TonightShow-related stories
Posted Sep 15th 2009 9:02AM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Late Night, Celebrities, Reality-Free, Jay Leno
Anyone who's interested in the Leno/Letterman relationship, the feeding frenzy in the late 70s and early 80s when networks were sweeping up stand-up comedians and changing their lives overnight, and the importance and mechanics of getting a spot on Johnny Carson's
Tonight Show needs to read William Knoedelseder's new book,
I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy's Golden Era.
The centerpiece of the book is the labor discontent between comedians and the Comedy Store that kicked up in 1979, when comedians saw the money coming into the venue and started to wonder why some of the working comics there had to borrow money for breakfast. It's a compelling and unexpected story, and it collects names big and small from television history along the way.
Continue reading New book gets behind the scenes with Letterman, Leno, Robin Williams and more
Posted Aug 21st 2009 9:01AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, News, Ratings, Reality-Free
NBC must be doing a lot of regretting these days for moving Jay Leno to 10 p.m., and not just because it screws up the perfect headline alliteration with his former competition.
It seems that
David Letterman's Late Show reruns are getting higher ratings than Conan O'Brien's brand-spanking new
Tonight Show episodes.
The margins aren't very wide, but it must hurt when a rival is kicking your lily-white hide and he's not even throwing any punches. It's like getting your ass kicked by a one legged Stephen Hawking.
Continue reading Letterman beating O'Brien with old shows
Posted Jul 23rd 2009 3:01PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Late Night, Music and Variety, Talk Show, Reality-Free
As a longtime Howard Stern fan, John Melendez will always be known as Stuttering John to me. Over the many years he was on the show, Melendez somehow managed to get control of his stammer, but not his annoying Long Island accent. So when Jay Leno decided to add a little bit of "hipness" on
The Tonight Show by plucking Melendez from Stern's clutches and making him the announcer of the show five years ago, you had to wonder about the wisdom of that decision.
Of course, the move didn't work: Melendez may not have stuttered while he was introducing the show, but hearing him butcher celebrity names -- did he call Pamela Anderson "Pamaler Andason" once? -- on a daily basis was brutal. And Leno quickly realized that without Stern and his writers to support him, Melendez wasn't all that funny.
So it's not a surprise to learn that, with the clean slate provided by a move in timeslot,
Melendez won't be the announcer on The Jay Leno Show.
Continue reading Stuttering John relegated to writers' room for new Leno show
Posted Jul 21st 2009 5:00PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Reality-Free
The world is facing a population explosion of Biblical proportions. People are procreating and reproducing faster than sustenance reserves and housing requirements can keep up with it. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have officially given up adoption for the next three Lents.
Something has to be done that doesn't involve condoms, birth control pills, or taking a hammer to certain parts of the human anatomy.
India claims they have found a solution.
Television?Continue reading India's plan for population control includes ... late night TV?!?
Posted Jul 7th 2009 2:03PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Video, Celebrities, Talk Show
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-List was 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.
Continue reading Don Rickles on the D-List, The Tonight Show, and more
Posted Jun 23rd 2009 6:40PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Late Night, OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities, Obituaries, Talk Show
During some of the television obits I've been hearing about the
late, great Ed McMahon, one of the most common misunderstandings about the
Tonight Show sidekick's career has been perpetuated: that he worked for
Publishers Clearing House, handing out big checks to unsuspecting sweepstakes winners.
Well, Ed
did work for one of those sweepstakes-and-subscriptions houses, but it was PCH's main rival,
American Family Publishers. He often appeared in the AFP's ads and mailings with his
Bloopers and Practical Jokes buddy Dick Clark.
Not once did McMahon work for PCH, but as Bob pointed out in
his obituary, jokes about his sweepstakes work often kept the mistake alive.
Continue reading Ed McMahon did not work for Publishers Clearing House
Posted Jun 5th 2009 11:03AM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Late Night, OpEd, Reality-Free
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.
Continue reading Steven Wright's Pony on Letterman, top ten favorite lines
Posted May 19th 2009 9:55AM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, OpEd
Last week, I wrote about Jay Leno's last week on
The Tonight Show and his
announcement that Conan O'Brien will be his last guest. Judging by the response, a lot of TV Squad readers have strong opinions about the change. A large share of the comments bashed O'Brien. Some people said they didn't find him funny and would watch Letterman. Some said they'd watch Leno's new show and go to bed early.
Some got nasty, criticizing O'Brien's looks, some (who may need to take a break from TV for a while) said they thought the emergence of O'Brien was a harbinger of the downfall of civilization. And a small subset called him a "nerd" (to those people, your copy of Vision Quest is surely in the mail by now, you can skip late night TV altogether).
Continue reading Conan fans, stand up!
Posted May 14th 2009 6:29PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Late Night, Music and Variety, Celebrities, Talk Show, Documentary, Reality-Free
James Taylor can be the guest referee. I like how now that Jay Leno is getting his own prime time talk/variety/whatever show on NBC, and he'll still be coming on before Conan O'Brien on
The Tonight Show, there's no more hard feelings? Or maybe that was all tabloid crap. The rags have been known to spin stories from belly button lint and stray paperclips before.
