LATE SHOW NEWS #224 November 3, 1998 by Aaron Barnhart To join or leave the LATE-SHOW-NEWS mailing list, see instructions at end of message. BARNHART'S UNAUTHORIZED TV is on sale now. For more details write barnhart@lateshownews.com or go to http://lateshownews.com More changes will be going on at "The Daily Show" in the coming months than we'd initially been led to believe. The program's co-creator and executive producer Madeleine Smithberg confirmed to LATE SHOW NEWS on Monday that A. Whitney Brown will be leaving the program on Dec. 17. That will also be host Craig Kilborn's last show and the final "Daily" of the year. "We're really, really sad and disappointed but Whitney and I talked about it at length. He said he was starting to get comfortable and he felt the need to move on," said Smithberg, who said she was "leaving the door open" for Brown to make occasional appearances in the future. Brown contributed from day one of "The Daily Show," and his role at Comedy Central was inarguably more ambitious than it ever was at "Saturday Night Live," where he contributed "The Big Picture" commentaries from 1986 to 1990. The explanation that he is leaving on good terms to do something different rings true to me. That said, it's possible Brown coveted the position of host; certainly a fair number of LSN readers were pulling for him. By contrast, Brown's colleague Brian Unger had made no secret of his desire to occupy the Craiggers chair and his disappointment when an outsider, Jon Stewart, was chosen instead. Now with several projects brewing on the side -- including a sitcom being developed for UPN with "Daily" co-creator Lizz Winstead -- Unger has been working week-to-week without a permanent contract and could depart at any time. What this will mean for the show is, of course, unknown. Change is not only inevitable, but at an edgy cable production like this one, it's actually preferable to no change. I griped months ago at the broken record that the opening credits had become (that copier joke was clever for about two days). Since signing on, "The Daily Show's" packaging has evolved from a cousin of "Indecision '92" and "Politically Incorrect" to a running spoof of local TV news to its current "Nightline" look and accompanying claim of being "the most important television program ever." So when it becomes "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" (that'll be the new title) in two months, who knows exactly where it will be headed? Smithberg told LSN she is trying out eight new correspondents, including Vance DeGeneres (Ellen's brother), comic Steve Carell (seen briefly on the Robert Morton-run sitcom "Over the Top" last season), former "SNL"-er Laura Kightlinger and ex-"TV Nation" writer-correspondent Jeff Stilson. Another writer, Mo Rocca, had a segment last week. There will be fewer scripted moments and more talk-show moments with Stewart at the helm. Smithberg said he might conduct some remote interviews from his desk, perhaps with the aid of a satellite. "Jon is at his peak when he's totally off the cuff," she said. "He told me that when the Monica Lewinsky story broke, he wanted to interview a dry cleaner." The "Daily Show" desk will also shrink in size, and the separate celebrity-interview desk will be scrapped. Both are concessions to Stewart, who's about my height and maybe a tad lighter, as compared with the towering Kilborn. "We're going from a 42-long to a 40-small," said Smithberg. "We're scaling down the set a little bit. That desk looks like it had its own ZIP code, and that was part of the joke that worked so well with Craig. But it doesn't work with Jon." On the software side, "Five Questions" and "A Moment for Us" will vanish, though Stewart will obviously continue to interact with celebrities and share a personal observation or two. But little else creatively is planned, at least for now, something Smithberg attributes to "the nature of the beast" -- the constant demands of a four-nights-a-week program that preclude her from thinking too far into the future. She also suggested that there's a measure of apprehension in what to do with Stewart, Comedy Central's biggest talent coup to date. "There's nothing more paralyzing than tremendous potential," she said. *** In a most unsurprising move, HBO has retained the rights to the 90 "Larry Sanders Show" episodes for the next three years. Unlike the producers of "Dream On," Garry Shandling and crew never planned for an afterlife in syndication -- they didn't tape