On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 12:19 PM, Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote:
> To enter this into the record, here's how the two NBC shows handled it > Friday night. > > Leno opened with the regular open. He walked out to the usual ovation, > and started his monologue. > > "I want to thank you all for joining us tonight. Once again, it breaks > my heart to have to do a show under these circumstances. > Unfortunately, as you know, we had another tragedy in our country > today. I want to express my sympathy and my sadness to all the > families affected by this very violent act. Our thoughts and prayers > are with you and yours. We gave a lot of thought to canceling the show > tonight, but in the end we decided to do one just in hopes of maybe > offering you a brief distraction; maybe put a smile on your face > before you go to bed. So with that in mind: oh, you know whose > birthday it is? Jets coach Rex Ryan..." > > And it was even more awkward watching him saying that than it is reading > it. (SNIP) I am a well known anti-Lenoite, so I lack credibility here. But in trying to be fair, this just illustrates one of his weak areas. He is not good at it (and thankfully, his job mostly does not require him to be). As I noted earlier, in Dave's first show back, he just gave the slightest pause and subtle acknowledgement that everyone was hurting before he launched into his monologue, which began as it often does with referencing some in-joke with the studio audience, which also served well to draw everyone in. He did not address the tragedy directly until his Act 2, and then he did so for 7 straight minutes, in his typically open and thoughtful and human way. We know Leno is capable of being a human being in his real life, but he just never found a way to integrate that into his Tonight Show persona. -- 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
