LATE SHOW NEWS #154 May 26, 1997 by Aaron Barnhart Note to self: Next time you have to cut out of town on a family emergency, like you did last weekend, send the following message to the LATE SHOW NEWS list: "No issue this week!" ... Note to self: Backup your files, so that you won't ever again accidentally delete your ENTIRE ISSUE for the week just minutes from completion ... Note to self: Write an item urging "Saturday Night Live" to increase the number of cartoon segments from Robert Smigel and run them in place of those horrid segments featuring Norm MacDonald as Larry King doing his stupid little non sequitur observations -- a parody, incidentally, that "SNL" lifted *directly* from the Harvard Lampoon's 1986 parody issue of USA Today. Smigel is doing some of the most pungent cultural satire anywhere and has earned some extra airtime. I like Norm, but he's not making a very strong case for doing anything next season besides the fake news ... Jay Leno's fifth anniversary came and went. By the way, as you'll notice from Tom Heald's column below, the date Leno chose for his "anniversary" broadcast last Thursday was actually the five-year mark for Johnny Carson's *leaving* "The Tonight Show." But there would be no confusing this show for Johnny's: there, in the opening monologue, Leno told a good half-dozen jokes about Marv Albert -- the latest target of the lowbrow, applause-generating "humor" that Leno has learned to organize his monologues around. (Then there is the fact that Marv Albert has, over the years, been one of the most frequently-appearing guests of Leno's New York rival, Dave Letterman. Of course, given the state of late-night comedy in recent years, there's no guarantee Letterman won't backstab his old pal Marv, either.) Leno has made it to the top the hard way: with critical support swung heavily against him, and network and affiliate relations tense for most of his first two years as host, he seemed to win back America one viewer at a time. His ceaseless campaigning, appearances in markets where he could stand to bring his share up a tick, prompted one writer recently to joke that Jay hasn't made himself the king of late night so much as the mayor. But so what? Every "Tonight Show" host going back to Steve Allen has spent his first years on the air winning over a skeptical public. Leno has made himself as much an authority on t.v. as he already was on cars and Harleys, as evidenced in a recent interview with Broadcasting & Cable magazine in which he sounded like he could move easily into a subsequent career as network executive. Here is a quote from that interview that I found especially interesting: "I make the most money; I should have the smallest office and get the least amount of vacation. It seems to keep everybody happy if I'm the first one here in the morning and the last one to leave. Americans don't care how much money you make as long as they sense you're working for it. If people sense you're working harder than they are, they really don't begrudge you anything. I'm here at 8:15 or 8:30 a.m. My car is the first on the lot; people see it there and say 'okay.' They don't feel so bad about what they do. It sounds silly, but it's as stress-free a job as you could possibly ask for. It's piecemeal work. Write joke, tell joke, get check; thank you. This isn't the kind of thing where someone says: 'That show you did Thursday? It's screwed up. You gotta do it again.' Each show is done forever. I will never see that show again." Other independent sources have described the Leno work environment to LATE SHOW NEWS and it sounds very much like the description above. It was once said that writing jokes for Jack Benny was like having a civil service job, and that may well be what the "Tonight Show" -- for better or worse -- has become also ... Lately, however, I have to confess to taping Dave, skimming Jay, and spending most of the midnight hour surfing over on the Family Channel with the back-to-back episodes of "Carson's Comedy Classics," a series compiled in 1983 featuring old bits taken from Johnny's first ten years in Burbank (1972-82). A typical 30-minute program is compiled from three or more of the following elements: (1) desk bits, usually the kind that culminate with Ed McMahon bellowing, "*Everything* you'd ever want to know about X is in that book," (2) cute animals, (3) oddball guests, (4) main stage demonstrations designed to make Johnny look like a