TVSquad

I recall a scene from the movie To Be Or Not To Be, in which Mel Brooks tells the Nazis they aren't backing down from continuing an anti-Nazi sketch. He quite adamantly trumpets "We are not backing down!". The Nazis then in retaliation threaten to close his theater, to which he responds "We're backing down." The same thing just happened in Boston to that NBC affiliate that wanted to replace the 10 PM Leno slot with a local news broadcast.

WHDH has relented to the network after being threatened with the loss of their NBC affiliation. Obviously, this is a sign of concern at the local level that a 10 PM Leno show would lose advertising dollars. Or perhaps the owner just doesn't find Leno to be that funny.

I can see this as an HBO movie in the future. It would be called something like "Lenogate" and have the subtitle: "Thou shalt honor thy parent company." If this does end up on HBO, be sure to give me proper credit.

We told you the other day about Boston station WHDH and their decision to show another local newscast instead of Jay Leno's new show at 10PM. Now NBC says that the new show will air in the Boston market, no matter what.

The network says that four other stations in the area could air the show. One of them is a Telemundo station owned by the network, and the other three are independent stations. Even if they do find another station for Leno's show, NBC will probably still strip WHDH of its NBC affiliation. WHDH says that they can't do that, but NBC says that the contract with them says that they can't pick and choose programming like this.

Well, here's a plot twist I didn't see coming.

WHDH, the NBC affiliate in Boston (I'm watching it right now) says that they're not going to show Leno's new 10PM show. Starting in September, the station is going to show local news at 10PM instead!

NBC is fuming (I'm sure Leno isn't happy either - he's from Boston). The network is threatening to strip WHDH of its NBC affiliation. WHDH says that they have a certain deal that allows them to not show an NBC program if they don't want to. Apparently they asked NBC if they could show Leno's show at 11PM instead but NBC said no. I would have said no too. I mean, The Tonight Show starts at 11:35, so how could they show Leno's hour-long show without it eating into that? I don't think pushing Tonight back to midnight would have been an option.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Don Gillis: He was well-known to New England TV viewers and sports fans as a longtime sports anchor (in fact, the first in Boston) on WCVB and WHDH. He also hosted a long-running bowling show and did play by play for all of the Boston sports teams. He died at age 85.