On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 7:05 PM, David Bruggeman <[email protected]> wrote:
> > By that criteria, none who came after Jay on any late night program > qualify with the *possible* exception of Bill Maher. I think it's been a > couple of decades since there was any comic that was widely recognized, > emulated, or copied. And he's driving around in borrowed cars talking with > his friends (and on rare occasion, his betters). Louis CK comes close, but > I doubt he's as widely known as Leno, Letterman or Maher ever were at their > respective peaks. > > Ferguson and Stewart are/were journeyman comedians with occasional forays > into comedic acting and writing. The Daily Show is Stewart's third late > night program. > > Fallon, Colbert and Meyers were sketch performers, with Meyers having > additional writing responsibilities. Fallon has musical and impressionist > abilities comparable to Tommy Davidson from In Living Color. Colbert > worked on other comedy programs and served time on GMA. > > Dennis Miller was essentially Seth Meyers without the head writing > experience. > > O'Brien was a writer for comedy and sketches on two television > institutions. > > Kimmel worked his way up through radio and television, co-hosting a couple > of programs with legs on the basic cable. > > Kilbourn thought he was funny on a sports program, and some people in > power agreed. > If your point is that NBC had nobody worthy of the legacy, I couldn't agree more. What they had was Leno-as-placeholder, maintaining the top ratings, but instead of taking time to find and cultivate someone, they thought short-term (as usual with network executives) and signed Fallon. Fallon is the result of a rush-job. Ask any plumber what the inevitable result of a rush-job is. Just based on podcasts, I can name half dozen hosts who are not only top comics but amazing interviewers. None of them are ready to host the Tonight Show, but given a few years and a few network specials (even guest-hosting options), anything could've been possible. But we'll never know because network executives refuse to think long-term. Either they aren't capable of doing so, or they assume the average exec doesn't stay in place long enough to reap the benefits of long-term strategy. -- Kevin M. (RPCV) -- -- 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 --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