fool, and of course (5) Mighty Carson Arts Players bits. Basic stuff, to be sure, and as one reader noted in an e-mail, the production values on "Carson's Comedy Classics" could not be lower if they were edited in someone's garage with a rusty knife. But in this day of over-the-top behavior on "Tonight" and, to a lesser degree, on "Late Show" and "Late Night," Carson's modest, low-decibel shtick is a genuine alternative, and darned entertaining at that ... Ratings for "Politically Incorrect" continued to climb through the May sweep. Even here in Kansas City, where the show is delayed a full hour and a half, "PI" has built its share to 25 percent of the audience up at that hour. Unlike the other shows, "PI" is trying to tone down its presentation, not pump it up, and that may be one factor in its growing popularity among the sleepyhead set ... Of course, that's not to say the show is like a Sominex; far from it. In fact, last Tuesday's show, in which guest Harvey Fierstein launched into an expletive-filled rant against fellow guest Mike Reagan, went so far out of bounds that ABC tendered Reagan a company apology ... New York's WCBS decided to cut short its 11 p.m. newscast five minutes early from now on, to encourage audiences to sample Letterman's show before switching -- or rather, station executives hope, *not* switching -- to Jay's monologue over on WNBC. Don't look for this to become a nationwide trend, however; Channel 2 likely received special dispensation from CBS, which owns the station, for the move. Starting five minutes early means forfeiting a commercial break, which means having two dozen or so fewer spots to sell per week, which means less money for the station. And no matter how poorly Dave is doing in the ratings, most non-CBS-owned stations in big markets would run public service announcements for three minutes before they'd ever surrender a commercial break during their late local news ... Charles Grodin is talking about closing down his CNBC show and doing a syndicated venture -- that is to say, doing exactly the kind of show he turned down two and a half years ago in favor of a nightly gig on cable. Which, in case you haven't been watching it lately, has been turned into a cocktail party, but without any heart and soul to it, Chuck smiling and urging his guests to get along with each other, which they do, but not without straining themselves to achieve public-access levels of earnestness. I think Grodin is suffering a bad case of grass-is-greenerism as he scopes out the scene in daytime t.v. ... Reader mail: Lainie Cooper points out that Mike Myers' character allegedly based on "SNL" producer Lorne Michaels is not a movie first. "Mark McKinney brilliantly impersonated Lorne Michaels in the Kids in the Hall film, 'Brain Candy' - portraying him as the evil head of a drug corporation. Presumably with Lorne's blessing (he was the film's executive producer)." ... Our old pal Damone is less upset with CNBC's decision to drop "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" repeats than the sorry way in which the encores were packaged in the first place. "NBC's choice of what to release for reruns was completely inappropriate. All of the fans wanted older reruns like E! used to show for Letterman, but all we got were month-delayed repeats. Even the repeats of Monday shows (which were repeats themselves) were not used to tap older shows. They had such an opportunity to do things like weeks of theme repeats and the like, or just show older programs that people who latched on to the show recently hadn't seen, but they did not. I'd like to say I'm more sorry to hear that they are gone, but NBC never gave most fans a compelling reason to watch" ... Thomas Wollersheim disagrees with a letter-writer's dis of Harald Schmidt: "The cult status of the show is really high, giving SAT.1 (the CBS of Germany when in comes to hipness) a most needed breath of fresh air and the show has earned the coveted "Grimme Preis" which is a serious German t.v. award from respectable journalists. I don't see the show cancelled in December, only if Schmidt isn't up to the challenge anymore. And all that from a hardcore Letterman fan who dissed Schmidt all along the first half year of the show." Two count'em *two* weeks of Tom Heald's THIS NIGHT IN HISTORY Mo 5/19: In 1948, Tom Scott is born. It's an old Hollywood cliche that "what writers *really* want to want to do* is direct." It seems that