...presuming you heard the news.
http://entertainment.comedy.com/2010/01/11/conan-leno-aim-chat/
It's funny, just about a week before this all started I watched "The Late Shift" (1996) which is all about the insanity surrounding The Tonight Show and how Leno was "picked" to take over from Johnny.
Worth watching!
I don't watch any of those shows, but Conan and Fallon I find way more entertaining than Leno.
Quote from: Lazybones on January 12, 2010, 12:35:40 AM
I don't watch any of those shows, but Conan and Fallon I find way more entertaining than Leno.
+1000!
Also Craig Ferguson is funnier than either of them when improvising or interviewing... although at times Jimmy Kimmel completely surprises you with a journey of hilarity with the right guest.
And btw ty for there reminder re. The Late Shift -- I have it on VHS (!) and still haven't gotten around to watching it, but I have heard it's quite good. And it will make me pine for the golden era of late-80s/early-90s Letterman, I am sure...
I don't like Conan. Never did. I don't find him very funny most of the time. I did however like the Insult Comic dog and some of the bits of his "In the Year 2000" stuff (probably the last time I've laughed seriously at something on Conan, was before 2000 ;))
I still miss Johnny...
lol best headline ever:
Conan Fights Back; Leno Still Lamehttp://www.fwweekly.com/index.php?option=com_wordpress&p=2712&Itemid=482
PS: anyone else hear the "open letter" Conan wrote, a lot of radio stations had their "drive time" DJ read it...
http://www.huntingtonnews.net/letters/100113-obrien-openletter.html
Quote
People of Earth:
In the last few days, I've been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I've been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I've been absurdly lucky.
That said, I've been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.
Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.
But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.
Last Thursday, NBC executives told me they intended to move the Tonight Show to 12:05 to accommodate the Jay Leno Show at 11:35. For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn't the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.
So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn't matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.
There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.
Have a great day and, for the record, I am truly sorry about my hair; it's always been that way.
Yours,
Conan
What a Pale Force (http://www.monstersandcritics.com/dvd/news/article_1515823.php/The-Legion-of-Pale-arrive-on-DVD-Dec-1-Pale-Force) NBC has now stirred up...
"NBC, as expected, has reinstalled Jay Leno as the host of The Tonight Show"
http://www.getthebigpicture.net/blog/2010/1/14/leno-signs-deal-to-host-the-tonight-show-again.html
Quote
What most people care about, though, isn't Leno. It's Conan. There will be some sort of settlement, and who knows exactly what will be in that document. O'Brien will be paid handsomely, but he's not going anywhere for a while. I'm not even sure he can do the talk show circuit right now, and there may be language NBC big cheese Jeff Zucker insists upon being included detailing that Conan can't wind up on Letterman's show in a week. This is, after all, the same company that told Letterman he couldn't take Viewer Mail and the name "The World's Most Dangerous Band" with him because it held "intellectual property" rights over them.
all hail the mighty power of the suits and curmudgeons! screw you, senses both common and humour!
...you gotta wonder what kind of embarrassing photos of Zucker that Jay's people have hidden away...
Quote
...even if Leno had come out and said, "Y'know, this sucks, but it's business, and I hope Conan lands on his feet" WEEKS ago, everyone would still just think he was a douchebag.
And I think a big part of that stems from the fact that there's this creeping fear that Leno is not going to have to pay, that he failed at 10 p.m. (though there was no way he could possibly succeed) and somehow got promoted, pushing a better, funnier man out of the timeslot. Regardless of the ratings conundrum (and I'd argue that a healthier NBC could have given Conan the room and primetime support he needed to grow, so this is really ALL Jeff Zucker's fault), there's a sense that Conan, just by being funnier, was somehow more righteous ALREADY, that all of these travails are the icing on the @%&# cake. He is, I guess, the Job of late night (who gets a sweet $40 million payout!). And there's the sense that when Leno returns to The Tonight Show, he's going to, well, go right back up to the top of the heap. And that's nauseating. Because the people who like Leno just don't give a @%&#. They don't give a @%&# about anything you and I care about. They just want to see weirdly mean-spirited borscht belt humor.
- http://www.avclub.com/articles/late-night-roundup,37272
I am one of the more elderly of the RW folks, I enjoy many of the "cringe comics (http://www.cringehumor.net/comedians.html)" out there today as well as from the past 3 decades of the changing industry of comedy, and yet even *I* don't find Jay Leno in the least bit funny. Just how much $$$ does he need to maintain all of his cars and bikes? Why oh why didn't he just let his public career end, or at least wane, and let the next generation take over? For him to replace the "better, funnier man" -- what an accurate choice of words, btw -- "that's nauseating", indeed.
