I'm down to one box full of videotapes to digitize. Today's VHS to digital conversion included the 25th Anniversary of "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson" followed by the 10th Anniversary of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and boy did it represent how times have changed. Carson's retrospective was full of "remember when?" memories, while Leno's special had a sense of "see what you missed?" to it. Aside from Leno asking Hugh Grant what the hell he was thinking, I don't believe his incarnation of The Tonight Show has produced any other iconic moments (maybe the Dancing Itos?). The pace of the two specials was different, too. Carson spent time not just on musicians who visited the show, but broke it down by genre. Carson showed clips of comics whose careers he essentially launched. It just goes on and on, and Leno had nothing that came close. Leno's anniversary show was full of cameo appearances by big names who walked onto the stage, said one word, then left... no substance... nothing memorable. Carson just sat at his desk with Ed at his side. Leno used the El Capitan Theater filled to capacity while Carson used his beat up old set in Studio One in Burbank.
What the hell happened to late night talk shows? In my head I have a long form article to write about the devaluing of the timeslot and people working hard to make it less watchable to people. I genuinely have no episode of Carson's show that followed the same format, and that came as a shock to me because we take it for granted that Carson set the rules by which everybody played. Aside from the theme, monologue, and Johnny swinging a golf club to cue the commercial, viewers got something different nearly every night. Sometimes it was a prepared comedy sketch, or it might be a musical act, or a chat with Ed at the desk, or stump the band. No formula. Yet on Leno's show, every Monday night since it debuted, Jay reads humorous headlines... every Monday night for 20 f-cking years! How does Leno not bash his head in with a hammer to avoid the monotony? No wonder he has no iconic moments. Done venting now. For now. -- 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 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 --- 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 tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