cleaned-up versions, the episodes are all too long by a couple of minutes and scenes weren't shot with commercial breaks in mind ... Michael Reagan is barring any "Politically Incorrect" guest from appearing on his syndicated radio show until Bill Maher apologizes for a comment about Ronald Reagan during a recent taping. I think I speak for most Americans when I say -- Michael Reagan's doing a radio show? ... Some readers have started to notice the repeats of the "Tonight" show airing overnights on NBC. So as a public service I reprint the report that I ran, exclusively I might add, in LSN earlier this year: "According to an affiliates' memo obtained by LATE SHOW NEWS, the new overnight block, known as 'NBC All Night,' is a response to cable TV, which is stealing valuable viewers from NBC in the wee hours. It will feature repeats of the 'Tonight Show' and 'Sunset Beach' (but not of that day's broadcasts) Monday through Friday nights, a classic 'Saturday Night Live' immediately following the regular 'SNL' and a block of 'Dateline NBC' and that day's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday nights." Now what do you bet that new NBC Entertainment chief Scott Sassa will return the network to overnight news instead of this warmed-over porridge? ... Paul McClellan asks: "Frances Fisher was on 'Politically Incorrect' Thursday (10/29) and was wearing a blouse that featured a word that was apparently inappropriate for our eyes. It was blacked out for the first segment, during the second she held a garment over most of the word, and for the final segment someone had given her a sweater to wear over it. The odd part was that more than half the word was visible, and I can't make anything naughty out of it. If I recall correctly, the first letter was B, the next 2 were blocked, and the last 3 were XER. I wouldn't have written if it had been a standard profanity, but this one stumps me." Sounds to me like someone at ABC was afraid Barbara Boxer's opponent in the California U.S. Senate race would've demanded equal time had the T-shirt appeared in full ... *** Reader mail: Bob Rossney responds to my review of the new Michael O'Donoghue biography. He writes, "I think that reading Phoebe Zeit-Geist as misogynistic is insensitive to the mechanisms of satire. The strip was an elaborately over-the-top parody of the woman-in-jeopardy adventure serial. That's a fundamentally misogynistic genre. If you think about it (and O'Donoghue did), the whole idea of dangling a woman over a precipice to keep the audience interested is pretty repulsive. "A characteristic O'Donoghue satire technique was to take something already awful and push it to surreal, absurd levels of hideousness to highlight its awfulness. Which is what he did with Phoebe Zeit-Geist. 'You think tying the heroine to the train tracks is bad? How about if a group of Midwestern Masonic necrophiliac bankers in white shoes violate her corpse?' "Michael O'Donoghue was the closest America is ever going to get to a Jonathan Swift. I think that O'Donoghue's 'The Vietnamese Baby Book' was the most brilliant, articulate, savage, and -- despite its grisly awfulness -- humane response to our country's role in the war in Vietnam that any American artist produced. "If O'Donoghue had a fault (and Phoebe Zeit-Geist is a good example of this), it's that he had only two settings, 'off' and 'soft-tissue damage.' Not everything in American popular culture needed or deserved to be flensed to its bones by the force of his rage." Mike Nist writes, "I have to strenuously disagree with you regarding the 'Mr. Mike' book. I found it to be a huge disappointment. The first third was an interminable recap of his unremarkable youth (I am a fan of O'Donoghue's, but I've never confused him with Winston Churchill). "The next 50 percent or so was more or less cribbed straight from Rolling Stone articles, back issues of the Lampoon, Tony Hendra's (also disappointing) 'Going Too Far' and Hill & Weingrad's excellent 'Saturday Night.' "The author concludes with a very slight wrap-up of O'Donoghue's largely undocumented final decade -- this part of the book fairly reeked of deadline pressure, though it alluded in passing to a bunch of unproduced screenplays -- excerpts of which might have made the bio worthwhile. "Although it might have more appeal to someone who is just discovering O'Donoghue, as a long-time fan I was not impressed at all. I would advise anyone who's interested in the book to wait until it turns up in the remainder