Late Nite with Jimmy Fallon

[3-d lobster]

Just listened to the recent Nerdist podcast and Jimmy was great, he came across as a funny, likable guy. I had not bothered with Late Nite but in this podacst it presented some skits he had done. It is mainly musical parodies but I like that. Now has this podcast creamed off the best from 2 years or is late nite really this much fun?

Jimmy is a very talented impressionist and his recent Charlie sheen parody is brilliant Jimmy Fallon- Charlie Sheen Winning the spoof

He did a glee parody with the Parks and Rec http://www.blinkx.com/watch-video/jimmy-fallon-glee-parody-we-re-not-gonna-take-it/106RSXY-3C2UxrQSQHPUOg

A spot on Neil Young parody with the Boss Whip My Hair with Neil Young & Bruce Springsteen

Everything seems to be available to watch on the official http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/

So I like all this stuff but is the show actually worth watching? His style is more "fun" than Leno or Letterman, more "broad" than Conan, more conventional than Ferguson. Anyone watch this show?

[Famous Mortimer]

I dabbled for a few weeks, and like his sketches and bits with the audience a lot, but don't find him to be particularly good as an interviewer. Craig Ferguson, after not caring for anything he did comedy-wise in the UK, is for me the undisputed king of the late-night talk shows. It's one of a tiny number of shows I'd watch every night (and do).

Without wanting to expand this too much (although an ongoing thread about US late night wouldn't be the worst idea in the world) Leno and Letterman I can barely stand to watch. I know Letterman is hugely respected by the rest of the hosts, but watching an episode (featuring my favourite baseball player) a few months ago I was really disappointed at how old-fashioned it was. The lame hacky monologue...and I was also a bit baffled / surprised at how he played off admitting to cheating on his wife, on-air, as some sort of joke (he was about to be sued by a former employee, I believe).

Conan I watch mainly in chunks on Youtube, his old stuff (including a very early appearance by "Delocated"'s Jon Glaserr, trying out that character for the first time). I watched his last week of shows on NBC and his first week on TBS, and since then have just dipped into it from time to time. He's okay, and if I lived in the USA I'd probably pop it on most evenings. I also like Jimmy Kimmel quite a bit, but I need to limit myself in terms of late-night otherwise I'd never watch anything else.

I think the main reason I don't watch Fallon more often is the torrent site I go on for US TV doesn't cover it, I now realise.

[3-d lobster]

I've just watched a few of Jimmy interviews and he is quite poor. I would have thought after doing this for 2 years he would be a bit more comfortable asking a few questions.

Leno and Letterman are now the old guard and don't appear to put the effort into it as much these days. They interview some pretty big guest, who have all been media trained to within an inch of their sanity. From that point it doesn't matter which show that celeb goes on, the same interview will take place, same 'funny' stories. At least Ferguson tries to deconstruct or subvert the genre. Fallon (from what little I've seen of him) I think puts all is efforts into the parodies and skits making the show fun, he doesn't seem to be a controversial figure. It's like he's brining his SNL vibe to the Late Nite. Challenging the guests to beer pong etc..

The only exception to the interviewer is Jon Stewart. For me, he makes every interview engaging. He has some pretty big guests also and manages to break past the media training and get interesting thoughts into the show, and maintains a high level of comedy. Jon will have Obama on one day then the next an ex-pilot who has written a book. But both time Jon will get great interviews from them both.

[Old Thrashbarg]

I've seen a bit of Fallon[nb]Including being in the audience for one of them whilst in NY last November. The Daily Show and Colbert were both on a break unfortunately, and the scattershot attempt at getting tickets to stuff didn't turn up anything better.[/nb] and it's watchable, but not great really. As mentioned, he's not a very good interviewer and the highlights from the few shows I've seen have been the sketches/audience participation bits.

For the one I attended, David Hyde Pierce was the only guest I really knew, but the interview didn't reveal much. Some weird game involving blindfolded karate people (is there a collective noun for karate-ists?) and a pinata was the best bit of the actual show, although the music provided by The Roots and the warm-up guy were the highlights of the whole thing.

[MC Root]

I agree with Famous, Ferguson's discussed how when he first took over the show he did it in a standard way, which old timers like Letterman and Leno still cling to for dear life. Meanwhile Ferguson stopped after a week and totally retooled the entire show. He went from having monologues written to the writers brainstorming and taking from that, which produces a much more free-flowing manner and style that none of the other hosts can even contemplate competing with. And the interviews are always strong because Craig pretty much effortlessly keeps the conversation flowing, even if the guests don't know where he's going to go next, which pretty much happens in most interviews. I can't watch Letterman/Leno or even Conan because it's just a bit on the dull repetitive side, whereas I'm finding it hard to stop watching Ferguson.

