Late Show Backstage - Norm MacDonald, Don Rickles

During the period when David Letterman was still recovering from quintuple bypass surgery, CBS the Late Show filled time with special "Backstage" shows where a guest host and a former guest would relive past Late Show appearances.

These shows amount to something usually unheard of in talk shows... a "best of" compilation. Hosted by former Late Late Show host Tom Snyder with first guest Norm Macdonald, the segment "Dave and Richard Simmons go Door to Door" and Don Rickles, this show is the best of the best - one of the classics.

Part 1 - Best of Norm (1/3)

Part 1 includes Norm's famous appearance right on the heels of the announcement that he was fired from SNL.

Part 2 - Best of Norm (2/3)

Part 2 is the best segment I think. It's Norm's "growing" up in Canada stories. Some of the best story telling ever. Plus, Dave makes him do a "David Letterman impression" right in front of the man.

The best part of it is Paul playing himself. If you've seen the skit on SNL (no link available) you'd know that the Paul Shaffer impression on SNL is basically just picking a word or phrase out of what Dave says and repeating it in a slightly whiny monotone. Paul is obviously aware of this because when Norm asks Paul to play himself, he doesn't play himself. Paul does an impression of the SNL guy's impression of him. It's genius.

Part 3 - Best of Norm (3/3)

Another classic, classic, Norm story - "Old Harold Delaney".

At the end Norm mentions Robert Blake's appearance on the Late Late Show where he told that "huge bull sh** story". I always wonder what that refers to. As far as I could tell, Robert Blake's appearances were all the same and all involved long amazing stories about "old Hollywood". True or not, they were amazing; he was the absolute best guest on that show.

Part 4 - Best of Norm Epilogue / "Dave and Richard Simmons go Door to Door"

Norm tells a great story about when he worked with Don Rickles on "Dirty Work".

"Dave and Richard Simmons go..." is one of the all-time classic Letterman bits and I'm lucky to have it on tape. Every time Dave went outside the walls of the studio to tape a bit, it was legendary which makes it all the more tragic that he never does it anymore. The standard pattern is followed for all segments involving these two - it's one of the only certainties in life:

1.) Richard starts out excited and loves Dave.

2.) Dave mocks him.

3.) Richard gets mad at him.

4.) They argue like an old married couple.

Then, next time, Richard is happy again as if he doesn't remember what happened last time. He's like that guy in "Memento". You can set your watch by this pattern (though I don't know how you would).

Also, you can see a prime example of the "Late Night" editing style (I don't know a better name). This is quick, short, cuts; quick flashbacks to odd moments and most of all creating artificial reality. By "artificial reality" I mean they'll take a shot of a person acting or reacting in some way and splice it into a different moment in time to make it look like they're acting or reacting to something else. As far as I know it was invented in the 80's by "Late Night", perfected by the time this segment was shot around 1993, and you can still see it occasionally today. More and more often though, it's becoming just a cheap "reality television" device.

Part 5 - Don Rickles

On top of all this, there's Don Rickles who's a legend.

Fix You (The Old Version)

I came across this performance a while back on tv and after I got past the initial "WTF?!" moment (really, I didn't ever get past that) I found it strangely affecting. I think I like it better than the Coldplay version in fact.

See it here.

Apparently this is a group that does regular concerts of all different types of music and this was supposed to be a duet but the other guy passed away.

V.D.

Awwww.....

Reminds me of Jason Mraz but with less ridiculous lyrics.

Murder, She Wrote > All

I was listening to someone go on and on about the classic horror/slasher movies the other day and, as I have almost no interest in the movies made in those genres, I had little interest in the conversation. But hearing them talk in such detail about how great they are made me kind of think I was missing out on something. So, I thought to myself, "What are the things that were genuinely scary that I also enjoyed?"

The ones that immediately came to mind were the things that freaked me out when I was a kid. Number one on the list is "Unsolved Mysteries". If you want to prevent me from being able to sleep put Robert Stack in a trench coat on a dark street in a studio lot and have him narrate over a slow motion re-enactment of "the man who was kidnapped at night and never seen again". I'm sure this is a common reaction. One time when Conan was hanging out with a bunch of kids for a bit and showed them a picture of Robert Stack they immediately started booing. He didn't get it at all but I know the score.

Number two on the list would have to be "Murder, She Wrote" for pretty similar reasons. I didn't so much have trouble with the murder, or the mystery, or the clues, or the suspects - what got me was the end of the show when Jessica Fletcher(Angela Lansbury) would explain how it was all done and they would show it in flashbacks. Recently I've downloaded a few episodes to revisit what was so scary.

Here are 11 reasons "Murder, She Wrote" is better than shows today:

1. Guest Starring: Robert Goulet. - No explanation needed.
2. Casual smoking. - It used to be glamorous and it used to be on tv.
3. Alcoholism is treated in a frothy way. - It's not a serious problem, it's comic relief!
4. "Tonight on 'Murder She Wrote'..." - That's right, they used to have a montage of what you were about to see. Some shows today have a "Previously On..." montage at the beginning and some shows today have a "Next Time On..." montage at the end but NOBODY has a "Tonight On..." montage. That's hardcore.
5. Everywhere this woman goes there's a murder. - And she never does the JD Salinger thing and cuts off all human contact. You would think, "Stop going to social functions, people are dying, woman!!!". But no, if Jessica Fletcher stops watching people drop like flies around her then the terrorists have won.
6. Murder is just a normal part of life. - A corpse is lying on the floor, battered and bloody and Jessica Fletcher acts like it's the start of an Easter egg hunt. She practically runs over the corpse looking for clues.
7. Guest Starring: Cesar Romero. - He's the original Joker if you don't know.
8. Theoretically solvable mysteries (much of the time). - The audience can usually follow along with the mystery and figure out the murderer based on the clues in the show. You don't get that with your "CSI"s and your "Law and Order SUV"s.
9. Non-horrific clues. - Speaking of "CSI" and that lot, never in the history of "Murder She Wrote" has Jessica Fletcher ever found traces of semen anywhere. When Jessica grabs her flashlight you can rest assured she's not going to use it to look through pubic hair. You can come up with your own third example, this is making me feel sick. But it is true... and you can see it on primetime television every night.
10. Unrelenting titles. - Actual episode titles: "Hooray for Homicide", "We're Off to Kill the Wizard", "Paint Me a Murder" (that one's about a painter), "One Good Bid Deserves a Murder", "Corned Beef & Carnage" and "Simon Says, Color Me Dead". Incidentally, it's a style that was copied by "Family Guy" in its first few episodes.
11. Avoidance of controversial subjects. - We all know the Robert Reed character is gay but why actually say it? It's so much more fun when he wears a fake pencil mustache, acts over-the-top effeminate and says, as his alibi, that he was eating dinner with a man last night.... a reporter!.... he was doing a story.

Incidentally, watching the show now it seems all the "scariness" was just my childish imagination. It's not really "scary" at all but it is a fairly well written, interesting mystery show. Also, other things that were scary but enjoyable were the "Resident Evil" series, the movie "Arachnophobia" and "Clue".

LATE... on NBC

Tonight (Friday) on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is the premiere episode of the new show "Late" a sci-fi drama about a group of people whose elevator crashes on a deserted floor.

Here's the trailer:

Intense.

Films of the 2000s

This is really well done. Not much to say other than that.

Films of the 2000s: