LATE SHOW NEWS #214 August 11, 1998 by Aaron Barnhart To join or leave the LATE-SHOW-NEWS mailing list, see instructions at end of message. > > > A N O T H E R < < < A D V E R T I S E M E N T Thanks to all the LATE SHOW NEWS readers who went on the Web last week to order copies of BARNHART'S TELEVISION ALMANAC '98. (Yes, it's still the title, but we've downgraded it to *working* title.) Your mailing labels have already been printed and your orders will ship first. The rest of you, read on. You may be curious to know how this opinionated, no-nonsense review of all the new and returning broadcast shows, selected syndicated and cable, daytime and late night will actually look. It'll be offset-printed on quality white paper (not newsprint), we've chosen a couple of nice crisp typefaces and we're adhering to a clean, intelligent layout. Mrs. LATE SHOW NEWS and I are writing, editing and publishing the thing ourselves. But this won't be some amateur desktop special. It's the third book I've self-published and Diane, who's a writer and former senior editor for an educational division of Houghton Mifflin, has edited and helped design dozens of books. I mentioned before that the book will be 30,000 words of facts and opinions, plus eye-opening charts and sidebars. One reader wrote back, "So how many pages is that?" Well, we don't know yet. We just blew out our original 80-page design and are now working on 96 pages. It may go as high as 112 pages. As a result, as you might guess, I'm not getting a lot of sleep. But it's exhilarating work and we're excited to get the end result into your hands as soon as it rolls off the presses. BARNHART'S TELEVISION ALMANAC '98 is $9.95 and that includes shipping by first-class mail (add $5 if outside the U.S., Canada or Mexico). Don't worry, I'll give you your money back if you don't like it. It's also a good way to support LATE SHOW NEWS, if you feel so inclined. I'm now taking preorders online through Kagi, a secure payment processing service that accepts Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Discover and Diners Card. Here's the URL to place your order: http://order.kagi.com/?Q6B&S For non-credit card or non-Web orders (slower processing), go to this URL: http://www.tvbarn.com/lsn-archive/almanac.html *** Magic, we hardly knew ye. And we sure didn't know you any better after nine weeks of "The Magic Hour," mercifully brought to a halt by Twentieth Television last Thursday before the Fox affiliates had the chance to downgrade it to, say, 3 a.m. Quite by coincidence, the Johnson experience got its own fitting sendoff when comedian Craig Shoemaker penned a long piece for the Philadelphia Weekly documenting his almost daily torment as the guy pressed into service as Johnson's sidekick. Shoemaker claims he was selected over more qualified black comedians because of his race -- that ridiculous "mainstream" strategy attempted by "Magic Hour" producers -- and then was given next to no chance to suggest material people might actually find funny. In other words, the Shoemaker we reamed was not the Shoemaker that audiences in Philadelphia and elsewhere have known and loved. True or not, his account is certainly plausible considering how dreadful his segments with Johnson were. As for all the other problems with the show, Shoemaker touches on them, just as LATE SHOW NEWS has touched on them. Going deeper than that seems ... not right. So we'll leave Craig to have the last word. At least he appears to have the comic's gift of brute honesty, something that Johnson and his co-producers on "The Magic Hour" appeared to have much of. In your market, expect repeats of "The Magic Hour" to air for the rest of the month. The show averaged at best a 1.8 rating in its short life and most weeks was scoring lower than "Vibe." Production was costing Twentieth an estimated $700,000 per week in addition to the startup costs of $13 million, of which $5 million was Johnson's salary. Actually, let's leave Harrison Wyman to have the last word. "When 'The Magic Hour' brought in Tommy Davidson (to replace Shoemaker as sidekick), I watched because he (a) was funny, (b) tended to lapse into Sammy Davis Jr.