night. You and many people, are extremely hard on Leno. I enjoyed his show last night. It seemed like a normal show to me, so he must be very involved in the jokes for monologue. Of course, when you have Robin Williams on like Letterman did, you don't need to have any writers, he keeps things moving. But for the most part, it was a subpar show. Didn't see Ferguson or Kimmel, but Kimmel is always on the D-list. Not funny. Speaking of not funny, Conan is, at best, hit or miss, mostly miss. Can't understand why they would replace Leno with him. It will free up that time period for me though, because I won't be wathing Conan. He is a dud.
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Jan 3, 2008 5:52 PM
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I've always been surprised that Leno has consistently better numbers
Me too! Leno seems like a really nice guy to be stuck on a deserted island with but no where near as sardonic, clever and intelligent as Dave.
Linking Leno with the Branson crowd is a perfect fit! More of the middle of the road, catering to the masses type of humor.
Either way, it's good to see all of our late night guys back at the helm. How else will most Americans catch up on their politics?
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Jan 3, 2008 8:05 PM
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Obviously a Kimmel hater -- still hatin' from those "crass" Man Show days, I guess. I thought Jimmy was as funny as ever And to say he was mean-spirited towards Helio is a joke in itself -- even Helio was laughing about it!!
If you don't like JKL, just don't write about it and say "I don't prefer his brand of humor." I think it's sad that you try to bury it with such a low, low, lower rating than anybody else.
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Jan 3, 2008 10:37 PM
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Under the circumstances, without benefit of their team of writers versus the whole slew of writers back on the job--I give the night to Leno and Conan. I too, enjoyed his show last night. IMO, Letterman just phoned the show in.
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Jan 3, 2008 10:46 PM
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