The whole "Leno at 10PM" thing has been analyzed to death, so let's analyze it a little bit more!
Leno has an interview with Broadcasting & Cable and he says, among many other things, that if NBC asked him to go back to 11:35 for whatever reason, he'd do it, but it's not his decision to make.
It seems that Leno is definitely trying to make things work at 10, and he's always been a good network soldier and will happily do what they want him to do because he has nothing to prove. But at the same time it seems like he truly would have preferred staying on The Tonight Show, and you get the sense that he's not 100% happy about how everything went down.
Today I made an executive decision and gave the podcast an oh-so-creative name: "The TV Squad Podcast." This was after we recorded it on Tuesday, so I still refer to it by its old APB name. If you have any suggestions, let me know at tvsquad [at] gmail [dot] com.
In this episode, Late Show writer Bill Scheft joins me, Danny Gallagher and Kona Gallagher to talk about his new book Everything Hurts. Of course, there's lots of good behind-the-scenes info about what it was like to work at The Late Show, especially on how the events of the past month affected the staff and the show's writing, including the monologue.
He also tells some funny stories about being canned from Sports Illustrated (and spawns a new catchphrase), feeding lines to the guy who played Mike Singletary and more. It's 45 minutes of fun.
After the interview, Kona, Danny and I give our picks of the week. Run time is 1:03:02.
A former female writer at Late Night with David Letterman has dropped a bombshell in a Vanity Fair article in which she complained of a "hostile work environment for women". While he didn't hit on the writer, she claims that she noticed Letterman paid "extra attention" to her and had a reputation of sleeping with female workers.
While this could be a legitimate complaint, I find it somewhat suspicious that she waited until now to write about this. It could be a case of jumping on a bandwagon or she may have been afraid to say anything for fear of repercussions (as in "you'll never work in this industry again").
There is also that fine line between taking advantage of a subordinate and flirting. Not having been there, it's difficult to access what the case actually was. Mind you, flirting with subordinates at the workplace is probably not a good idea in this litigious society, but he was likely so busy with the show, how else was he going to meet single women? Match.com?
We've all heard about the Northwest Airlines pilots that flew their plane full of passengers 150 miles past their destination. First they said they were arguing and not sleeping, then yesterday it came out that they were on their laptops. Probably on Facebook.
Last night, David Letterman had a list of the top ten excuses the pilots made.
[Watch clips and episodes of The Late Show at SlashControl.]
It turns out the David Letterman sex scandal hasn't reached its climax. It was just napping.
The National Enquirer reports that the Late Show host may have been caught on camera getting it on with a member of his staff.
The footage in question came from a surveillance camera in the show's offices that Letterman and his "much younger female co-worker" did not know had been installed in the building. The tape may be released when Robert Halderman, Letterman's extorter, goes to trial or when some sick son of a bitch with nothing but time on his hands and bandwidth to waste decides to post the thing on the Internet. For the sake of humanity, its vision and waning sex drives, don't. Just don't.
I don't mean the endlessly publicized sex scandal or the Sarah Palin controversy. I don't mean the ham-fisted and unfunny political commentary -- or even the strange tales of stalkers around every corner. I mean what happened to the guy from the mid-late 1980s who seemed so above and beyond any such tired showbiz cliches?
When Letterman followed Carson during the Golden Age of NBC late night TV, his show was admittedly quirky. But it was one of the best examples of post-modern comedy in the medium's history. Late Night with David Letterman not only mocked TV entertainment while being a part of it, but the show made fun of the very idea that people get paid to gab or act silly in front of millions of people.
It's not a regular thing to see late night hosts appear on other late night shows. But I think it was great that The Late Showwith David Letterman's Paul Shaffer was given the okay to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live to not only plug his new book but also play with the band. I can't imagine Kevin Eubanks coming over to The Late Show and doing the same.
He also talked about his love for Las Vegas and Jerry Lewis. They don't do the split screen right though. Shouldn't they be looking straight ahead instead of at each other?
[Watch clips and episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live and other shows at SlashControl.]
It's great to see people like Don Rickles still on talk shows, entertainers from a different era. Better than sitting through Madonna again or Dane Cook plugging his latest romantic com-castrophe.