-on-Carson behavior patterns. But they could have brought in Richard Pryor at the peak of his powers and it would not have saved this show." (The Shoemaker article *was* at http://www.phillyweekly.com/weekly98/news/cover.html but may have moved to the archive by now.) *** The new Conan O'Brien website is online at http://www.nbc.com/conan/ and I'm happy to report that they finally worked the monologue in. Whichever of you dropped that into the NBC Interactive suggestion box, good for you. The interface is a simple one: an uncluttered home page from which to access layers of content stashed just beneath the surface. My suggestion is to head straight for "Click Comedy," where most of the site's material is located. There you can peruse the collection of new postal stamps ("Bert's Reactions to Dean Martin's Death; Salute to Huge Portions") and other classic bits from the "Late Night" writing staff. As is true on the show, there's a waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop quality to most of the online comedy. Click the setup image on the left; view the punchline image on the right. Other portions of the site need work. A guide to Conan fan sites -- a very good idea borrowed from the Letterman Web site -- was limited to one, our pal Damone's, perhaps because of an HTML error that my browser coughed up. The features haven't been fully developed; a "Ticket Info" link is disabled and the content on the "Sketch Comedy" link is thin. However, there is one part of the "Show Info" section you'll want to check out if you're one of those wackos who occasionally tunes into late shows for the music. The "Musical Guests" link takes you to the NBC portion of mylaunch.com, an Internet music site, to give you background on the artists appearing on "Late Night." The page also links upcoming musical guests, including some who've been booked well in advance -- like R.E.M. on Nov. 17. My my my. *** A LATE SHOW NEWS reader named Zen watched the Leno-WCW pay-per-view this weekend so you wouldn't have to. "Pathetic," Zen writes. "Completely pathetic. I'm not sure whose idea it was for Jay Leno to actually step into a wrestling ring, but the sheer horror of the event made me cringe, wince, and cry. At the same time. "At least when Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman wrestled, they were athletes who actually pulled off some wrestling moves. Leno did nothing. And when it was time for the finish, it took Kevin Eubanks, probably the only man in the ring area next to Hollywood Hogan who was in decent shape, to take Eric Bischoff down with an Ace Crusher, aka Diamond Cutter. "Leno did nothing and was COLLAPSING at the end of the match. You think Letterman was sitting at home, watching this, and laughing? It makes WCW an even bigger laughingstock, and gives Leno less and less credibility." And as for the TV show that set this all up, a reader named Laret writes, "I feel the need as a wrestling fan to write to you and apologize to you that you had to watch any of 'WCW Monday Nitro.' The uncreative storylines combined with the elderly, lazy main event wrestlers have made WCW almost universally hated by Internet fans. The Leno cross-promotional deal has been slaughtered in the ratings each week by 'WWF RAW,' which is on at the same time. 