My favorite quote of "The Late Shift" does not come from Dave or Jay or Johnny or a suit at NBC or CBS.
"This is the result of a drunken wager between Lorne Michaels and Don Ohlmeyer." It is a joke told by Conan during his test show in 1993. In Late Shift, Carter gives Conan almost a glossing over, and for good reason. He wasn't just on thin ice: he was wearing golf shoes on thin ice. "The Conan Of It All" is the obligatory backstory of Conan. If you know it then almost all of this becomes the equivalent of a "Previously On" segment to you. This is not to say there aren't some great nuggets in here (how Lisa Kudrow helped him pick out the worst possible sport coat for the aforementioned test show, and a "talk show" he did with Jeff Garlin called "Wild Blue Yonder"). But, yeah, yeah...Lampoon staff with Zucker, then SNL, then Simpsons, then this insane break. As Ebert might say, it's a Meet Cute with Jeff Ross (who would go on to EP the test show, then Late Night). But what we discover here is that Conan was (and really is) Dave without the "baggage". And I use that word not because I like it, but because you could easily see how the two of them have this odd similarity, but Dave turned out to be Dave and Conan turned out to be Conan. It's Tom Shales mea culpa in 1996 that wraps the chapter up as the point when things changed, and you do the math to realize that the sword hung over this poor guy's head for almost *three years*. And he came out of it a perfectly normal screwed-up guy. On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 7:51 PM, Joe Hass <hassgoc...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm not sure why I'm going to do this, or how, but seeing as I still > can't believe I did not walk down to Borders to pick up the book the > moment I hit the office this morning, I am going to go in the realm of > redemption and do a basic chapter-by-chapter breakdown as much as > possible without really giving away the book (not that you don't know > how it ends). If anyone else is reading and wants to chime in, please > feel free to do so. > > One of the great things about being around her for so long plus being > on Google is that I can quickly jump back and see a certain point in > time. "Comedy Tonight" focuses entirely on the events of May 19, 2009. > (If I remember Late Shift correctly, Carter's first chapter there was > solely about the 1991 NBC upfront that Carson announced his retirement > from) The conversation around here was primarily on the ABC upfront > that afternoon. I could not find a reference at all what NBC did that > night: basically make this pseudo-upfront show based primarily on the > comedy chops of the network. It featured Leno, O'Brien, Fallon, Jerry > Seinfeld (your unannounced guest star), and Brian Williams (who hosted > the event). > > This, it becomes clear, was the first instant when NBC could've had > their GOB "I've made a huge mistake" moment. Every single person > listed above except one killed. Leno (who was the closing act) didn't > just bomb, but spectacularly died, in a manner that, even if you're in > the "Leno can DIAF*" camp, will make you wince. Carter mentions Lorne > Michaels thought that Leno was effectively "singing for his supper," > but even if you discount that (and I completely do), it's just...it's > wow. The story of the NBC execs who are trapped in the front row > watching this and getting messages is excellent. But most of all, it's > watching a moment where everyone could've > > That something this utterly traumatic happened without anyone > mentioning a word about it in at the time this environment is > unbelievable. > -- 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
