... From Chicago: Order now and we'll throw in Milwaukee free ... it's --------------------------------------------- LATE SHOW NEWS for Tuesday, November 29, 1994 Issue #41 A weekly electronic sheet by Aaron Barnhart --------------------------------------------- THE SQUELCHING OF MARTIN LAWRENCE [The original version of this article appeared in LSN #3.] We were somewhat puzzled and even disturbed earlier this year when it was announced that comedian Martin Lawrence, the little man with the ferociously big mouth, has been disinvited, unbooked, from an appearance on the _Tonight_ show. (He returns to the talk circuit tonight as a guest of David Letterman.) As you may know, Martin deviated from his scripted monologue as he was hosting NBC's _Saturday Night Live_ in February. He spoke for about five minutes on the sins of Lorena Bobbitt and the virtues of thorough feminine hygiene. The monologue, which airs live in New York and Chicago, was missing major portions by the time it was rebroadcast to Denver and the West Coast. The following Monday, NBC weasels denounced Lawrence and scribbled up a new tape-delay policy they said they will use for future broadcasts featuring controversial figures. (No word on whether network officials, in true grandstanding fashion, had faxed copies of their statement to the FCC.) But why ban him from the Leno show? As an NBC spokesdweeb put it, "It's inappropriate for him to be on *any* of our shows." We saw Martin give his monologue live. Even by the standards of his _Def Comedy Jam_ appearances on HBO, it was pretty rough, just minus the swear words (unless you count "Wash your ass!"). Still, the notion of someone in 1994 earning an NC-17 rating for his film (_You So Crazy,_ now out in video), just for talking dirty, intrigues us. And the idea of banning Lawrence, or anyone, from a *prerecorded* late-night talk show because you're afraid of what he'll say seems just ludicrous. The odds he would have been doing any standup material with Leno were slim anyway. This strikes us as a case of marketing overruling creative. For had NBC Entertainment czar Warren Littlefield reviewed the tape of Martin's uproarious Jan. 31 appearance on the Letterman show, he would have seen how a controversial act can be usefully redirected at a mainstream audience through the filter of the host. (Or, if he wanted to stick to his own network, he could have watched some old kinescopes of the Steve Allen show with his very funny and remarkably t.v.-friendly guest Lenny Bruce.) Also, if you've watched _SNL_ from the beginning like we have, Lawrence's muzzling cries out for some historical perspective. In November 1975, on the show's second-ever broadcast, the guest host was Richard Pryor, and NBC didn't even pretend that he might not try pushing the edge of the envelope on live national television. The network had Pryor on a seven-second delay all night. Sure enough, Standards & Practices bleeped his monologue twice. But no posturing ensued. NBC knew it had a winner on its hands in _SNL,_ and the more controversial the show, the better. (That same night, Pryor and Chevy Chase performed the famous "Word Association" sketch which, if recreated today, would land you in disciplinary hearing at just about any major university.) Granted, Martin Lawrence is not Richard Pryor, but if NBC -- once the most sophisticated and creative of the three major networks -- cannot find some way to accommodate one of the country's hottest comic talents, that's its problem, not Martin's. Maybe, though, NBC was just being punitive. It's a specialty of the house. Just ask Dave Letterman. BREAKING LATE NEWS Last week's sweeps reminded us of something Johnny Carson learned during the Fred Silverman years at NBC: if the network won't deliver a solid prime-time audience to you, deliver one yourself. Letterman did just that, attracting a crowd for his 10 p.m. "Video Special" on CBS that almost topped Monday football (though admittedly a New York-Houston showdown is always a ratings goat, even when it's the NBA