'WCW,' which had two minutes of actual wrestling in the first hour of their show last week, is less a wrestling company and more a TV show. A really, really, really bad TV show. Leno is the perfect mix for WCW, a bunch of elderly people trying to be hip and failing miserably with forced 'wacky' bits." *** There's a new player on "Saturday Night Live" and he comes with terrific cred. (Then again, so did Janeane Garofalo.) Horatio Sanz has been performing at Chicago's Second City, of which current "SNL" regular Tim Meadows and writers Adam McKay, Cindy Caponera, Tom Gianas and Tina Fey are all alums. Reader Keith Privett says Sanz used to belong to the very funny Upright Citizens Brigade (whose Comedy Central show debuts Aug. 19, following "South Park"), is probably the first Latino on the "SNL" cast and is "a good guy" who "deserves the opportunity" ... Turns out my suggestion that Conan O'Brien take his road show to Cambridge, Mass., wasn't that farfetched. A reader named Jean attended Andy Richter's lecture at the University of Minnesota last year and writes, "Richter said that Conan O'Brien had wanted to do a week of shows from his hometown, the Boston-Brookline-Cambridge area, and preliminary planning had started. But when NBC found out how much it would cost, they stopped the whole deal" ... Fellow TV crit Ellen Gray of the Philadelphia Daily News astutely notes that during David Letterman's panel last week with Nathan Lane, whose sitcom "Encore! Encore!" launches this fall on NBC, that he had seen and enjoyed the pilot episode of Lane's show. Just two weeks earlier, the network had told TV critics assembled in Pasadena that said pilot was unavailable for viewing. "So much for Dave's strained relations with NBC," says Ellen ... Now that another demented season of "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" episodes is underway -- and next week's with CNN legalfrau Greta van Susteren is truly bizarre -- you'll want to check out the special preview page that posts sneak peeks of that Friday's episode every Monday: http://www.crawford.com/html/cool_stuff.html ... E! announced it is moving its "Howard Stern" weekend "power hour" from Saturday nights to Sunday nights at 11 p.m. Eastern, where it won't compete with Stern's new Saturday-night program for CBS, beginning Aug. 23. "The Howard Stern Radio Show" is coming to your town Aug. 22 ... Mary Schleier reports that "Late Show with David Letterman" now airs in Europe nightly on the Paramount Comedy Channel at midnight London time. *** Reader mail: Melissa Pollak, who works for the National Science Foundation, writes with further proof of my assertion that "The Tonight Show" and "NBC Nightly News" are heading for total convergence. "Leno recently picked up -- directly from the 'NBC Nightly News' -- on a story about our latest 'public understanding of science' survey. In the segment, Leno took a camera crew out to Universal CityWalk to prove that Americans couldn't possibly know as much about science as our survey says they do. And sure enough, he interviewed a bunch of twenty-somethings who gave incredibly dumb -- but hilarious -- responses to the questions. Our closed- circuit TV system has been running the segment ever since it aired, and we're all getting a kick out of it -- and the publicity" ... Jens Gorne writes, "The Letterman interview with former Clinton Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, I thought, was one of the most candid discussions ever of the Lewinsky/Starr affair by what would be fair to call a heavyweight White House insider. It is rare to see Letterman in such intelligent form. She should have been given the full hour of the show, sans commercials." John Parsons agrees. "Dave was great with Dee Dee Myers the other night. I love it when he just lets himself be Dave. And I can't wait for him to propose to Monica" ... One reader's not surprised to see Howard Stern perform poorly in the Quad Cities radio market, but not because of Midwestern conservatism. "Under the best of circumstances, radio Arbitrons make the Nielsen TV stats look like an exact science. When a Los Angeles Spanish-language station changed their call letters to an anagram of the station that carries Stern, the very next ratings book showed that the midlevel upstart had suddenly become the #1 