The recent late night TV battle, which came to its sad but inevitable conclusion last night with Conan O’Brien’s final appearance as host of The Tonight Show, resulted in a lot of critical analysis of late night TV around the Internets. Most of the articles focused on NBC’s woes, but some took a more general look at the state of late night TV to pinpoint where it’s successful, where it fails, and what Conan’s departure could mean to the late night landscape. I came across a few articles that I thought would be worth passing on, both for their discussion of TDS and/or TCR, and for some thoughtful analysis of the NBC situation. I’m kind of long-winded today, so click past the jump for the rest of your weekend dose of zeitgeist.
PopMatters.com has been running an occasional series by Michael Brett called “Does Late Night Still Matter?”, which has been looking at the genre as a whole while examining each late night TV show individually. The series was initially inspired by The Tonight Show‘s transition from the Leno era to the Conan era last year, and the five parts published to date were all written before NBC’s late night implosion. But Part 4, which focuses on TDS, and Part 5, which is about TCR, offer pretty thorough analyses of both shows, what sets them apart from the rest of the late night TV field, and how they complement each other. Both posts are substantial and definitely worth a read; here are a couple of brief excerpts.
Does Late Night Still Matter?: Part 4, The Daily Show
posted December 18, 2009… Stewart and his show harken back to an earlier, sincere, populist style of American comedy. Stewart’s immediate comedic forebears are not the usual ones (Steve Martin, Dave Letterman, SCTV). No, Stewart is way more old school. How old school?
Think Mark Twain and Will Rogers. Yeah, that old school.
Twain and Rogers built their humor around honest, straight-forward commentary on current American events, and current American thought. They didn’t do shtick. America trusted them as a voice of reason. They appealed to our core beliefs. They appealed to our ‘better’ American selves.
Stewart now holds that same level of national high ground. We don’t think of him as the quintessential American maybe, but we do think his idea of America should be ours.
Does Late Night Still Matter?: Part 5, The Colbert Report
posted January 15, 2010… Last month, Colbert was in Chicago for Second City’s 50th anniversary. During a panel discussion with his writers, Colbert spoke about how he treats the show as ‘one continuous scene’ which goes on indefinitely. Each night the scene changes through ‘Colbert”s guest interview. Each night a different figure of either cultural, academic, or political significance arrives at The Colbert Report and attempts to educate the close minded ‘Colbert.’
The humor doesn’t come from the fact that ‘Colbert’ is an idiot. Of course he’s an idiot. No, the humor comes from the honest reactions of the guest and the audience. They laugh in recognition. ‘Colbert’ nimbly reflects back all the assumed prejudices each guest faces.
‘Stephen Colbert’ is all of us. He’s every representation of America in the media. Colbert does not just imitate a single person. No, he’s impersonating an entire country.
The author also comments (in Part 5) that both TDS and TCR offer “more depth than anything this side of PBS.” That’s the most important feature of both shows which sets them apart from other TV shows, late night or otherwise: they assume their audience is intelligent. They offer intellectual stimulation as well as brilliant comedy.
An interesting analysis of the NBC fiasco that also makes some good points about the late night genre in general showed up earlier this week at The Lariat Online, Baylor University’s online newspaper. I’ll be honest and admit that I liked this article because the author’s criticisms of NBC and his opinions of what’s good in late night TV largely echo my own. He doesn’t discuss TDS or TCR too extensively, but he does single them out for taking a different approach to late night entertainment that largely abandons the standard formula. He also has praise for Craig Ferguson (my other favorite late night guilty pleasure) for keeping the familiar late night format while at the same time putting his own spin on it and ignoring typical conventions.
Point of View: NBC debacle may permanently alter late-night comedy
January 20, 2010
by Chad ShanksComedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report offer a more satirical, biting view of current events while focusing on serious political topics and avoiding the typical late-night one-liners about the current celebrity sex scandal. With this approach, both have seen considerable ratings increases and won most of the major awards for late-night comedy.
. . .
Conan O’Brien will rebound from this fiasco, as David Letterman did before him, even if it requires him to also move to a new network. However, the traditional late-night comedy format may never recover. The Tonight Show is no longer the idol of twilight comedy. Instead, renegade hosts like Ferguson, Stewart and Colbert who are reinventing the genre are setting the stage for comedians to come.
So if you saw Conan’s final show last night, and got all weepy over it like I did, you’ve probably also wondered what he’ll do now. That is, after the epic drinking binge he joked about as a possibility earlier in the week, and after hopefully spending some time with his family and considering his options. Patrick Goldstein, in the Big Picture blog at the LA Times, had a suggestion that really, really appeals to me, although I don’t know how realistic it is. But I can dream, right?
After the NBC late-night bloodbath: What is Conan O’Brien’s future?
January 18, 2010So if I were Conan, since I have to take a pay cut anyway, I’d be focusing on cable. And I’d also want to go somewhere where I had a decent lead-in for my show, not to mention a lead-in that might help me hang on to the younger audience that has been deserting TV in droves… If there were ever a perfect setup for O’Brien, it would be Comedy Central, which already has a powerhouse double bill of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Conan would be a great fit following their shows, inheriting a small (by network standards) but intensely loyal audience of viewers primed for his droll, irony-filled comedy routines.
Speaking just for myself here, I’ll miss Conan while he’s in exile for the next seven months. He’s a decent guy who deserved better treatment from the network that was his home for more than twenty years. I’d love to see him in a situation that puts him in closer contact with Jon and Stephen, whether that means at Comedy Central or simply returning to New York. The epic Brawl in the Hall during the writer’s strike convinced me that the three of them need to do goofy things together now and then, preferably on a regular basis. It’ll be interesting to see how the late night scenery evolves when Conan returns.
