On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 9:22 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > > It reads like it was written by Leno himself, not just his former longtime > producer.
I am not going to assume that there is active collusion between Leno and Berg, but this is clearly the Leno camp taking shots at Comcast and that is meaningful. > The argument that the cutback guts the Tonight Show, which will not have to > be satisfied with cut-rate comedy production, does not pass the smell test. > He does not explain why Leno needs $25M more dollars in his budget than > Dave, or than what he had himself before his primetime show. I will have to > leave it to those who actually watch the show to answer the question, but is > it really true, as the piece seems to imply, that since he returned the > Tonight Show is now full of "Slick, produced, high-profile comedy bits" > funded by those extra $25M (except, of course, $5M-$10M of that is from > Leno's salary, not the production budget), while back in I guess what were > the bad old days when the budget was $25M less the comedy sucked? Is it > really true that big named guests will not want to go on the Tonight Show > now that it's budget has been cut $25M? Do big named guests even give a damn > about something like that? If they do, where are they going to go, since no > other late night show has a larger budget? > > As we noted when this story broke, I think it is now clear that Comcast just > got tired of paying Leno and his show the $25M dollar/year bonus that the GE > crew got stuck with when they tried to extricate themselves from the Jay > Leno Show debacle. Presumably they could not unilaterally cut Leno's salary, > but they could cut the budget of the show, and tell Leno that if he did not > give back the extra $5M-10M he was personally soaking them for per year they > would fire as many staffers as it took to make up the difference, which > would not only make Leno look like an asshole, but actually result in fewer > employees than he had on the old Tonight Show, which presumably would hurt > the quality of the show. Leno did the only thing he could, giving up the > extra millions in salary and trying to take credit for being a sacrificial > humanitarian. > > I think the piece is most useful for what it illuminates about how comedy is > produced in the Leno factory. Berg provides the following as one of the > jokes Leno told the first day back after the cuts: "As you may have heard, > our company has downsized 'The Tonight Show.' And we've consistently been > number one in the ratings. And if you know anything about our network, that > kind of thing is frowned upon." Then Berg writes: "Not a particularly funny > punch line, but it wasn't meant to be." > > I thought that was a pretty good punchline, and a funnier joke than the one > Berg presents as Leno's first, and apparently in Berg's view, better joke: > "Welcome to 'The Tonight Show,' or as Comcast calls us, 'The Expendables.'" > > The Expendables joke is not horrid, it is just obvious and safe. The second > joke seems to me to be sharper and more biting, and in context much funnier. > But then, I don't watch Leno, and I guess that's why/ Even though the outcome of Comcast's move was to restore the Tonight Show budget to its pre-prime time level it had to be an ugly negotiation. For a star performer in any profession a pay cut is a slap in the face. Leno's monolog joke is telling - he is delivering NBC the top rated talk show in the time slot and they are showing him no respect. From Carter's books, Leno sees himself as a straight shooter and negotiates his own contract extensions with the network. During the Conan debacle Jay told Carter, Oprah, and anybody else who talked to him that he just wanted to tell jokes and he was happy with whatever the network decided, contrasting himself with Conan, whose dealings with the network were filled with stress and conflict. Now that attitude of getting along is gone and he's taking shots at Comcast. Dave worked hard to turn his issues with GE (before the Carson succession) and his issues with Les Moonves into comedy. There was some real sharpness behind his jabs at them, but he never turned it into a tantrum. Jay has gone out of the character he maintained for 20 years and it will be mildly interesting to see if he can be creative while going after Comcast or if he will look petty and vindictive. The Leno camp is now putting forward the story that NBC wants to move Fallon to 11:35 because his salary is cheaper and his show budget is so much less. The idea that Fallon would agree to move without a huge bump in salary, a larger studio, and a larger staff is ludicrous. Plus Fallon would need some exorbitant financial guarantee that NBC wouldn't do to him what it did for Conan. And NBC would not launch its late night showcase, whether they call The Tonight Show or not, from a small studio and at such a small scale. One thing I am taking away from this story is that Leno is not going to quietly go away. I think Dave will come to the end of a contract and decide not to renew. Leno's drive to perform will keep him from walking away. And even though he makes a point of saying his Tonight Show money is not important because he lives off his standup money, his bookings and standup money will drop considerably once he is no longer on TV daily. And Leno has a loyal audience. If NBC dumps him, he is going to play the victim and he's going to take his audience with him. That means if NBC can't negotiate an exit for him (and they can't) whoever succeeds him will start as the third rated show and will have to build audience from scratch. -- 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