morning show in L.A. The station's increase in ratings almost perfectly mirrored the drop in Stern listeners." *** Tom Heald's THIS NIGHT IN HISTORY We 8/5: In 1963, as "Hello Muddah Hello Faddah" climbs the charts, Allan Sherman begins a week guest-hosting "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson." Th 8/6: In 1987, on "Late Night With David Letterman," the Dancing Waters fountain begins its grand tour, tonight spending the hour in the NBC Commissary and then at "Live at Five." Various types of liquids are poured into it throughout its reign -- 300 bottles of Scope, 200 bottles of Lavoris, and 20 gallons of cheap wine. Fr 8/7: In 1996, Conan O'Brien unveils his plush new "upscale whorehouse" set on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien." Sa 8/8: In 1994, Great Moments in Interview History: On "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," both Conan, and guest Dick Cavett wonder about each other, "What the hell is going on with your hair?" Su 8/9: In 1985, "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" opens in theaters, co-written by fellow Groundlings Paul Reubens and Phil Hartman, with a cameo from Hartman's future "Saturday Night Live" castmate Jan Hooks. Mo 8/10: In 1996, HBO attempts to pull the (Robert) Wuhl over our eyes, by trying to pass "Arli$$" off as an equal to "The Larry Sanders Show." Tu 8/11: In 1987, a sad day in monologue history as Clara "Where's-The-Beef" Peller dies. We 8/12: In 1991, "The Ron Reagan Show" debuts in syndication. Richard Simmmons temporarily becomes the second biggest sissy in late night. ;) Th 8/13: In 1990, "The Pat Sajak Show" finally hits the bankrupt space on CBS' "Wheel of Programming." Fr 8/14: In 1945, Steve Martin is born. The king (tut) of "Saturday Night Live," Martin has hosted the show a record fourteen times. Sa 8/15: In 1944, Linda Ellerbee is born, presumably overnight. Su 8/16: In 1969, Merv Griffin is TV Guide's coverboy, as the new latenight competition for Johnny Carson & Joey Bishop. Mo 8/17: In 1991, FOX debuts "Best of the Worst," featuring stories highlighting all things dumb, hosted by Greg Kinnear, just before he returns to the renamed E! Network to host "Talk Soup." Tu 8/18: Harald Schmidt ist dieser Tag 1957 ein neugeborenes und impersonates sofort amerikanischen Jack Paar. Freundliche Deutsche entschuldigen Übersetzung durch Autor Tom. Ich genieße Lowenbrau und David Hasselhoff. Kaufen Sie bitte einige Bücher meiner Internet-Bibliothek. [Thanks as always to David Tanny and Frank Serpas III. Special thanks to Aaron Barnhart for the continued opportunity to write this column and the Donz, whose book will be much longer than Barnhart's.] Visit Tom's This Night In History Internet-Bibliothek at . THE LINEUPS with Sue Trowbridge (http://www.interbridge.com/) LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS Mo 8/10 Leslie Nielsen, N.Y. Liberty basketball star Theresa Weatherspoon, magician David Roth Tu 8/11 Kevin Spacey, Bobby Rahal, Harvey Danger We 8/12 Ray Liotta, Sela Ward, Liz Phair Th 8/13 Angela Bassett, Pete Townshend Fr 8/14 Wesley Snipes, Robert Klein THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, NBC Mo 8/10 Vince Vaughn, Martina Hingis, Backstreet Boys Tu 8/11 Esther Canadas We 8/12 Marisa Tomei, reptile expert Clyde Peeling Th 8/13 Vanessa Williams, Jerry Springer Fr 8/14 Julianna Margulies, Eagle Eye Cherry Mo 8/17 Arsenio Hall, Natasha Lyonne, Spice Girls Tu 8/18 Joe Mantegna, Luther Vandross LATE LATE SHOW WITH TOM SNYDER, CBS Mo 8/10 Rafer Johnson Tu 8/11 Nicholas Turturro We 8/12 Buck O'Neil, Jerry O'Connell LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC Mo 8/10 Isabella Rossellini, Jerry O'Connell, The Derailers (R 4/24/98) Tu 8/11 Gary Sinise, L.L. Cool J We 8/12 Dwayne Kennedy Th 8/13 Ray Liotta Fr 8/14 Anne Heche, Mills Lane, Catatonia Mo 8/17 Rosie O'Donnell, Patrick Warburton, Dave Attell (R 5/14/98) Tu 