bins -- which is only a matter of time." Vern Morrison writes, "I first discovered O'Donoghue as a pimply-faced National Lampoon reader in '72 or so, which meant I discovered him during the mag's glory days. As you know, Mr. Mike died on Nov. 8, 1994, the day of the Republican takeover of Congress -- and my 38th birthday. I miss the ornery bastard." And Harry White writes, "Surprised in your 'Mr. Mike' review that the quote on page 275 was not alluded to: 'I don't think television will ever be perfected until the viewer can press a button and cause whoever is on the screen's head to explode.'" *** In response to absolutely no popular demand whatever, I've begun offering LATE SHOW NEWS in the handy PalmPilot format. Hopefully this bright idea will have a little more traction than Andy Ihnatko's short-lived "LSN for the Newton" from a few years back. To receive the Palm version every week, send me e-mail; I'll add you to the list. It will be sent in DOC format as an attachment; the file size will be a third smaller than the standard version. I'll assume you have your DOC reader of choice (AportisDoc, TealDoc) ready to go. Please specify if you're a Macintosh user. I've converted all my 1998 issues to DOC format and have stuck a few up on the Web site. Grab some at http://lateshownews.com/palm/ and tell me what you think. *** Tom Heald's THIS NIGHT IN HISTORY We 11/4: In 1978, On "Saturday Night Live," Elvis Presley's coat sings his greatest hits, live in concert. Th 11/5: In 1991, "NBC Nightside" debuts with anchors Kim Hindrew and Tom Miller, bringing overnight viewers the latest headlines from the news capital of North America ... Charlotte, North Carolina. Fr 11/6: In 1985, On "Late Night with David Letterman," proof of how cold Letterman keeps his theatres -- in a "New Gifts" segment, Letterman pulls back a shower curtain to display staffer Rick Scheckman simultaneously showering and using a copy machine. As Dave soon realizes, "Schecky" is completely naked. Sa 11/7: In 1981, William Burroughs reads a hospital scene from "Naked Lunch" on "Saturday Night Live." Su 11/8: In 1995, "Saturday Night Live's" "Mr. Mike," Michael O'Donoghue, passes away. Mo 11/9: In 1964, ABC puts "The Les Crane Show" up against late-night talk-show king Johnny Carson. Les ain't more, and the young host leaves the show, a/k/a "ABC's Nightlife," after a mere four months. Tu 11/10: In 1956, talk show host David Adkins, a/k/a Sinbad, is born. Clarification: Last week's "This Night in History" implied that Michael "The Bar" Hirsch was a "Boston College" student. He is actually "a Boston college student ... at Boston University." [Thanks to David Tanny & Frank Serpas III. Special thanks to Donz5, original "guy in a bear suit."] For more information on the above items and merchandise links visit Tom Heald's "This Night In History Bookstore" at *** THE LINEUPS with Sue Trowbridge (http://www.interbridge.com/) LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS Mo 11/2 Sir Anthony Hopkins, Buzz Aldrin, Depeche Mode Tu 11/3 Nathan Lane, Queen Latifah, Darrell Hammond We 11/4 Adam Sandler, New Jersey Nets' Jayson Williams, Soul Coughing Th 11/5 Denzel Washington, Bumble Bee Tuna heir Evan Metropoulos Fr 11/6 12-year-old parking meter expert Ellie Lammer, P.J. Harvey Mo 11/9 Meryl Streep, George Michael, Hanson Tu 11/10 Luke Perry, Tom Wolfe We 11/11 Melanie Griffith, war veteran Col. Halverson, Travis Tritt Th 11/12 Roma Downey, Kenneth Branagh, Goo Goo Dolls THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, NBC Mo 11/2 Jon Lovitz, singing dogs, John Mellencamp Tu 11/3 Robin Williams, Martha Stewart (R 9/28/98) We 11/4 Courteney Cox, nine-year-old baking champ Lindsey Thompson, Chris Noth Th 11/5 Jamie Lee Curtis, Sea World's Julie Scardina, Sheryl Crow Fr 11/6 Courtney Thorne-Smith, BBC chef Aimsley Harriot Mo 11/9 Fran Drescher, Brandy, Richard Branson Tu 11/10 TBA We 11/11 Annette Bening Th 11/12 Matthew Perry, "mad" scientist David Willey, Meatloaf LATE LATE SHOW WITH TOM SNYDER, CBS Mo 11/2 Susan Sullivan, Art Donovan Tu 11/3 Peter Funt, Eveleyn Keyes (R 6/22/98) We 11/4 Jon Cryer, Christopher Matthews Th 11/5 Ted Danson Fr 11/6 Billy Corgan Mo 11/9 Negro Leagues baseball star Buck O'Neil Tu 11/10 Marilu Henner We 11/11 Barry Sonnenfeld, Ed McMahon Th 11/12 Maureen O'Hara Fr 11/13 Jerry Springer, Jane Krakowski LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC Mo 11/2 Matt Lauer, Lisa Rinna, James Ellroy (R 11/12/97) Tu 11/3 David Schwimmer, Kurt