Last night on The Late Show with David Letterman, Rickles talked about signing up for his 51st year as a headliner in Las Vegas. I hope they told Rickles what was going to happen in the middle of the interview so they wouldn't risk a heart attack.
[Watch episodes and clips of The Late Show and other shows at SlashControl.]
Let's face it, the Top Ten list on The Late Show with David Letterman can be hit or miss some nights (and just miss other nights). But they can still make lists where every entry is pretty damn funny. That happened last night, as Letterman presented the "Top Ten Signs Your Toddler Watches Too Much Television." Hey, it's TV-related so it's a perfect list for us.
[Watch episodes and clips of The Late Show and other shows at SlashControl.]
I'm talking about the clip after the jump. Letterman is sitting alone in his office reading the paper when he's visited by a certain ad mascot. I think we've all had the desire to do that to the thing but we haven't found it on our desks.
(Note: some people are saying that since this aired the night before Letterman's blackmailer was arrested that this was a subtle call out to the blackmailer. But I don't really see it, since, as Aaron Barnhart says, Letterman doesn't write the sketches and probably didn't tell his writers about the scandal.)
It's official, "pulling a Letterman" means sleeping with a co-worker. Why? Because I said so.
It seems that ABC's late night host Jimmy Kimmel has been in a relationship with a member of his staff as well. This time, the host has been dating the show's head writer Molly McNeary for "several months."
This forced Fox News to pose the question if Kimmel is "pulling a Letterman" and ask if he should be forced to apologize on the air to Ben Affleck. That normally would be hilarious if Fox News didn't handle all of their news with the same level of integrity and tact.
And yes, I'm jealous they came up with that line first.
It's always odd when pop culture personalities show up in comic books. It's the print equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters showing up on Gilligan's Island.
This comic book is from 1984 and features The Avengers meeting...David Letterman! He was on NBC back then doing Late Night and in the comic The Avengers go on the show. For some reason.
As part of our ongoing efforts to infiltrate every one of your senses, we've decided to bring back the APB Podcast, last seen in various forms around two years ago. In this first podcast, Jason Hughes, Kona Gallagher and myself discuss the following topics:
The Letterman scandal
A minute (if that) about Jon and Kate
How the fall season's going so far, including why Dollhouse's ratings are so bad,
Ask TV Squad, where we answer a question submitted to Isabelle's column,
That bastion of journalistic excellence, Entertainment Weekly, unveiled their new cover and (surprise!) Letterman made the cover. It features the Late Show host without pants, which in any other context would be the lowest selling issue of EW since Ernest Borgnine forgot to put on underpants.
My problem isn't with the picture, although it seems it probably should be. It's the headline. Is "Oh, Dave" the best they could do? Hell, "Where the Wild Things Are" would be ten times better and save a fifth of the print space. Write a better headline in the comments section below and we'll feature the best ones in a future post.
This is starting to become a trend at NBC. First Conan whacked his head after slipping on the stage during a sketch, and now Jay Leno hit his head during rehearsal for a stunt. Luckily Leno's injury wasn't bad enough to send him to the hospital like Conan's was.
Of course, this injury gave Leno an opening for a Letterman joke.
The whole "Leno at 10PM" thing has been analyzed to death, so let's analyze it a little bit more!
Today I made an executive decision and gave the podcast an oh-so-creative name: "The TV Squad Podcast." This was after we recorded it on Tuesday, so I still refer to it by its old APB name. If you have any suggestions, let me know at tvsquad [at] gmail [dot] com.
A former female writer at Late Night with David Letterman has dropped a bombshell in 
It turns out the David Letterman sex scandal hasn't reached its climax. It was just napping. 
What happened to David Letterman?
No, not 
It's official, "pulling a Letterman" means sleeping with a co-worker. Why? Because I said so. 
It's always odd when pop culture personalities show up in comic books. It's the print equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters showing up on Gilligan's Island. 
That bastion of journalistic excellence, Entertainment Weekly, unveiled their new cover and (surprise!) Letterman made the cover. It features the Late Show host without pants, which in any other context would be the lowest selling issue of EW since Ernest Borgnine forgot to put on underpants. 
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