Following up on Dave S's comments about Charlie Rose on the other thread, I think my comments relate more to the subject of this thread.
Charlie Rose needs to go. He is bland, talentless, and extremely white. In other words, he is the stereotype of what is wrong with PBS. He is so bad at his job that he actually confuses his guests. He thinks phrases like "state of movies" or "health care reform" are questions, when they clearly aren't. Yes, he uses words like "crux" or "intonation" so people think they're watching a sophisticated talk show, but they're not. He is a boob. Let me again offer some praise to Kevin Pollak (who, ironically, patterns his show after Rose's, but this is a case where the copy is better than the original). While others correctly criticize Pollak for telling the same eight tales of Hollywood in each episode, they might not watch enough of the other talk show hosts to see how much repetition they employ (how many installments of Jay's "Headlines" or Dave's "Fun Facts" can one human being tolerate?). Pollak has a guest on for at least an hour (sometimes two hours), so even if they are there to promote something, that is a fraction of the conversation (another fraction are the aforementioned eight tales). His interview with Eddie Izzard last month was outstanding (his interview with Weird Al, not so much, mostly because I got the distinct impression Pollak wasn't really a fan of Weird Al's). Pollak even got Kevin Smith to not sound like he was baked out of his mind, which isn't easy to do these days. As people are questioning the importance/need to include famous faces on talk shows who are only there as promotional machines, it is worth remembering that there is something inherently awkward about being interviewed on television. We are so oversaturated with interviews that we take for granted how unnatural it is to sit in a room with strangers, under hot lights, in a chair that probably contains Adam Sandler's butt sweat, and talk to somebody you are not physically facing. Heck, try it at home. Point a camera at you sitting on your couch and try to be witty and self-effacing for 10 straight minutes. Actors are trained to not be themselves. Singers put their heart and soul into lyrics and melodies. But those skills don't translate into quality interviews. So the best talk show guests are the ones who are either tremendously comfortable in their own skin (Jimmy Stewart on Carson comes to mind and Arsenio Hall is presently a fantastic talk show guest, by virtue of him not caring anymore) or the ones who come out and just leap into, if not a character, a set routine (Steve Martin, Charles Grodin, and Super Dave Osbourne, a.k.a. Bob Einstein are a few examples). Where I see guests struggling now when they didn't used to is in the comedy arena. Stand up comics used to be conversational in tone, and so their routines translated well into what they refer to as "desk segments," with the host merely needing to provide the requisite "oh" or "really." But comedy now tends to be filled with rants (think Dennis Miller or Bill Maher), with comics going on and on without natural pauses, not needing cues from anyone, and not really even noting the attention span of the audience or the host. There is a rhythm in modern comedy that isn't bad, but it doesn't work in a talk show format. It has been discussed before, but Jay Leno has the attention span of a three-year-old, and all he can do with modern comics is giggle while they go off on a tear. Letterman, by contrast, tends to react as though he believes the comic is going insane on national television. The comic may get laughs, but the pace of the talk show will be thrown off. I mentioned Steve Martin earlier. Some might not know that for decades, Steve Martin's pre-interview on a talk show consists of Steve asking how many minutes long his segment is. That's it. Very few guests are afforded such respect or trust. I understand having a pre-interview for "civilian" guests like the pilot who safely landed the plane in the Hudson or an inept reality TV contestant, but pre-interviewing celebrities kills the spontaneity of the conversation. -- Kevin M. (Can you tell I am procrastinating when I should be grading papers today?) -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