Quote
I've watched way more of The Jay Leno Show than anybody ever needs to, but I'm surprised at just how similar the damn thing is in every episode, how little it stretches to do anything. I say this as someone who was genuinely excited to see what Jay could come up with by trying to ditch most of the trappings of the late night talk show, even though I didn't like him much as a host or interviewer. But it's like every episode he does involves the same four or five jokes endlessly recycled.
I spend all of my time trying to figure out ways to like Jay Leno and understand why he's doing what he's doing, but I spend almost all of that time failing as well. The guy's a hack, and hacks shouldn't be on TV. But, oh, sadly, they are.
That reminds me, is Carson Daly still doing a show? omg, HOW (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Call_with_Carson_Daly), ... just... how...
PS: re. the Leno-hating, Letterman nails it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AK3T987jk8 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdmjzRta2nY
I thought this was amusing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axwO6BkCtIo (jimmy kimmel on 10 at 10 with Leno)
is 45 million worth waiting 8 months before you can mock your former employer?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703699204575017450198490036.html
The only downside is, a lot of humour comes from anger.
How angry can you be if you just got paid out a settlement of 1/22nd of a billion dollars?
PS:
Quote from: Tom on January 21, 2010, 06:53:22 AM
I thought this was amusing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axwO6BkCtIo (jimmy kimmel on 10 at 10 with Leno)
Thanks for that, I watched almost the entire playlist here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F64000B4214DFCCC
... I really miss Johnny now...
Quote from: Mr. Analog on January 21, 2010, 08:12:10 PM
... I really miss Johnny now...
i thought the same thing when all this started...
Its too bad the same network execs would do the same thing to him if he DARED get low ratings today ::)
Montage! Man those were some genius bits...
http://www.tonightshowwithconanobrien.com/video/clips/conan-looks-back-012210/1196123/
here's one of the better-written of the "Hitler learns about" mashups (on this subject, of course)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOQvsuJ5wIA
Don't feel anough hate for Zucker? Here's more ammo for you...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp7RKB7sjbo
the comments for this video are great, too.
PS: Conan is a big fat stinking liar (http://www.screenjunkies.com/tvnews/snookie-situation-and-conan-solution-obrien), the Guidonicknamerator (http://www.unlikelywords.com/2009/12/08/jersey-shore-nickname-generator/) came up with Max "Natural Light" Weinberg O_O (and Mr. Analog, I would strongly suggest against seeing what it says for your name -- with your first name just the first 3 letters) and methinks Jeff Zucker should be nicknamed "The Obvious" or something, after watching the video at the top of this point... "obviously" the guy has a long future ahead of him in the television industry...
CoCo's back!
...but the network is the one often parodied for its over-the-top censorship of mainstream movies etc.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Conan+Terribly+Selection+Best+Solution/2875197/story.html
Quote
Coco will introduce a new late-night talk show in November, which will air Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m. A Canadian broadcaster has not been announced yet. Most Canadian cable and satellite systems carry Peachtree, TBS's sitcom-oriented sister station, in lieu of the main TBS channel. The new O'Brien program will not air on Peachtree, a spokesperson said Monday.
At this stage, though, given the media frenzy surrounding the whole Leno/Tonight Show/NBC fiasco that first flared up in January, hardly anyone would bet against Coco drawing a sizable crowd in his new show's early weeks, if only out of curiosity.
And for a self-admitted student and fan of television history with a knack for shaking things up with game-changing gags -- O'Brien famously took his Late Night program to Finland for a week of programs after it was pointed out that he bore a striking facial resemblance to Tarja Halonen, the first female president of Finland -- O'Brien can be counted on to bring an infectious joy and devil-may-care mayhem to his new talk show, especially as he'll be free from the stuffy constraints of broadcast television.
On one level, it's just another trivial, meaningless TV announcement -- a new talk show in an already overcrowded talk-show environment.
On another level, though, O'Brien's new talk show has the potential to significantly upset the delicate and increasingly shaky balance between the broadcast networks and the cable specialty channels.
By opting to go the cable route, O'Brien is following the path blazed by the young upstarts, and no longer kowtowing to the line of an older generation of late-night talk-show hosts. It's as if O'Brien has made a conscious decision that, if he can't be the officially anointed heir to the late, great Johnny Carson, he's going to be the bomb thrower, the up-and-coming outsider with the potential to change the rules of the game.
This much is certain. O'Brien won't draw anywhere near the number of viewers on TBS that he would have on Fox, ABC or CBS.
On the other hand, the overall number of viewers -- loosely defined as "total audience," or anyone older than two-years-old -- doesn't even matter any more in today's increasingly advertiser-driven TV economy. What matters is not how many are watching, but who.
O'Brien has always targeted a younger, more savvy, more culturally aware kind of viewer than Leno or Letterman. O'Brien is a late-night talk-show host for the new generation, and cable TV -- with its steadily increasing audience -- may be just the right home for him.
Sure, at first glance, TBS may seem to be a Terribly Bad Selection. Look beneath the surface, though, and it might just be The Best Solution for a late-night talk-show host who doesn't just want to talk to celebrities but wants nothing less than to change the rules of the conversation. Good on Coco -- even if he is now in cahoots with the media empire known as Time Warner.
http://www.movieline.com/2010/04/details-of-conans-shocking-tbs-deal-revealed.php
Oh dear, please don't let TLC colorize him!
Quote from: Mr. Analog on April 12, 2010, 06:17:41 PM
Oh dear, please don't let TLC colorize him!
Is that a subtle reference to "Pale Force (http://www.google.ca/search?q=pale+force+jim+gaffigan&tbo=p&tbs=vid:1&source=vgc&hl=en&aq=f)"? ;D
Quote from: Darren Dirt on April 13, 2010, 01:02:46 PM
Quote from: Mr. Analog on April 12, 2010, 06:17:41 PM
Oh dear, please don't let TLC colorize him!
Is that a subtle reference to "Pale Force (http://www.google.ca/search?q=pale+force+jim+gaffigan&tbo=p&tbs=vid:1&source=vgc&hl=en&aq=f)"? ;D
It is
now!
At his live show (next stop: Edmonchuk!*) the Man apparently gets all up in yer grill:
(http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/00587/conan-up-close_587166gm-f.jpg)
from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/conan-goes-live-and-its-mostly-great/article1534702/
"
O'Brien may have had the wind knocked out of him by losing his beloved job in front of the whole world, but he has not strayed from his brand of humour as a result. He has created an excellent live show and shrewdly tailored it to appeal to his core audience. It is essentially a live extension of the smart yet silly, irreverent comedy he has given TV audiences for 17 years. And the houses are packed. He's selling out by not selling out.
"
*this coming Saturday (http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Conan+Brien+coming+Edmonton/2670789/story.html)
Quote from: Mr. Analog on January 11, 2010, 09:28:48 PM
It's funny, just about a week before this all started I watched "The Late Shift" (1996) which is all about the insanity surrounding The Tonight Show and how Leno was "picked" to take over from Johnny.
Worth watching!
"People, it turns out, really don?t like* Jay Leno"
http://www.thewrap.com/tv/column-post/kimmel-leno-f-him-53796
Good luck Kimmel & Co... hand that assclown his chin and don't pull any punches!
*Howard Stern is a bit more blunt: http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/howard-stern-says-nbc-exec-reprimanded-him-jay-leno-dig-53646
serious Conan is serious...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJWxrCpRlgk
...in congratulating Jimmy "fingers crossed for the next 12 months" Fallon ^
#thatsnewstome #stayclassymisterobrien
(far better way of dealing with this news than a lame musical number (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS0jVU8fLc4#t=0m51s) that's for sure)
(in other "old celeb who shoulda retired quietly years ago, arguably" news...
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/04/04/roger_ebert_dead_at_age_70.html )
Quote from: Darren Dirt on April 04, 2013, 04:03:33 PM
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/04/04/roger_ebert_dead_at_age_70.html
Wanna reminisce about the days when Ebert was able to talk out loud about movies?
http://globalnews.ca/news/456072/thats-a-lot-of-thumbs-a-roger-ebert-review-timeline/
That last link actually crashed my laptop WTF
Quote from: Mr. Analog on April 05, 2013, 12:45:47 PM
That last link actually crashed my laptop WTF
then GET A NEW LAPTOP!
/powerthirst
(but seriously, if not a bunch of embedded videos, then at least check out the twit-lebrities' responses: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-roger-ebert-dies-celebrity-reactions-pictures,0,3121043.photogallery )
I think it was my video card overheating and causing the system to lock up.
I think it was the incredible lack of tact and shameless ego jay was showing :o
Quote from: Darren Dirt on April 04, 2013, 04:03:33 PM
(in other "old celeb who shoulda retired quietly years ago, arguably" news...
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2013/04/04/roger_ebert_dead_at_age_70.html )
gotta backtrack if I gave the impression that I do not respect what Roger Ebert was able to do, year after year, bad movie after bad movie, I definitely acknowledge* that the man was a legendary wordsmith at times, and certainly changed the culture of film critiquing; and at the core he was simply "a guy who loves the @%&# out of movies ... could seamlessly weave poetry, insight, and hilarity into a film review" - http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-randomly-hilarious-pieces-found-comedy-internet/
* http://forums.righteouswrath.com/index.php/topic,4733.0.html
WTF??
Quote from: Mr. Analog on January 11, 2010, 09:28:48 PM
It's funny, just about a week before this all started I watched "The Late Shift" (1996) which is all about the insanity surrounding The Tonight Show and how Leno was "picked" to take over from Johnny.
Worth watching!
17May2012 -- Conan in the hot seat with Letterman...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceZtDO5EDXI
...2 genius comics discuss -- ummm --- something they have in common.
Haha, first they lay into Jay and quite possibly the near destruction of the Bieb!