Dennis Leary was on a while back and Ferguson tried to remind him of a time when they were both together at the Edinborough fringe festival, Leary stopped him and pointed out how bad Craig's memory was because he'd already reminded Leary of this experience, and then Leary came out with Ferguson's "Bing Hitler" character's existence, making it sound like the pub they were in was full of people who were just walking in and out and being utterly confounded by Ferguson dressed as "Bing Hitler". I had high hopes, but unfortunately from the youtube footage I've seen the only really crazy thing he seems to do is to yell "SHUT UP" when the audience laugh at him. I'd pictured something else entirely.

Fallon has looked uncomfortable with the role of host from day one and he hasn't improved from what I've seen. It's good to know he's done three pieces of good work in the two years he's been the host of that show because it literally means I have missed out on nothing, as I was expecting.

Kimmell's show might be alright, but that so randomly gets put up on torrent sites I keep forgetting to check it. Still I saw the episode where he impersonated Leno the whole episode which was alright, but I doubt he could routinely match up to Ferguson.

[Famous Mortimer]

Kimmel's too much of a commercial whore (although I don't expect that's his idea). Whenever I've watched his show, the cold open, where Craig packs in a ton of jokes, is almost always an advert for something, which sets me off in a bad mood right away.

And of course, as my avatar shows, I love how Ferguson has deconstructed / parodied the traditional late-night sidekick role by having a robot (built by Grant Imahara from "Mythbusters") programmed with a certain number of phrases which get troted out every night.

I know CNBC on Freesat shows the previous day's Leno (but not Fallon), but as far as I'm aware that's the only US late-night show to get broadcast on British TV. I'm a bit surprised that CBS don't show Letterman and Ferguson on one of their British channels, it's not like it'd cost them much extra.

[MC Root]

CBS cares.

[kidsick5000]

You can get all of Kimmel's key stuff on his very well kept youtube channel. He certainly contends with Craig ferguson for best all round host.
Fallon has great 'bits'. All the stuff that isn't interviews is clearly created by a dedicated team, same with Kimmel. They never go for the lazy option.
Kimmels show opening directed by Michel Gondry is a great example of breaking formula and has to be seen.

I'm not sure they're still available on the NBC site but Fallon's Let Us Play With Your Look was inspired.

From what I've seen, though very little, even Leno puts more effort in than Letterman, plus there's no Paul Shaffer.

[Tiny Poster]

The Kimmel show directed by Gondry was, in today's climate, pretty adventurous - but Ernie Kovacs was doing the same stuff nightly back in the 50s. Letterman and Ferguson both cite Kovacs as a big influence on their styles.


If they broadcast these shows each night here in the UK, I don't think I'd ever get things done. I've just managed to cool down with the podcasts!

[Skip Bittman]

Which is a good time to mention that the new Ernie Kovacs boxed set from Shout Factory is gorgeous, stuffed with goodness, and topped off with some Drew Friedman art. BUY OR DIE.

[3-d lobster]

The Kimmel show directed by Gondry was, in today's climate, pretty adventurous - but Ernie Kovacs was doing the same stuff nightly back in the 50s. Letterman and Ferguson both cite Kovacs as a big influence on their styles.

I've never heard of this guy before, a quick look on youtube shows him to be a surreal genius. I can see this must have influenced much of the "psychedelic" 70's comedies. Most notably I see the influence on Jim Henson, all the surrealist flights of fancy. I didn't see any talkshow clips for Kovacs, Wiki is scant on information. Anybody have more info about his work, I'm really interested to find out more.

This was the first video I found, it's blooming brilliant:
Ernie Kovacs - Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture, Part 2"

[Famous Mortimer]

Talking of Kimmel, I just watched his "Game Night", which is a half-hour show he does before the basketball game starts on his network. They had Don Rickles on, octogenerian roast-comedian, and boy was he awful. The young black woman he singled out from the audience purely because she was black and hadn't laughed at his last joke, was distinctly unimpressed by him, and the Indian woman who had to be subjected to Rickles' fake Indian gobbledygook was the moment I reached for the remote. Just absolutely appalling, and I kida felt bad for Kimmel (who's also been known to do a roast or two, but is hopefully not quite as "ironic" a racist as Rickles is) not being able to tell him to shut the fuck up.