I watched Conan’s last show last night as well. It was pretty sad, but I was able to stop myself from crying. Still, I liked the touching words he said about NBC even as they’re sort of screwing him over.
These are great articles! I’m so glad to hear them speak so highly of Jon and Stephen and their shows. I agree with that last article – Conan should come over to Comedy Central!
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okay. i could go on and on about this late night stuff, but i’m sure many of you have lives to live.
i will say this about the last point: comedy central has just hired back kent alterman, this time as head of original programming. the last time alterman worked at CC, he exec-produced “strangers with candy,” “viva variety” and “upright citizens brigade.”
this makes me think that conan-on-comedy-central is feasible, if conan’s willing to take a pay cut in exchange for creative freedom.
please smile down on us, comedy gods.
(i could also see conan ending up at FX, to build on their growing buzz thanks to “it’s always sunny in philadelphia” and “archer.” but i think i’ve said too much.)
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I’d be interested to see Conan on Comedy Central, but it’s important to think about how he would fit. The late night monologue has always acted as a sort of topical news digest for the nation, but when you have two really good fake newsmen on your network, you don’t need a topical news digest. So preserving the late night format for Conan on Comedy Central wouldn’t work.
Which would leave Conan to do… sketch comedy, a la Dave Chappelle. IMO, that’s the dream scenario, because I always felt that Conan was better at doing pre-taped sketches than at the monologue.
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Great articles! I enjoy reading different perspectives on the state of Late Night and the debacle that is now NBC. I will miss Conan for the next several months and hope he reappears with a supportive network at his disposal–much like Jon and Stephen have. How fortunate they both are to be able to do what they do!
Maybe Jon or Stephen will land Conan for an interview…a girl can dream!
Sidenote: I’ve been watching the recent awards shows: Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild…why hasn’t TCR or Stephen ever been nominated. He is playing a part. Do they not recognize late night programming?
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I’m sincerely hoping Conan spends some time on TDS and TCR as well. They’re all too hilarious together for any sketches NOT to be funny.
As for your sidenote, the Emmys is the only major awards show that honors television writing, because it’s for TV only. It’s basically the Oscars for television. But I really do wish that they would include writing into the Golden Globes, since it’s the one that honors both TV and movies, and they give an award for movie screenplay. It only makes sense that they would include one for TV writing.
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I was thinking more along the lines of performance. The show is in that wonderfully, weird arena of comedy that is “Late Night Programming” but is a performance by a character. Does that make sense? It is unique in its design…and I just think Stephen deserves any and all recognition for his performance of the character ;) especially now that the Emmys dropped that specific category *shakes fist*
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Oh I definitely think they should do a performance category, too. You could easily argue that Stephen should be included in one of the acting categories, because he is playing a character night after night. I was upset that they took that individual performance category out of the Emmys. *sigh*
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These are great articles! I absolutely love when props are given to TDS or TCR. I loved the quote in the “Does Late Night Still Matter?” article about “Stephen” that says: “He’s every representation of America in the media. Colbert does not just imitate a single person. No, he’s impersonating an entire country.” That right there is such a core part of why the show is ridiculously funny and brilliantly satirical at the same time.
I did all I could to keep from tearing up last night while watching Conan’s last show, especially during his final note at the end. While I am happy for him that he’s getting out of the crapshoot that is NBC, I am sincerely going to miss him on television for the next seven months. I can’t lie when I say I would love to see him on Comedy Central. How great would it be to see him do recurring segments on TCR? Oh! Stephen could start doing a Fallback Position for Conan! :P
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Conan’s last show was so sad, yet he went out in such a classy manner. His last speech at the desk was amazing. I also loved that Neil Young performed his great song “Long May You Run” for Conan.
I could see Conan doing some specials for CC in the time that he can’t host a talk show (up to September 1st). He’s always been great at remote filmed comedy and he’d have plenty of time to work on it (sadly). Still, when it comes to doing a new talk show, I don’t think CC could afford all his people, and I think he will want to bring them with him to his new show.
Still, I really, really hope that after this dreadful experience Conan will return to New York for his next show. He belongs here, as do most of his staff, and he can interact with Stephen and Jon again!
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I don’t think that Conan belongs on CC; he is more mainstream. I think Fox would be a good fit for him.
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I agree that Conan goes very well with Jon and Stephen, but like you said he doesn’t belong on Comedy Central. He belongs on a network show with the 11:30 time slot. Not to down Jon or Stephen but I do think Conan is a little bigger than them, he’s the closest thing we have to a Letterman, and he belongs on network TV.
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Right. Conan is a network guy. Stephen and Jon could be network guys, but it is really better for them to be where they are; they can get away with so much more.
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Personally, I don’t think Conan will end up at Comedy Central, but I did like the suggestion and thought it worthwhile to throw it out there. His options are a bit limited, with Fox being the only network available to him. But I keep reading conflicting rumors as to whether or not Fox really wants to bring him on board. So if he doesn’t wind up there, then he’s left with cable. Numerous options there, so it’ll be a matter of picking the place where he feels he can do well and he’ll have plenty of support. But wherever he winds up, I hope he can come back to New York. Just because I’m greedy and I want him back here.
I don’t think he’s allowed to do any TV at all before September 1st, but sometime after that I fully expect to see him as a guest on TDS. I don’t know about TCR; maybe Stephen can find a temporary job for him under his desk. (Oh wow, wouldn’t that be hi-LAR-ious??)
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