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.
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.
There are very few recurring television moments that instantly grab my undivided attention: seeing an undead Billy Mays still pitching Oxy-Clean, Twilight Zone episodes that pwn Nazis, late night Skinemax.
Now you can add Don Rickles to that list. He's become a staple of late night during the early Tonight Show because he's engaging, colorful and damn funny. Every time he stops in at Letterman's Late Show, I have to stop what I'm doing and watch and that includes running a pregnant friend to the hospital, although it does ruin some of the comedy for me. All that screaming.
He's also great at roasts, not because he's a great insult comic but because he can be just as down to Earth and genuine with the people he's skewering. His best roast is one that never made it to television: a roast of Get Smart's Don Adams at the Playboy Mansion.
I agree with Joel: Letterman should stop talking about his scandal (I also have a problem with the way he keeps referring to it as "I had sex with women who work here" and not just "I had affairs" or "I had relations with"). Last night, Craig Ferguson knew he had to address the issue somehow, and here's how he did it.
You knew that after a weekend of blackmail scandal news and tabloid stories, David Letterman wasn't going to open his show on Monday just telling jokes about Chicago losing the Olympics. In fact, he started off the proceedings with a bang, asking the audience, "Did your weekend just fly by?"
Then he proceeded telling some pretty funny jokes about the scandal; he spent the weekend "raking my hate mail," that it was "chilly outside the house and chilly inside the house," and that the next phase is to go on Oprah and sob. He even acknowledged his odd comedic predicament by trailing off on jokes about Bill Clinton, Mark Sanford and Eliot Spitzer, realizing that he's not in the position to poke fun at those folks.
But then, after the break, he sincerely apologized to his staff for putting them through this mess, and said he had a lot of work to do to repair things with his wife, Regina Lasko. It was at that moment (video below) that I realized that Dave needs to stop talking about this mess... immediately:
At first I thought Jeremy Piven's story about how he got so sick from mercury poisoning he couldn't finish his Broadway stint doing Speed The Plow (an arbitrator ruled in Piven's favor last week) would be interesting and funny, but then it just went on. And on. And on. And on.
At one point, Piven talks about viewers changing channels, and he's probably right.
As we reported months ago, Rachael Ray had a growth on her vocal chords and had to have throat surgery. It went well and she can talk fine again after a few weeks of silence. But last night she told David Letterman that all these years she has been talking wrong.
Katie Couric was on The Late Show last night, and besides talking about Walter Cronkite and the Gates/Crowley controversy (free beer at the White House tomorrow! Woo-hoo!), they debated on the proper pronunciation of the word "preternaturally." Katie says it's "pre" with a long "e" and Dave disagrees.
Katie actually spells it wrong in the segment, but thankfully it's a word that 98% of the population will never have to use.
It's always great to see Don Rickles on TV. He's rarely out of form, and he has a knack for sailing some great zingers past the censors. Which means his appearance on last night's My Life on the D-Listwas a perfect opportunity, a place where he could be a bit more loose.
We got a taste of that from him, walking around Kathy Griffin's house, but we also got a glimpse of the guy I have heard about from comedians who've met Rickles - the old softie who is ever willing to talk shop with other comics. It was a great moment when Griffin and Rickles talked about how both of their mothers would try to tell them not to pick on people so much, with Griffin's mom providing a bit of the dialogue. Meeting Rickles was on Griffin's mother's "bucket list."
I thought I'd use the occasion to take a look around YouTube to find some of Rickles' best TV appearances. He seems to have been everywhere, from The View to cable.
Though David Letterman officially apologized last night for his controversial Sarah Palin joke, it's not stopping Palin supporters from calling for his dismissal.
It's the latest chapter in a story bearing an uncanny resemblance to herpes. It never goes away, and you're never sure when it's going to pop up again. In an attempt to end the furor, Letterman took a moment during his Monday night broadcast to apologize directly to Palin and her family.
"It's not your fault that (the joke) was misunderstood. It's my fault," Letterman said. "So, I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke."
He added, "I understand, of course, why people are upset. I would be upset myself. I'm sorry about it, and I'll try to do better in the future."
Yesterday we had a..."discussion" about a joke that David Letterman made earlier this week about Sarah Palin's daughter and New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez. Last night, Letterman addressed the controversy that arose from the joke, and the video is below. As I suspected, he was not talking about the youngest Palin daughter, and he explains the joke and apologizes for it.
David Letterman made a joke the other night about Sarah Palin's daughter going to a Yankees game and being impregnated by Alex Rodriguez (video below). Now, humor of the joke aside, can you imagine if a conservative host had made a joke about one of President Obama's daughters? What do you think the media's reaction would be? I think the joke is more about Rodriguez and his alleged antics with other women, but it also incorporates Palin's daughter in a rather unfortunate way.
If you recognize Steven Wright's material tonight on his Late Show with David Letterman spot, you either have a good memory, or you bought the re-release of Wright's I Have A Pony that hit shelves Tuesday. Wright will be performing material from the CD, which was originally released 24 years ago.
Warner Brothers released this "Deluxe Anniversary Edition," which also includes his first HBO special, A Steven Wright Special (coincidentally, produced by Peter Lassally from Johnny Carson's Tonight Show), as part of its 50th Anniversary celebration.
Wright's material was always off the wall, unlike anything anyone had heard when he first did Carson's Tonight Show in 1982. Some have worked in the same field of quick-fire absurdism that Wright cleared (like Mitch Hedberg and Demetri Martin), but Wright's comedy was never rooted in a particular time, place, or even galaxy, really. Which is why I Have A Pony still sounds fresh today.
Ricky Gervais was on The Late Show with David Letterman on Friday and told a story about writing a letter to President Obama. Was it about the Iraq War or the economy or the environment? No, actually it was about something equally serious that has been troubling him. (Video also here.)
Appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman is a big deal for most comics. For Brian Kiley, who appears on the show tonight, it's a little strange. Kiley is a writer for Conan O'Brien (both for Late Night and the new Tonight Show), and starting June 1, his boss will be Letterman's direct competitor.
Kiley has done the Letterman three times before, he notes as an emergency replacement for another act that dropped out. And while he says he would never have gone on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, since that show is in the same time slot as Late Night, O'Brien and Letterman have always had a cordial relationship, and no one ever said anything before. That might change now.
"I kind of viewed it as, well, maybe this is my last time on Dave because the Conan people might not be into it," says Kiley. "So I don't know."
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.
What happened to David Letterman?
It's always great to see Don Rickles on TV. He's rarely out of form, and he has a knack for sailing some great zingers past the censors. Which means his appearance on last night's 
Though David Letterman officially apologized last night for his controversial Sarah Palin joke, it's not stopping Palin supporters from calling for his dismissal.
If you recognize 
Appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman is a big deal for most comics. For Brian Kiley, who appears on the show tonight, it's a little strange. Kiley is a writer for Conan O'Brien (both for Late Night and the new Tonight Show), and starting June 1, his boss will be Letterman's direct competitor. 
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