I appreciate Kimmel is maybe the most interested in messing with the format of any of them (Ferguson's got his own little groove now, and was already nothing like the other guys) but I wish he'd be able to do more with it.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Wiki is scant on information.

Hmm? The wiki page has a ton of info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Kovacs

Most of Kovacs' early television work was done live and has survived only in the form of a very few short film clips or kinescopes. Few videotapes of his ABC specials were preserved; others, such as his quirky game show, Take a Good Look, exist only in short videotape segments.[47] After his death, Edie Adams discovered not only that her husband owed ABC a lot of money, but also that some networks were systematically erasing and reusing tapes of Kovacs' shows or literally dumping the kinescopes and videotapes in New York Bay. She succeeded in buying the rights to the surviving footage and tapes with the proceeds from Kovacs' insurance policy and with her own earnings after Kovacs' IRS debts were paid.[131][132] Most of Kovacs' salvaged work is available to researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles Library's Department of Special Collections,[123][135] and there is also some material available at both locations of the Paley Center for Media.[136]

    "The first time I was made aware of the willful destruction of videotapes was in 1962, after the sudden death of my husband, Ernie Kovacs. He had been working on two shows for ABC here in Hollywood. "Three months after his death, several members of his ABC crew came to see me at home and asked if I couldn't do something about the fact that ABC was using the wall of Kovacs's master tapes as used tape to tape over the news, the weather, public service blurbs, or anything, to recoup some of the moneys owed to them by Ernie."

    "So, I called up my lawyer and told him to use the modest insurance policy to pay them off and buy back the 12-foot wall of Kovacs' tapes they were "saving money" by using. In all, about 40 hours was there, and by the time it was transferred to my storage facility, only 15 hours of it showed up."

    "In the earlier '70's, the Dumont network was being bought by another company, and the lawyers were in heavy negotiation as to who would be responsible for the library of the Dumont shows currently being stored at the facility, who would bear the expense of storing them in a temperature controlled facility, take care of the copyright renewal, et cetera."

    "One of the lawyers doing the bargaining said that he could "take care of it" in a "fair manner," and he did take care of it. At 2 a.m., the next morning, he had three huge semis back up to the loading dock at ABC, filled them all with stored kinescopes and 2" videotapes, drove them to a waiting barge in New Jersey, took them out on the water, made a right at the Statue of Liberty and dumped them in the Upper New York Bay. Very neat. No problem."

    –Edie Adams, National Film Preservation Board testimony, 1996

[Famous Mortimer]

There's an excellent interview with Craig Ferguson's sidekick / co-host here: http://herald-dispatchblogs02.blogspot.com/2011/08/behind-skull-of-geoff-peterson-wackiest.html

[Famous Mortimer]

I seem to just bump this to post interviews with my favourite late night hosts, but this interview with Craig Feguson is excellent:

http://www.playboy.com/magazine/playboy-interview-craig-ferguson

[Bob The Skutter]

Figured here would be the best place to put this. Craig Ferguson has a week of shows recorded in Scotland, starting tonight. Mostly Glasgow & Edinburgh but other places as well I think, hopefully it'll be good, I've not seen any of the shows he recorded in Paris.

AV Club interview: http://www.avclub.com/articles/craig-ferguson-took-the-late-late-show-to-scotland,73861/

[Nostalgia101]

I went to a recording of one of Fuguson's shows, when I was in LA. Absolutely fantastic, he's as excitable and strange in real life even when the camera's are off, everyone seemed to love working there. He would riff at the audience while the breaks were on and even got CBS pay for a newly married couple go to a stupidly expensive restaurant in the down town. Great atmosphere and good fun! Love the show.

[Famous Mortimer]

If you're not watching Craig Ferguson, you're really missing out, I think. I've been an occasional viewer for about 4 years and an every night regular for 3 - he was great before he got Geoff Peterson, but he's so much better having him to bounce off. I've discovered which celebs I could listen to talk for hours, and which ones really rely on good scriptwriters.

Bob The Skutter, pretty much every episode of Ferguson's show is up on Youtube, if you want to watch some. I'd say only watch one or two of the shows from France, as they're pretty much the same (there's a meal with Jean Reno and Kristen Bell which is shown bit by bit over the week, and lots of repeated bits). But he's a great host, and I love that CBS are giving him a bigger studio and are co-producing the show now - it was entirely made by Letterman's company before).