what jazz musicians *really* want is a steady gig on a late night show. For jazz-fusion sax player Scott, the "dream" (and I use the term loosely) will come true as the bandleader for "The Pat Sajak Show." Tu 5/20: In 1989, "It just goes to show you, it's always something." And on this day for Gilda Radner, the something is ovarian cancer. Gilda goes to heaven. Gilda's Club is a cancer support society founded by Gilda's widower Gene Wilder. For more information, visit them on the internet at http://www.jocularity.com/gilda1.html or just drop a check to Gilda's Club, 195 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014. We 5/21: In 1951, Al Franken is a short naked baby. Th 5/22: In 1992, No fools they, Carson competitors Dennis Miller and Alan Havey (host of Comedy Central's "Night After Night") allow their shows to go blank, "in tribute to the King of Late Night" the night of Johnny Carson's final "Tonight Show." And "Late Night with David Letterman" opens with a video montage of all of Carson's appearances on "Late Night with David Letterman." After the opening remarks, Letterman thanks Carson for his own success, claiming that Carson's show was so successful that a show "about squirrels mating in a cage could succeed after Carson's show at 12:30." When a staffer would leave "Late Night," there would appear near the end of the show a picture of that staffer and the notice "Good luck, ____, from your pals at LATE NIGHT." At the end of the 5/22/92 show, the featured staffer was Johnny Carson. Fr 5/23: In 1991, Johnny Carson appears on "Late Night with David Letterman" in a surprise walk-on to present Letterman with a $1,000,000 check from Publisherís Clearing House. Carson also announces in passing that he will be leaving "The Tonight Show" in a year. Sa 5/24: In 1980, it's the end of an era as the last original "Not Ready For Prime Time Players" (Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Bill Murray, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner) make their final appearances as regular cast members of "Saturday Night Live." Su 5/25: May 25, 1992, "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" debuts with in a new studio, with a nauseating purple backdrop, a hideous new American Colonial desk, opening credits featuring what seems like hours of curtains being opened, and thanks to Leno's manager Helen Kushnick, no mention of that Johnny Carson fellow, whoever he was. Mo 5/26: In 1979, John Belushi & Dan Aykroyd make their final appearances as regular cast members of "Saturday Night Live." Tu 5/27: In 1994, the house party's over, as "The Arsenio Hall Show" tapes its final show with guest (and brief competitor) Whoopi Goldberg. We 5/28: In 1956, two months after his weekly primetime show dropped off the CBS schedule, "The Johnny Carson Show" returns to the airwaves... now in daytime, 5 days a week. Th 5/29: In 1950, the granddaddy of all network talk shows, "Broadway Open House" debuts on NBC, with Morey Amsterdam, who hosts his crew of regulars on Monday and Wednesday nights. Jerry Lester and his *own* entourage take the other three nights. Fr 5/30: In 1989, David Letterman's stalker, Margaret Ray, pleads guilty to breaking into "her husband's" house. Sa 5/31: In 1960, Chris Elliott born. A comedy writer, star of his own show on FOX, and "Saturday Night Live" cast member (1994-1995), Elliott gave David Letterman his big break in the motion picture biz, as the "Old Salt in Fishing Village" in the epic motion picture "Cabin Boy." Elliot just finished taping a pilot for a new TV series, cleverly titled "The Chris Elliott Show," which ABC passed on for its fall schedule. It may show up as a mid-season replacement. Su 6/1: In 1996, Not one, but *two* late night books, hit the nation's shelves -- "Nightline : History in the Making and the Making of Television" by Kyle Gibson & Ted Koppel and "Does Anybody Have a Problem With That? : Politically Incorrect's Greatest Hits" by Bill Maher, now out in paperback. Mo 6/2: In 1971, incredibly modest "This Night in History" columnist Thomas Allen Heald born. [Thanks to David Tanny, Tim Brooks, Earl Marsh, Frank Serpas III, and crisc@pacbell.net. Special thanks to Sporty Donz5, the Spice Girl with the best looking... database.] [Birthday greetings and or your credit card number may be sent to Tom Heald at ] THE LINEUPS (with Sue Trowbridge) LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS Mo 5/26 Candice