It had been a while, and work was crazy, and I hadn't really had time to process anything I might want to write about. I started a post about how awesome Star Trek is/was (still to come), but I couldn't get in to writing it, because it wasn't a subject that grabbed me and demanded to be written about.
And then the late night wars of the 21st century commenced, and I had found my purpose for blogging again.
I could start at the beginning, with the great Late Night tradition, with Carson and his legacy, but I won't.
I could start with the fact that NBC gave Leno a five year head start to retire, and five years to get themselves comfortable with the fact that it was finally time to turn The Tonight Show over to Generation X.
But the issue goes beyond that. So instead, let's begin with the utter incompetent fools who are running NBC.
There's always the asinine fact that they did give a five year head start to the announcement of the changing of the guard. Leno is fine, but he's no Carson-level nation treasure, both by nature of his humor and length of his tenure. There are not generations, plural, who have set their nightly watches by Leno, or even who bothered to stay up and see his great farewell. No, we did not need five years to prepare ourselves for crippling grief or a landmark change to the nightly television landscape.
Which might have something to do with the fact that by the time he actually retired, we already knew he was coming back. The decision by NBC to introduce an hour-long comedy show every night in the ten o'clock time slot was ludicrous in the extreme: not only were they going to cannibalize their own franchise (who's going to stay up to watch a comedic wrap-up of the day after they've already seen one beginning an hour and a half earlier?), but they were displaying a massive disdain for quality original programming, effectively removing five hours from their schedule that could have been devoted to some of the new, groundbreaking dramas that have been flooding the airwaves in the past decade. Hell, they even could have brought Battlestar Galactica over from SyFy and started showing it from the beginning. It would have saved money. And I'd be willing to bet it would have gotten better ratings than Leno.
All of this doesn't speak to the fact that they brought back Leno to host this banality. And with Leno at the helm, it was only ever going to be banality. Leno versus Letterman aside, I have never personally found Leno funny. At all. He sort of comes out, and bobs his head, makes a couple of inane jokes (which he is sure to laugh at), and then gives seriously boring interviews.
Say what you will about Letterman, his humor and his personal life, at least his show is interesting.
But I digress. Let's talk about Conan O'Brien for a moment. I'm a little too young to have a staunch loyalty to him from his earlier work, but every time I have watched him I have found him humorous and appealing (and let's face it: his constant referencing and legendary cameo on 30 Rock certainly don't hurt), and I think he was a fine, fine choice to usher in the next generation of Tonight-ers. We are the generation of The Daily Show, and anyone who will fight with Stewart and Colbert in a stairwell during the Writers Strike will do nicely. He certainly isn't for everyone, but he isn't as divisive as Leno was against Letterman, and honestly, if I stayed up that late, I would have a hard time choosing who to tune in to.
To the surprise of no one, The Jay Leno Show at 10pm is an unmitigated disaster, no matter what the execs tell you about it performing "exactly as expected" (BTW, we in America have already voted against blind adherence to failed doctrine. Admitting your mistakes is "in" now... seriously), and now the show has been cancelled.
Well, actually not. It has been moved. To 11:35pm. In other words, they are bumping The Tonight Show by a half an hour for... Jay Leno.
There is so much wrong with this scenario that it's hard to know where to begin, but the fact that it's The Tonight Show, not The First Thing Tomorrow Morning show is a good start. Conan's insanely eloquent speech from TCA really says it all. There is nothing I can add to that to make the point better.
And so now, a new question emerges: how on Earth will NBC ever lure anyone back to host their late night? They already screwed Letterman for Leno, and now they're bumping Conan... honestly. How will they convince the next guy that he's not going to be another episode of Law and Order: LVU?
And more importantly, how will they convince showrunners that their ten o'clock hour is now safe for quality drama?
I guess we'll wait-and-see-pudding.
1 comment:
You go girl!
Post a Comment