I'm not quite sure what to make of this web site. It's called nbcstolechristmas.com and it has a How The Grinch Stole Christmas-ish rhyme that seems to imply that tomorrow night's live Rockefeller Plaza Christmas tree lighting show on NBC might not go off the way the network wants it to.
If I'm reading the rhyme correctly, NBC is refusing to negotiate with employees over some dispute, and unless they agree to negotiate, "the crew may just might, do something that would be NBC's blight" and that "they'll be forced from 30 Rock." That's rather vague (and ominous). Could it mean the lights won't work? Dozens of NBC employees streaking live on national TV?
The poem also mentions hosts Jane Krakowski and Zachary Levi and suggests that music guests Shakira and The Roots might not be able to play. Hmmmm...well, it's one way to get people to watch the show, that's for sure.
I mentioned the other day the regular segments that Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has, from "Slow-Jamming The News" to "Real Housewives of Late Night." But this is my favorite regular bit he does, Thank You Notes, where he catches up on thank you notes that he's been meaning to write. It's clever (though it still reminds me of something Craig Kilborn used to do).
[Watch clips and episodes of Late Night and other shows at SlashControl.]
Every time I hear the name of Jimmy Fallon's "late night show soap opera" 7th Floor West, I think of Central Park West, the short-lived 90s soap from Darren Star that aired on CBS. I really liked that show, even if everyone else didn't. But this soap follows the adventures of Fallon and his staff their NBC studio. Here's the first episode, and you can watch the others (episode 7 debuts on July 13) at the 7th Floor West site.
Fallon is doing some clever regular bits on his show. Except "Lick it for Ten."
Admittedly, I haven't been watching Jimmy Fallon's new late night talk show. I found this video segment from the show online and couldn't resist sharing. Fallon seems to be giving out a hipster geek vibe with his character of TuSpock (a combination of Tupac Shakur and Mr. Spock from Star Trek). That sort of humor is usually reserved for Mr. Fallon's alma mater of Saturday Night Live.
The make-up was excellent. Fallon even has the same look and body type as the original Spock (and wouldn't that have been a surprise piece of casting for the recent movie). The appearance of the rapper Tariq from the group The Roots as Captain Kirk was a nice touch.
Hopefully this sort of intelligent, subversive humor will be the rule for Fallon and not the exception. If he keeps up with sketches like this one, I may have to catch his show sometime (at least on Hulu).
So it's been a week since our boy took to the airwaves and he has survived. He went a whole week without being canceled. Way to go, Jimmy! You've cost half of our commenters their share of the dough in their "When will Jimmy Fallon go down in flames?" pools. Now where will they find the money to stock up on Cheetos and duct tape for their slowly dying bean bag chairs?
So how did Jimmy do? The answer, as I've learned in my brief stint here at TV Squad Land, is totally subjective. Some people are going to like Jimmy and some won't and each will find their own reason to support their feelings.
So instead of giving a definitive "yes" or "no," here's a list of five good things and five bad things from the first block of shows.
It's almost unfair to review the first episode of a new talk show. After all, the show will be different every night, with different guests, different sketches, different musical guests. So to sit here and talk about what was good and bad about the first episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon would be unfair and silly. But let's do it anyway!
There's one thing I loved right away, and it had nothing to do with the host, his guests, the band, the sketches, or the audience. Can you guess what it was? The pic above is a clue.
The Roots are taking their new gig as the official house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon very seriously, even if their initial chances of scoring such a gig seemed like nothing more than a joke by a couple of the show's overworked staffers.
"We were the musical supervisors for [Chappelle's Show] season two and three ... and Dave's partner Neal Brennan was brought over as a consultant, and he sort of jokingly recommended The Roots as a house band," said Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson in a conference call last Tuesday with Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter. "I guess the joke was sort of like, you know, I dare you to ask them, even though they're too busy to take it."
A lot of comedy geeks called "shenanigans" on NBC when they announced Jimmy Fallon would get Conan O'Brien's Late Night slot when he moves to Los Angeles next year. I wasn't a big fan of the Fallon when he was on SNL and his movie career lacked a certain something (like entertainment value), but late night comedy is a different monster. Even O'Brien had problems establishing himself and I was willing to give Fallon the benefit of the doubt.
Then NBC announced that Jay Leno would get his own primetime spot when he leaves The Tonight Show, an announcement that couldn't have shocked me more if NBC delivered it with a 20-watt tazer.
The first wave of shock hit when it was announced that Conan O'Brien would be switching coasts to take Jay Leno's seat. I didn't mind that so much, as I've never been a fan of Leno and am rather glad to see him go. The second bit of news about Jimmy Fallon taking O'Brien's spot consisted of more mixed feelings. I was a big fan of Fallon back in the day, but I was, like, a teenager then.
Times have changed, I've grown up, Fallon's made a lot of crappy movies, and guys playing with their hair when they're nervous isn't so endearing anymore. That last one was a lie, but regardless, I'm unsure of how to feel about Fallon's new job. Now here comes the news that The Roots will be Fallon's band on the show. Now, I must borrow from ?uestlove's name for my "What??!"
Back on the night that Stephen Colbert announced that he'd be hitting Philadelphia, taking the show on the road for the first time, I had decided to go to bed early and just catch the rerun in the morning. My friend called me just as I began to doze off and immediately told me that she had gotten tickets for us to see Colbert in Philadelphia. I had no idea what the hell she was talking about, so when I hung up, I just shrugged it off as a late-night half-dream. The next morning, I watched the episode and it finally made sense: We were about to go on another Colbert Report adventure.
I'm not quite sure what to make of this web site. It's called nbcstolechristmas.com and it has a How The Grinch Stole Christmas-ish rhyme that seems to imply that tomorrow night's live Rockefeller Plaza Christmas tree lighting show on NBC might not go off the way the network wants it to.
So it's been a week since our boy took to the airwaves and he has survived. He went a whole week without being canceled. Way to go, Jimmy! You've cost half of our commenters their share of the dough in their "When will Jimmy Fallon go down in flames?" pools. Now where will they find the money to stock up on Cheetos and duct tape for their slowly dying bean bag chairs? 
A lot of comedy geeks called "shenanigans" on NBC when they announced Jimmy Fallon would get Conan O'Brien's Late Night slot when he moves to Los Angeles next year. I wasn't a big fan of the Fallon when he was on SNL and his movie career lacked a certain something (like entertainment value), but late night comedy is a different monster. Even O'Brien had problems establishing himself and I was willing to give Fallon the benefit of the doubt. 
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