Bergen, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Magic Johnson (R 5/12/94) Tu 5/27 Robin Williams, Tom Hanks, Steve Young (R 5/6/96) We 5/28 Ellen DeGeneres, Demi Moore, Green Day (R 11/8/95) Th 5/29 Jerry Seinfeld, David Duchovny, Bonnie Raitt and Bryan Adams (R 11/10/95) Fr 5/30 Danny DeVito, Brett Butler, John Michael Montgomery (R 11/7/95) Mo 6/2 Elle Macpherson, Vince Vaughn, Jewel Tu 6/3 Michael Richards, Steve Winwood We 6/4 Rick Reynolds, Squirrel Nut Zippers Th 6/5 Alicia Silverstone, Dave Chappelle, John Fogerty THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, NBC Mo 5/26 Martin Short, Kathy Kinney, Jim Fowler (R 12/13/96) Tu 5/27 Jeff Goldblum, Muggsy Bogues, Annie Wood We 5/28 Vince Vaughn, Erykah Badu Th 5/29 Kelly Preston, George Stephanopoulos, Verve Pipe Fr 5/30 Richard Lewis, Peta Wilson, Michael Flatley Mo 6/2 Rene Russo Tu 6/3 Vince Gill We 6/4 George Carlin Th 6/5 Bush LATE LATE SHOW WITH TOM SNYDER, CBS Mo 5/26 Little Richard, AIDS patient Jeff Getty (R 1/14/97) Tu 5/27 Lucie Arnaz We 5/28 Stephen Baldwin Th 5/29 George Carlin Fr 5/30 Jeff Goldblum Mo 6/2 Dolly Parton, citizen marathoner Bill Bell (R 12/9/96) Tu 6/3 Garry Shandling, Milwaukee brewery worker Wayne Watkins (R 11/8/96) We 6/4 Tony Danza, Fran Lebowitz (R 1/13/97) Th 6/5 Larry Flynt, Melissa Gilbert (R 12/ 3/96) Fr 6/6 Barry Manilow, investigator Dave Barrington (R 12/13/96) Mo 6/9 Morton Downey Jr. Tu 6/10 Mary Matalin LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC Mo 5/26 Tom Arnold, Tommy Davidson, Big Head Todd & the Monsters (R 2/11/97) Tu 5/27 Richard Harris, Jake Johannsen, Vivica A. Fox (R 2/14/97) We 5/28 Sarah Jessica Parker, Anthony Clark, William H. Macy (R 3/14/97) Th 5/29 Fran Drescher, William Shatner, Paul Lukas (R 2/6/97) Fr 5/30 Howard Stern, Lolita Davidovich, Freedy Johnston (R 3/13/97) Mo 6/2 Alec Baldwin, Penelope Ann Miller, animal expert Clyde Peeling (R 2/20/97) Tu 6/3 Charlton Heston, Vince Vaughn, Pavement We 6/4 Michael Richards, Peta Wilson, Jamiroquai Th 6/5 Kathleen Turner, Matthew Sweet Fr 6/6 Tony Randall, Carmen Electra, Jim Rome Mo 6/9 Ice T, Dwight Yoakam, Jack Gallagher (R 2/26/97) LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN RERUNS, CNBC Th 5/22 Rob Schneider, Steven Weber, Radish (R 4/24/97) Fr 5/23 Julianna Margulies, Dr. David Wright, Courtland Mead (R 4/25/97) Mo 5/26 Phil Hartman, Roger Ebert, Ken Shamrock (R 11/22/96) Please Note: CNBC is discontinuing its reruns of Late Night as of 5/26/96. LATER, NBC Mo 5/26 Ahmad Rashad with Wilt Chamberlain Tu 5/27 Ahmad Rashad with Carol Alt We 5/28 Ahmad Rashad with Bob Guccione Jr. Th 5/29 Ahmad Rashad with John Larroquette CHARLIE ROSE, PBS Mo 5/26 TBA (possible Tony Awards special) Tu 5/27 Michael Richards, Cal Ripken Jr., Tom Clancy We 5/28 Boutros Boutros-Ghali Th 5/29 David Ignatious POLITICALLY INCORRECT WITH BILL MAHER, ABC Mo 5/26 Gibby Haynes, Stephen Bishop, Weird Al Yankovic, Me'shell Ndegeocello Tu 5/27 Robert Evans, Cynthia Richmond, Alexandra Wentworth, Dick Clark We 5/28 Tony Campolo, Kevin Nealon, Little Richard Th 5/29 George Carlin, Farai Chideya Fr 5/30 Paul Theroux, Jamie Foxx DENNIS MILLER LIVE, HBO Fr 5/16 TBA Fr 5/23 Rerun, TBA Fr 5/30 Ann Richards on sobriety THE DAILY SHOW, Comedy Central (in repeats this week) SPACE GHOST COAST TO COAST, Cartoon Network Fr 5/30 Carrot Top (R) Jonathan Richman (R) HOWARD STERN, E! Mo 5/26 Alexa and April, Lisa the Lifeguard Tu 5/27 Linda Georgian, Psychic; Stut. John w/Cindy Crawford We 5/28 Dennis Rodman/Hulk Hogan, Patsy with Amy Lynn Th 5/29 Debi Mazar, LaToya Jackson Returns, Pt. 1 Fr 5/30 Howard V. Jackie Basketball Game, LaToya Jackson Returns, Pt. 2 Sa 5/31 Intern Beauty Contest, Pts. 1-2 Mo 6/2 Stuttering John at VH-1 Awards, Crazy Croix Tu 6/3 Scott's Second Lung Test, Nikki Tyler DIE HARALD SCHMIDT SHOW, SAT.1 Di 27/5 Heino Mi 28/5 Claudine Wilde, Friedrich Nowottny Do 29/5 Marcel Reif Also on late nights: NIGHTLINE, ABC CHARLES GRODIN, CNBC CARSON'S COMEDY CLASSICS, Family Channel MAD TV, Fox SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, Comedy Central WORLD NEWS NOW, ABC UP TO THE MINUTE, CBS Entire contents Copyright 1997 by Aaron Barnhart. All rights reserved. Distributed by e-mail and BBS to over 10,000 readers weekly. Late Show News is made possible with the generous assistance of ECHO, New York City's premiere online service. Send news for and comments about this newsletter to aaron@tvbarn.com