From "The War For Late Night" by Bill Carter:
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
a_l_i_e_n — 12 years ago(May 05, 2013 08:44 PM)
From "The War For Late Night" by Bill Carter:
(page 385) "As they talked about the comedy business they both loved, Jerry said to Johnny (Carson), "In my entire career as a stand-up, one of the things endlessly debated in every comedy club I was ever in was: Who do you think is going to take over "The Tonight Show" when Johnny leaves? For like 20 years I had that conversation. And the one thing none of us realized was that, when you left, you were taking it with you."
Johnny had broadly agreed, Jerry said later. The point, Jerry explained, was that the show- the way Johnny did it; "the institution", as people called it- effectively ended the day he walked off that stage. After that, what was left? A time slot, another guy in it, and a name that essentially meant nothing. Because, Seinfeld pointed out, nobody in the business ever said, "I'm doing The Tonight Show." Instead they all said, "I'm doing Jay; I'm doing Dave; I'm doing Conan."
Observing the NBC events of late 2009 and early 2010, Seinfeld found himself astonished at the psychic bloodletting that had taken place, and all of it over a chair on a studio set, a television show, and whether that show would begin at this time or another time, a half hour later.
"Nobody ever uses these show names," Jerry said, his voice hitting the high register familiar from his routines when he addressed the most mind-boggling absurdities of life. "These names are bull**** words! How do you not get that this whole thing is phony? It's all fake! There's no institution to defend! All this 'I won't stand by and watch the institution damaged.' What institution? Ripping off the public? That's the only institution. We tell jokes and they give us millions! Who's going to take over "Late Night" or "Late Show"? Nobody's going to take it over! It's Dave! When Dave's done, that's the end of that! And then another guy has to come along and do his thing. That, to me, is an obvious essential of show business that you eventually to grasp. Somehow that seems to have been missed by some of the people here."
Obviously Seinfeld directed most of his amazement toward Conan and his team for taking a position that Jerry, a contemporary comic with distinctly old school values, simply couldn't fathom. "I really don't understand why they were so offended," Jerry said. "Jay's show isn't working, your show isn't working- how about a new idea? To me, when I see the numbers those two guys were getting, yes, it's time to sit down at the idea table." And why put a career on the line over a shift of thirty minutes, he wondered. "A half hour is a half hour no matter where it is. It goes by 48-times a day. Who cares where it is?" As for the passionate defense of the tradition of "The Tonight Show", Seinfeld observed, "There is no tradition! This is what I didn't get. Conan has been on television for 16 years, at that point you should get it: there are no shows! It's all made up! The TV show is just a card! Somebody printed the words on it!"
Jerry admired Conan's talent, wished him well, and predicted the new show would do well "because he's great." But why on earth it had to come to a point where he had to leave NBC for TBS- that simply made no sense. "I couldn't believe he walked away," Seinfeld said. I thought he should just say 'Yeah, let me go on at midnight. Let me work this differently. Let me hang around.' Here's big point number two in show business: Hang around! Just stay there! Just be there! The old cliche': 95% is just showing up. OK, I'm on at twelve, I'm still showing up. You never leave." -
victor-200 — 12 years ago(December 22, 2013 03:01 PM)
by a_l_i_e_n May 5 2013 20:44 -
"why put a career on the line over a shift of thirty minutes" "There is no tradition! This is what I didn't get." It's all made up!
True. Traditionally "The Tonight Show" ran for almost two hours, when Carson was hired?
From Wikipedia:
Carson inherited from Paar a show that was 1 3/4 hours (105 minutes) long. The show filmed two openings, one starting at 11:15 p.m. and including the monologue, the other that listed the guests and re-announced the host, starting at 11:30. The two openings gave affiliates the option of screeningeither a fifteen-minute or thirty-minute local newscast preceding Carson. (In 1980) Carson renewed his contract with the stipulation that the show lose its last half hour
Your (Seinfeld's) point about tradition has at the very least a little merit, looking at it from this context.
''I'm fortunate the pylons were not set to a lethal level." -
gc18 — 11 years ago(April 06, 2014 03:50 PM)
That's what a lot of the "team Coco" People just didn't understand how the actually business side of television works.
The advertisers come first and ultimately the ad people weren't happy about with either show.
But Conan shot himself in the foot, the original plan was to keep both Leno and O'Brien or at least find a way.
But after publicly trashing Leno, Zucker and NBC, NBC told him to hit the road