8/18 Don Rickles, Traci Lords, Emmylou Harris We 8/19 Rufus Wainwright Th 8/20 Vanessa Williams, David Feldman Fr 8/21 Colin Quinn LATER, NBC Line-ups not available THE MAGIC HOUR, syndicated Mo 8/10 Hanson, Downtown Julie Brown (R) Tu 8/11 Veronica Webb, Oscar De La Hoya, Tia & Tamera Mowry, Brian Mcknight (R) We 8/12 Noah Wyle, Daryl "Chill" Mitchell, Little Richard (R) Th 8/13 Chris Rock, Bill Nye, Lionel Richie (R) Fr 8/14 Brooke Langton, Reginald VelJohnson, Regina Belle (R) CHARLIE ROSE, PBS Please note that Charlie Rose listings are very tentative Mo 8/10 Israeli Labor Party Leader Ehud Barak, author Rick Bass POLITICALLY INCORRECT WITH BILL MAHER, ABC Mo 8/10 Terry Jeffrey, Hector Elizondo, Karen Finley, Mimi Kennedy Tu 8/11 Pat Cooper, Miss Universe Wendy Fitzwilliam, Cal Thomas We 8/12 Rita Rudner, Bob Knight (*** PICK TO CLICK ***) (Just lie down on your bed and enjoy this one.) Th 8/13 Kathy Griffin, James Coburn, Carmen Pate Fr 8/14 Penn Jillette, Jon Cryer, Kennedy, Art Alexakis VIBE TV, syndicated Mo 8/10 Veronica Webb, Tommy Ford, Michele Ohayon, Troop (R 3/16/98) Tu 8/11 Hector Elizondo, Joshua Jackson, Amazing Jonathan, Xscape (R 5/11/98) We 8/12 Star Jones, James Wilder, Judson Mills (R 4/29/98) Th 8/13 Blair Underwood, Andrea Thompson, John O' Hurley, Jay Z with Rell (R) Fr 8/14 Stacy Edwards, Peter Escovedo Orchestra, Destiny's Child (R 3/19/98) Mo 8/17 TBA Tu 8/18 TBA We 8/19 Kenan & Kel, Ellen Dow, Elizabeth Berkley, Def Squad (R 2/25/98) Th 8/20 Darrell Hammond, Gretchen Palmer, Bryan White (R 5/19/98) Fr 8/21 TBA THE DAILY SHOW, Comedy Central Mo 8/10 Dana Gould Tu 8/11 Carla Gugino We 8/12 LL Cool J Th 8/13 TBA DENNIS MILLER LIVE, HBO Fr 8/14 Jon Stewart on "Hypochondria" The first show of next season will be January 8, 1999. SPACE GHOST COAST TO COAST, Cartoon Network Fr 8/7 Dr. Drew Pinsky, Marc Weiner *** SEASON PREMIERE *** Fr 8/14 Merrill Markoe, Adam Carolla, John Henson Fr 8/21 Greta Van Susteren HOWARD STERN, E! Mo 8/10 Anna Nicole Smith Part 1 (R), Ozzy Osbourne Part 1 (R), Strip Jeopardy Part 1 (R) Tu 8/11 Anna Nicole Smith Part 2 (R), Ozzy Osbourne Part 2 (R), Strip Jeopardy Part 2 (R) We 8/12 Melanie Good Part 1 (R), Suzanne Somers Part 1 (R), Nicole Bass, Bodybuilder (R) Th 8/13 Melanie Good Part 2 (R), Suzanne Somers Part 2 (R), Nicole Eggert Part 1 (R) Fr 8/14 Chuck Zito (R), Janks and Marty Phoner (R), Nicole Eggert Part 2 (R) Sa 8/15 Butt Walker & Hypno Love (R), David Schwimmer (R) MAD TV (FOX) Sa 8/15 Anna Nicole Smith on "Cabana Chat" / "All the President's Manicurists" / Hanson in the future [R-3/28/97] SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (NBC) Sa 8/15 The Best of John Belushi (R) THE RUPAUL SHOW (VH1) We 8/12 Maria Shriver, musical guest Next SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (Comedy Central) Mo 8/10 John Lithgow / Anita Baker 11 AM & Midnight; John Goodman / Mary J. Blige 3 PM Tu 8/11 John Larroquette / Timbuk 3 11 AM & Midnight; Miranda Richardson / Soul Asylum 3 PM We 8/12 Mark Harmon / Suzanne Vega 11 AM & Midnight; Jason Alexander / Peter Gabriel 3 PM Th 8/13 Garry Shandling / Los Lobos 11 AM & Midnight; Kirstie Alley / Lenny Kravitz 3 PM Fr 8/14 Dennis Hopper / Roy Orbison 11 AM & 3 PM Sa 8/15 Christina Applegate / Midnight Oil 11 AM Su 8/16 Kevin Kline / Willie Nelson / Paul Simon 11 AM Mo 8/17 Steve Martin / Sting 11 AM & Midnight; Catherine O'Hara / 10,000 Maniacs 3 PM Tu 8/18 Sean Penn / LL Cool J 11 AM & Midnight; Charles Barkley / Nirvana 3 PM Also on late nights: NIGHTLINE and WORLD NEWS NOW, ABC LOVELINE, MTV UP TO THE MINUTE, CBS NIGHTSIDE and LATER, NBC (going away soon) DIE HARALD SCHMIDT SHOW, SAT.1 Entire contents Copyright 1998 by Aaron Barnhart. All rights reserved. LATE SHOW NEWS is made possible with the generous assistance of ECHO, New York City's premiere online service. http://www.echonyc.com Send news for and comments about this newsletter to aaron@tvbarn.com