Loder, Ed Byrne (R 2/27/98) We 11/4 David Spade, Kiefer Sutherland, Everlast Th 11/5 Adam Sandler, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Frank Pellegrino Fr 11/6 Fred Savage, Mother Love, Canibus Mo 11/9 Rerun TBA Tu 11/10 Luke Perry, Kate Mulgrew, Gomez We 11/11 Dan Naturman LATER, NBC Mo 11/2 Peri Gilpin with Malcolm Gets (R 2/9/98) Tu 11/3 Angie Everhart with Wendie Malick (R 3/17/98) We 11/4 Greg Kinnear with Richard Belzer (R 4/12/95) Th 11/5 Greg Kinnear with Kathy Najimy (R 8/8/96) CHARLIE ROSE, PBS Please note that Charlie Rose listings are very tentative Mo 11/2 Felix Rohatyn, Harold Bloom, Annette Bening Tu 11/3 Richard Reeves We 11/4 TBA Th 11/5 Harry Evans, Andre Previn Fr 11/6 Richard LaGravanese POLITICALLY INCORRECT WITH BILL MAHER, ABC Mo 11/2 Donny Osmond, D.L. Hughley, Maria Conchita Alonso, Horace Cooper Tu 11/3 Cindy Crawford, Rob Schneider, April Lassiter, Helen Gurley Brown We 11/4 David Brenner, Alex Kingston, Henry Rollins Th 11/5 Maury Povich, Andrew Sullivan Fr 11/6 Todd Rundgren, Daisy Fuentes, Tom Fitton, Bob Costas Mo 11/9 Penn Jillette, Jerry Lewis, Dixie Carter, Mayor of Las Vegas Jan Jones HOWARD STERN, E! shows are listed in the order of 11 p.m., 11:30 p.m. and 2 a.m. ET Mo 11/2 Lorenzo & Shauna Lamas, Nicole Eggert Part 1 (R), Kimberly Taylor IQ Test Part 1 (R) Tu 11/3 Mark Harris (him again?) Refuses Lie Detector Test, Nicole Eggert Part 2 (R), Kimberly Taylor IQ Test Part 2 (R) We 11/4 Larry Flynt & Daughter, The Hairless Guy (R), Dawn Radenbaugh Part 1 (R) Th 11/5 Shaquille O'Neal (wasn't this just on the CBS show?), Fluff Girl Part 1 (R), Dawn Radenbaugh Part 2 (R) Fr 11/6 Penthouse Pet from Holland, Fluff Girl Part 2 (R), Amy Lynn's DeNiro Audition (R) Su 11/8 Intern Beauty Contest Parts 1 and 2 (R) THE CHRIS ROCK SHOW, HBO Fr 11/6 Activist Ward Connerly and comedian Don "D.C." Curry Fr 11/13 Magic Johnson and Method Man Fr 11/20 San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown Fr 11/27 The Beastie Boys SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, Comedy Central (repeats) Mo 11/2 11:00AM & Midnight - Jimmy Smits / World Party (1990-'91) featuring: The Dark Side with Nat X; 3:00PM Mark Harmon / Suzanne Vega (1986-'87) Jessica Hahn, Donna Rice, and Fawn Hall as The New Charlie's Angels Tu 11/3 11:00AM & Midnight - John Goodman / Faith No More (1990-'91) featuring: Church Chat with The Church Lady (Dana Carvey) ; 3:00PM - Garry Shandling / Los Lobos (1986-'87) featuring: The Sixties Rock Jingle Album We 11/4 11:00AM & Midnight - Tom Hanks / Edie Brickell (1990-'91) featuring: Mr. Subliminal, Mr. Short Term Memory, and the Global Warming Christmas Special; 3:00PM - Dennis Hopper / Roy Orbison (1986-'87) featuring: Church Chat with guest Dennis Hopper; The Sweeney Sisters Thu 11/5 11:00AM & Midnight - Dennis Quaid / Neville Brothers (1990-'91) Christmas Episode featuring: Sprockets and College for Massage ; 3:00PM - Steve Martin / Sting (1987-'88) featuring: Pumping Up with Hanz & Franz Fr 11/6 11:00AM & Midnight - Joe Mantegna / Vanilla Ice (1990-'91) featuring: Spoof on Nightline about soldiers in Saudia Arabia; 3:00PM - Sean Penn / LL Cool J (1987-'88) featuring: The Church Lady interviews guest Sean Penn Sa 11/7 11:00AM - Dabney Coleman / The Cars (1987-'88) featuring: Horror Movie Don't Go Down To The Basement Su 11/8 11:00AM - Sting (1990-'91) featuring: Wayne's World on Operation Desert Storm; The Copy Guy Mo 11/9 11:00AM & Midnight - Kevin Bacon / INXS (1990-'91) Desert Storm press conference; Making Copies; The Dark Side with Nat X; 3:00PM - Robert Mitchum / Simply Red (1987-'88) featuring: The Sweeney Sisters Tu 11/10 11:00AM & Midnight - Roseanne Barr / Dee Lite (1990-'91) featuring: Pat in the office ; 3:00PM Candice Bergen / Cher (1987-'88) featuring: Pumping Up with Hanz & Franz Thanksgiving w/ the Mayflower Madame SPACE GHOST COAST TO COAST, Cartoon Network Fr 11/7 pre-empted Beginning Nov. 14, "SGC2C" moves to 11 p.m. Eastern. THE DAILY SHOW, Comedy Central Mo 11/2 Blair Underwood Tu 11/3 Upright Citizens Brigade We 11/4 Queen Latifah Th 11/5 Henry Winkler Also on late nights: NIGHTLINE and WORLD NEWS NOW, ABC LOVELINE, MTV THE HOWARD STERN RADIO SHOW, CBS and syndicated UP TO THE MINUTE, CBS DIE HARALD SCHMIDT SHOW, SAT.1 Entire contents Copyright 1998 by Aaron Barnhart. All rights reserved. I try to post each issue by 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, Central time, to latest.html 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