Finals). But the payoff came later, when that night's _Late Show_ drew a 7.0 rating, its highest since the Winter Olympics. For the week, CBS brought 6.7% of U.S. households to late night. Jay Leno, again originating his show from New York, scored 5.5%, high by his standards, but still only good for third place behind _Nightline_ in a week when many more viewers than usual stayed up late ... Thanks to Steve Rhodes for alerting us to the in-studio technology by a company called Ikegami that softens and smooths skin tones (i.e., erases visible wrinkles) while leaving the rest of the picture sharp. According to _Broadcasting & Cable,_ CBS uses it on several shows, including the _Late Show_ and the _CBS Evening News_ (though last night, on Tom Snyder's program, anchor Dan Rather claimed his studio was not equipped with the latest version of the crow's defooter, as if this gets him off the hook) ... An entertaining interview with former _Late Night_ staffer and current _Tonight_ announcer Edd Hall graces the pages of quarterly zine _Nuthouse._ One dollar and a SASE from Twin Rivers Press, POB 119, Ellenton, FL 34222 ... And CBC news anchor Kevin Newman will assume Boyd Matson's old job as co-anchor, with former CBC colleague Thalia Assuras, on ABC overnight fave _World News Now._ (Thanks Richard Koo) THE LINEUPS (with Sue Trowbridge) LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS, 11:35 P.M. EST Tu 11/29 Roseanne, Martin Lawrence, Brooks and Dunn We 11/30 Wesley Snipes, Harry Connick Jr. Th 12/1 Dana Carvey, Toad the Wet Sprocket Fr 12/2 Michael Keaton, Vanessa Williams, Nick Turturro Mo 12/5 Tom Hanks, Gypsy Kings, Joan Plowright, rerun Tu 12/6 Whoopi Goldberg, Clint Black, John Witherspoon, rerun THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, NBC, 11:35 P.M. EST Tu 11/29 William Shatner We 11/30 Rosalynn Carter, Kenny G., Ralph Harris Th 12/1 Natalie Cole Fr 12/2 Keenen Ivory Wayans, Neil Diamond We don't have the listings for Monday and Tuesday, but given that stellar Carsonesque array of stars, you can form your own guesses. LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC, 12:35 A.M. EST Tu 11/29 Mayim Bialik, Holly Robinson, Joe Jackson We 11/30 Jon Lovitz, Jeff Anderson, Linda Smith Th 12/1 Dave Thomas, Jeff "the Fruge" Smith Fr 12/2 Shelley Winters, Wedding Present Mo 12/5 Martin Sheen, Yasmine Bleeth, Dave Edmunds, rerun Tu 12/6 Tom Snyder, Camille Paglia, Sebadoh, rerun LATER WITH GREG KINNEAR, NBC, 1:35 A.M. EST Tu 11/29 Jane Leeves We 11/30 Gary Busey Th 12/1 TBA Mo 12/5 TBA Tu 12/6 TBA THE JON STEWART SHOW, Syndicated Tu 11/29 TBA We 11/30 TBA Th 12/1 Julio Iglesias Fr 12/2 Campbell Scott Mo 12/5 Jean-Claude Van Damme, Laura San Giacomo, Johnny Cash, rerun Tu 12/6 Leeza Gibbons, Bill Maher, Weezer, rerun Also, don't miss TOM SNYDER in his final week on CNBC, airing live Monday-Thursday at 10 p.m. Eastern with a rerun of that evening's show at 1 a.m. Beginning Friday and continuing through December, repeats will be airing at those times daily. THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH TOM SNYDER begins January 9th on the CBS Television and Radio networks. CHARLES GRODIN is expected to debut on that day as Snyder's CNBC replacement, same times. The E! entertainment television cable network broadcasts reruns of _Late Night with David Letterman_ "six Daves a week" at 10 p.m. Eastern time weeknights and 6 p.m. on Saturdays. There are also re-airings of previously aired reruns (usually the one from the night before), weekdays at 11 a.m. only. Sorry, no schedule this week -- E! didn't post them. Don't worry: they're just running through their library of repeats a second time till a new batch arrives from NBC sometime next year. --------------------------- Entire contents Copyright (C) 1994 by Aaron Barnhart. All rights reserved. Redistribution prohibited without written permission of the author, with the exceptions that a single user may send to another single user by electronic mail where an electronic mailing list such as Majordomo is not employed.