On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 2:14 PM, David Bruggeman <bru...@yahoo.com> wrote: > Craig Ferguson, SCG,* only has guests on that he gives a s*&t about as > well. He says as much early in this segment from "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me" > > http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5449674 > > This wasn't always so with Craig, and probably wasn't with Stewart. There's > a couple of really bad Jon Stewart interviews (Jennifer Love Hewitt, Posh > Spice) from earlier in Stewart's tenure that suggest as much. I'd guess it > shifted to the current situation (or Stewart became more disciplined about > actually reading the books/watching the films) by the time the 2004 election > season heated up.
Stewart has always been better interviewing book authors, reporters and politicians than celebs. At least when he has a celeb he will often completely ignore the movie and spend the minutes on something silly. Also, his interview with Samuel L Jackson about *Snakes on a Plane* is one of my all time favorites. I know Dave Sikula does not much like Letterman's act anymore, but I think there is a real difference between what Conan does with these celeb interviews and what Letterman, Leno, Kimmel, Stewart and others do. It's not that the others are all that good (though for my money when Dave is even slightly engaged he is pretty good) it is that Conan is just really much, much worse. I don't think Conan's problem is captured fully by saying he is not listening, or he doesn't care. He seems to be over-doing the set up lines in a clumsy and really boring and offensive way. Sometimes I think he is doing some kind of post-modern, deconstruction of the typical interview (like a celeb talk show interview done on an episode of the Simpsons) - but if so it is played so straight that the meta-critique is lost. I just watched an interview he did with John Travolta last week this morning, and he was all "REALLY? You watch SPANISH television? YOUR SERIOUS? THAT"S NOT A JOKE?" Give me some small sign that you are making fun of the celeb, and yourself, and me for watching it, and I will eat it up. But for now it just seems like he does not trust himself enough to allow even a hint of spontaneity to enter into the exchange. -- 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 tvornottv@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
