The Late Shift Part II

The Late Shift is a dramatization of the behind-the-scenes machinations that led to Jay Leno instead David Letterman taking over The Tonight Show in 1992; notwithstanding that Johnny Carson clearly wanted Letterman to succeed him.

After watching this movie in 1996, I became convinced that far too much of Leno’s public persona as “America’s male sweetheart” is as phony as Tiger’s public persona as a faithful husband has turned out to be. 

Leno is portrayed as a sniveling, whining, back-stabbing, self-righteous jerk.  And he has only validated this portrayal by the way he has conducted himself on camera during this most-recent late shift at NBC.

For example, on Tuesday night I watched in utter stupefaction as he sat behind his desk and delivered a deadly serious “state of the network speech,” which he laced with this patently disingenuous plea: “don’t blame Conan O’Brien … don’t blame Conan” for the late-night mess at NBC.  After all, as Letterman pointed out, “nobody, but nobody is blaming Conan.” 

In fact, most people are blaming Jay for pushing Conan out today just as he pushed Dave out in 1992.  But he’s just too self-righteous to get it….

Though, let me hasten to note here that I am not particularly sympathetic to any of the multimillionaires involved in this public spat over who gets what show at what time. After all, Conan is getting a $33 million severance, and Jay will be getting even more to move back to The Tonight Show at 11:30 after failing spectacularly with his prime time show at 10.

And am I the only one who finds the jokes Jay and Conan have been telling every night about their NBC bosses just spineless and trite? Frankly, this is like government workers poking fun at the faceless bureaucrats who are their bosses. And, just for the record, Conan might be a terrific comedy writer, but he sucks as a standup comedian and talk-show host.

Far more interesting has been the zingers Jay and David have been trading across networks about each other’s personal life: 

Hey Kev, you wanna know how to get David Letterman to ignore you?  Marry him!

Which convinces me that there’s still a lot of bad blood between them from that late shift over 17 years ago.

Meanwhile, it is a curious thing that celebrities, who famously tweet about all things private and public these days, have been so conspicuous by their silence on this spat; fearful, no doubt, about being blacklisted from these shows.

The notable exception is the liberated Rosie O’Donnell.  Then again, if she had the balls to take on the Hollywood whale – by commenting on the Sapphic nature of Oprah’s relationship with her gal pal Gayle – then commenting on this spat is rather like beating up a baby seal….  

At any rate, here’s how she summed up this winter of discontent at NBC:

It was a really crappy move on Leno’s part. Conan moved his family across the country and his entire staff to get a shot at what he worked 17 years for only to get it taken away by the bully on the playground who doesn’t want to let go.

That’s a wrap!