NBC: Conan to replace Leno in 2009 (1 Viewer)

[Ashley Seymour]

quote:Compared to Carson's monologues, he's (Leno)far from the best.

When Leno used to sub for Johnny - which grew to about 50% of the time - I would only tune in Leno. As Johnny delivered his joke I would cringe and think "no that isn't how you set up the joke!" With Leno I always thought he had the timining and delivery down. Leno is a lot more hard edged that Johnny was and it may be why some people don't like his jokes and who he makes fun of.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Nice, long article on this in the New York Observer this week... http://www.observer.com/pages/frontpage2.asp



Here's an excerpt:

quote:On Monday, Sept. 27, Mr. Leno, in his 50th anniversary special, showed what Mr. O’Brien was inheriting: he broadcast the four men who had hosted the show before him, Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, each with his own variation of the straight face peering into the camera like an exclamation point, reacting to the absurdity of the American moment.



As always, it was the ability to shadow dance with dignity that was the secret credibility of the late-night host. And that night, Mr. Leno was the embodiment of graciousness, reminding some apostate viewers of why they had first liked him, telling his audience he wanted to avoid the "awkwardness" of the last transition, when his friend and benefactor David Letterman had fought for Mr. Carson’s throne and inflicted "permanent damage" on a friendship.



But the old clips of Mr. Carson were somehow a testament to the futility of the endeavor. Mr. Carson was the gold standard of the show, cagey, lean, an American as Americans would generally like to be seen, linking the Bob Hope post-war golf swingers to the new generation of icy ironists.



For his part, Mr. Leno had reached for the Carson ring and found himself battling for something more blood-spattered, sheer victory. So Mr. Leno, who had once been a supremely successful, often savagely funny stand-up, who combined a hard-edge and warmth but managed to submerge both those things in his determined charge to trundle to victory, somehow transformed himself into a boxy, clunky winner without grace.



And yet it is clear he is a graceful, intelligent man of some sensitivity who regretted the battle with Letterman and may have even regretted his lowest-common-denominator Tonight Show.



"I think you know there’s only one person who could do this job into his 60s, and that was Johnny Carson," he said on Monday night. "And I’m no Johnny Carson."



There was a moment of sympathy from the audience when he said that—awwwww!—and Mr. Shandling, his pain-ingesting, long-suffering guest, for whom being a receptacle-of-grief has become a very functional comedy device, sat dressed in black, making the pretense of telling him it wasn’t true. But Mr. Leno waved it off. Mr. Leno has evolved past the point of allowing anybody wrestle him into a position other than the place a host should occupy. He may have been starting a long ascent to post-host statesmanship, but he was not about to give up his position of power yet. And even if Mr. Leno was just being respectful—and he was—one sensed a pang. Mr. Leno knew that he hadn’t had Mr. Carson’s blessing from the beginning. Whereas Mr. Shandling, a one-time Carson fill-in who had graduated to HBO heroism and then became a show biz martyr of the second magnitude through his settled lawsuit against his former manager, was there to restore Mr. Leno’s comedy integrity. He was there to remind Mr. Leno and the audience that he had once been a comedian who was more than the guy introducing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, that he was more than the host who had gained lawful, permeated access to Joe Sixpack’s bedroom by avoiding jokes that might startle his audience. Jay Leno loved politics—maybe too much. He had become a politician. But he had also sold Doritos, and once he did, that was that. Jack Benny had sold Jell-O, but that was good stuff. Doritos were bad for the viewers and made your fingers yellow.



Ah, but Conan. Would Mr. O’Brien’s sharp-edged stuff survive the new time slot? Probably not. Mr. O’Brien will be 46 when he takes over. Mr. Carson was 36 when he got the show. By ‘09, he’ll be gearing up for modern maturity, the funny brother-in-law at Thanksgiving, setting the cultural tone with his monologue. The former Simpsons and Saturday Night Live writer who plied scripts in the back rooms of studio 8-H, he is a Boston boy, like Mr. Leno, but the Ivy League guy, a college boy through and through, embodying East Coast self-consciousness and a prickly perceptiveness. How that goes over in Burbank and the obsequious celebrity culture of Los Angeles, nobody knows.



******cut******



The move to Mr. O’Brien is the latest shift in cultural comprehension. Would Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Pimpbot 5000, Bob Smigel’s priapic yee-hah! Bill Clinton, and The Masturbating Bear enter the wider lexicon or sink into Burbank asphalt? Well, who knows? When he announced his new job as host of The Tonight Show, Mr. O’Brien said, "I don’t think at 11:30 I can jump around and go"—Mr. O’Brien hissed like a cat, then snapped into—"Yes I can!"

 

[RyanAn]

quote:Were did you hear that Leno plays 300 shows a year?

Inside the Actor's Studio. Maybe it is shorter now, but the episode is not that old. Considering that the Tonight Show is taped before 4, Leno still has time to work the local night clubs. Plus, considering how many re-runs, etc.



- Another thing, for some reason I saw "Carson" and everyone was saying how great he is, and for a second I thought you meant "Carson Daly." ha ha.



Ryan

 

[MatthewA]

And Carson (still the King IMHO) had heart bypass surgery several years ago. When he stepped down from the Tonight Show he pretty much retired.



Sad to hear that he has emphysema.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> Considering that the Tonight Show is taped before 4



Hmm, when I saw it they taped from 5-6. I don't know how rigid that time is, though, as long as the guests are there and they get it done in time to send it out.

 

[EricW]

cnn.com story here:



http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/...w.ap/index.html



not much new info, but it did say Conan will probably move to LA.