Tonight Show - Re-Axe

I really don't know what to say and can barely comment.



They know that lightning can strike twice, they're so clearly begging for it to happen... I'm sure Jimmy know about the original... How does he not have a joke prepared for the situation? In fact, don't even make a joke, just repeat Carson's.



There's no reason to be throwing axes with Jennifer Lawrence and it isn't a coincidence that the boards and cowboy drawing are exactly the same. They're trying to win the lottery, it completely pays off and they didn't bother to plan for what comes next.

I'm maybe being overly critical, perhaps my mood is affecting my judgement.... The only thing I can say for sure is I just don't understand.

The Last Late Show: First Take

The last Late Show with David Letterman just aired and I thought it was fantastic. It's hard to imagine a more perfect hour of television. It was amazing how it could be so funny and yet how it could be such an emotional an experience.

From the time I was made aware that David Letterman existed I wanted to watch every piece of television of his that I could get my hands on. I have so many great memories wrapped up in the show - not just watching (alone, mostly in my bedroom), but sharing it with friends and talking about the jokes. It's impossible to see the old clips of the show without remembering where I was in my life when it first aired and what I was doing. For these reasons, I couldn't help but be swept up in a wave of nostalgia and the bittersweet look at an era that is officially gone. As of tonight, it's gone.

Dave is nothing if not unpredictable and so one of the things I've loved to do through the years is "play the Dave" and try to predict things. One of the things I would have predicted about the end of the last show - that I would have predicted wrongly - is that he would end the show sitting on a stool. Jack Paar signed off for the last time while sitting on a stool, Johnny Carson signed off his last show while sitting on a stool, I thought Dave would make that nod to tradition but it didn't happen.

But there was one thing like that, I think. If you read the reviews of the show tomorrow (and, really, why would you?) it's altogether possible that they will cite the "A Day in the Life of Dave" segment as the only weakness and an "uncharacteristic" one at that. But in his final days Johnny Carson did a segment like that and so Dave's doing it too.

Regis and Letterman

This interview has largely gone unnoticed and it's a trend that needs to be reversed. Recently Regis Philbin subbed for Piers Morgan on Piers' show and had has his guest - David Letterman. Hosts as guests is always interesting and even more so when it's Dave, who is quite camera shy when not on his own show.

As interviews go, they don't get much better than this. Regis is a master. He keeps it funny, smooth and conversational but still gets amazing insights into Letterman's life. They cover his quintuple bypass, 9/11, parenthood, politics and how he got into show business.

This is the only place you'll see names such as Johnny Carson, Jack Paar and Jack Benny dropped casually into conversation like they were Bob and Stan from the Bowling League.

It's about 40 minutes long but make the time, it's lots of fun.











"Please don't roll any tape. I'm coming across the table if you roll another tape. There's gonna be bloodshed right here. I can take you."

"You didn't seem certain when you said, 'I'm sure you have.' Like, 'How could this guy make friends?' That's what I picked up out of that. Am I being too sensitive? Because, here's how it sounded: 'Yeah, I'm sure you have.'"

30

Tonight marks David Letterman's 30th Anniversary of hosting a late night talk show. Dave hosted "Late Night" from Feb 1, 1982 to 1993 and will have hosted the "Late Show" from 1993 to Feb 1, 2012).

The show will celebrate the same way it always celebrates an anniversary - by having Bill Murray on. Or not. Bill Murray was the guest last night (1/31). Instead, tonight's guest will be Howard Stern. Must be some mix up with the mail. During the show, Regis Philbin refereed as Bill Murray kicked a field goal to the sound of bagpipes. For Letterman, that's called "Tuesday".

Dave's 30 years in late night will be celebrated without much fanfare - no special, no "best of" clip show, and no media blitz interviews. The one place it will probably be acknowledged is in tonight's show (probably the Top Ten and the monologue).

Almost all of the news stories about this event mention that, as of tonight, Letterman will be surpassing Johnny Carson who hosted "The Tonight Show" for 30 seasons. It's just another (albeit insignificant) indicator of just how unimportant "facts" and "research" are in today's media. Every news story just parrots every other news story.

In terms of number of days being a late night talk show host, Letterman has already surpassed Johnny Carson. Letterman has reached his exact 30th anniversary (minus 3 months for the transition from "Late Night" to "Late Show", the hiatus for his heart surgery, and the shingles hiatus). And while Carson hosted for 30 seasons, it was 29 years and 7 months in terms of the calendar.

In terms of number of episodes, more of the same. Carson was the host of "The Tonight Show" for 4,531 episodes. Letterman = 1,819 "Late Night" episodes + 3,614 "Late Show" episodes for a total of 5,433 episodes.

It's only in terms of total number of hours of television hosting that it becomes somewhat of a question mark. Johnny Carson's smaller number of episodes is counteracted by the fact that "The Tonight Show" ran 105 minutes per episode from 1962-1966 and 90 minutes per episode from 1967-1980. Letterman's entire run has been in the 60 and 62 minute eras. In order to come up with concrete numbers I'd have to break into the Museum of Television and Radio. As best I can calculate (rough estimates and round numbers though still putting way more effort and thought into it than is called for), it's close but, again, Letterman comes out on top. The difference being the large number of times Johnny had a guest-host (well over 600 episodes) vs. only a handful for Letterman (heart surgery hiatus, shingles hiatus).

By any measure of time, Letterman surpasses Carson tonight in no way whatsoever. It already happened. Thus ends this sports-like examination of late night comedy.

And congratulations on an unprecedented 10,957 days of late-night television hosting.

Artie and Olivia

Yesterday I reported that I had lost my constant and was probably going to die from the time-shift sickness. (Thanks everyone for the cards and letters.) Fortunately, Questlove is back to the afro, it was just a one show aberration and so I'm fine.

I'm not a big fan of Artie Lange. He seems to have an eating problem/alcohol problem/drug problem that we're all supposed to ignore until he's found dead one day in his bathroom. I also don't listen to Howard Stern and couldn't be payed to. However, be that as it may, I do know that if I'm running a talk show, I'm going to try to get Artie as often as possible as he is talk show dynamite.

His interview to some extent and especially the group dynamic when he stuck around for the second guest, Olivia Munn, reminded me of the old days that I'm too young to remember when Johnny Carson would have Bob Hope, Dean Martin and George Gobel on the same show and it was the comedy gold. Not that Olivia Munn and Artie Lang have the same star power or exchanges that Carson, Hope and Martin had, they don't (let's be clear about that), but it's the same spirit of unscripted hilarious back-and-forth.

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Bonus: Jimmy Fallon, Artie Lange, Olivia Munn and Susan Sarandon play ping pong: 

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Tomorrow we'll examine more closely a very important moment in this show. Something will be revealed which will change everyone's life forever.