It's a nice transitional nod for
Conan to be Leno's last guest on The Tonight Show, as Nick reported, but I don't even think they should talk. Conan walks onto the set. Jay says, "You want
The Tonight Show, you're gonna have to fight me for it!" And then it's on!
Continue reading I want Leno vs. O'Brien in a bare knuckle drag-down brawl
Posted Mar 16th 2009 1:04PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Late Night, Talk Show, Casting, Reality-Free
The Tonight Show is the top-rated nightly talk show, which is why NBC got creative to keep Jay Leno on the air. What it is not, though, is a show to tune into for good interviews. At best Jay is a giggling buffoon. At worst Jay is ... a giggling buffoon. So it should allow for pretty free reign to talk about whatever he wants when
President Obama appears on The Tonight Show this Thursday.
MSNBC says he'll talk about the economy. I know, right: That's some impressive journalism there. I was leaning toward comparing the tastes of the new Multi-Grain Big Rice Krispies and Marshmallow Rice Krispies. Personally, I think the former could use some of those marshmallows to soften the taste, but I'd really like the President's take on that.
Continue reading President Obama in for the toughest interview of his life ... Jay Leno?
Posted Mar 10th 2009 5:02PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free
In a sympathetic move from the soon-to-be-former
Tonight Show host, Jay Leno is
giving free tickets to his comedy concert in Michigan to anybody who walks up to the ticket booth and tells the attendant they're unemployed.
Where to go with this? First off, I'm wondering if every person in Michigan is suddenly going to be unemployed for the purpose of getting Leno tickets. Secondly, is this the only way Leno can fill a venue with his stand-up comedy? I'm wondering if even free tickets could accomplish that.
I admit some bias from the old days of the Leno-Letterman feud, as I felt Letterman was the more talented of the two. Obviously, the relative ratings of the two shows in that time do not jibe with my opinion.
Of course, if Jay really wanted to help the unemployed, rather than subject them to his comedy, he could give some of them ... oh, I don't know ... a job?
Posted Feb 19th 2009 10:02AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Late Night, OpEd, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free
Oh, thank the late night gods! After some rumors surfaced that
Max Weinberg wouldn't be relocating with ConeBone69 to LA for
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, I was worried. I mean just look at that bored, uninterested face! Because of their bizarre energy and involvement in sketches, the Max Weinberg 7 are the best band in late night (I swear I will fight anyone that suggests anything less).
Late Night would have a totally different tone without elements like Pender's over-energetic, passionate solos and LaBamba's extra-endearing presence. Well, not to worry, people who worry about the same pointless things I do! It looks like Max and the gang are joining Conan in LA.
Continue reading Max Weinberg and the Max Weinberg 7 are going to LA! - VIDEO
Posted Jan 5th 2009 9:02AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Programming, OpEd, Talk Show, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
If you live in New York (first of all, you have my deepest sympathy) and you've been itching to catch
Late Night with Conan O'Brien in person since you moved out there to pursue some crazy dream that will only leave you penniless, heartbroken and homeless, your time is running out.
The big-headed one will film his last show in the New York studio on Feb. 20,
according to the show's website.
And since he leaves no corner of his little universe jokeless, anyone can get tickets to his remaining New York shows by shooting an email to conangobyebye@nbc.com.
Continue reading Conan close to making LA move
Posted Dec 18th 2008 7:32PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: OpEd, American Idol, Stargate, Festivus, Eli Stone, Reality-Free
I was looking at my last two Festivus wish lists in an attempt to determine if any of my requests came true. Turns out, many of them did come to fruition -- something that I'm damn proud of. Sadly, a new sitcom for Dustin "Screech" Diamond did not materialize. Oh well, maybe that will occur sometime next season when, after coming out of a trance, the NBC executives realize they made a terrible mistake putting Jay Leno on at 10:00 pm and need something to fill the empty space.
Now, without further ado, let me put down the aluminum rod for a bit and talk about my Festivus wish list for the upcoming year.
Continue reading All Rich wants for Festivus
Posted Dec 16th 2008 1:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Late Night, Programming, Ratings, Reality-Free
Jay Leno's move into primetime surprised just about everyone with a television and a central nervous system.
NBC's
Tonight Show chair might have been the throne of late night royalty, but it's not an aristocracy. That assumption caused the infamous late night fiasco when Johnny Carson retired and pushed David Letterman to CBS. It's that same assumption that has everyone's jaws dropping out of their ligaments.
But just like the Super Bowl, little league baseball, or a hottest-wet-buns-in-jeans contest -- there must be winners and losers. Here are the people who should and shouldn't be loving Leno right now.
Continue reading Jay Leno, who loves ya baby?
Next Page >
The TV Squad Podcast: Linda Purl talks about The Office, we talk spoilers, and more
Ask TV Squad: Ghost Whisperer and more!
The TV Squad Podcast: Bill Scheft of The Late Show, Cake Boss, Mad Men and more
